food insecurity
The inability to acquire adequate food due to insufficient resources is food insecurity. In 2016, an estimated 15.6 million households were food insecure in the United States. Food insecurity contributes to food deserts. Food deserts are geographic areas where residents lack appropriate access to grocery stores or supermarkets. According to Cooksey, Schwartz, and Brownell (2017), reveals that people who are food insecure are at an increased risk of obesity. The trio also shows the obesity level in food desert areas is high. The finding of Cooksey, Schwartz, and Brownell suggests that Americans who lack sufficient food to eat or have low accessibility to stores selling affordable, nutritious foods are at significant risk for obesity. Causes and effects of food desert increase the rate of obesity in the United States.
Food deserts are socioeconomic; thus, they arise in communities of color combined with low income. Less disposable income combined with insufficient transportation leads to processed and fast foods available at the corner store. This increases the rate of obesity in the community. Low-income populations facing discrimination are almost the population of minorities. These populations are likely to live in areas affected by food deserts. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the percentage of non-Hispanic Black is twice as large in urban food deserts as in other metropolitan areas (Smith, 2019). A history of oppression, coupled with growing economic differences, creates poverty areas in which food deserts occur. This causation is evident in grocery stores’ specific locations, as stated by Helbich, Hagenaeur, and Poelman (2017). The studies of Helbich, Hagenaeur, and Poelman found that wealthy districts have three times as many grocery stores and supermarkets as predominantly black ones do. The distinction between a white and affluent neighborhood and lower-income communities with minorities is not a new phenomenon; however, food security is a permanent and daily battle in which every person, regardless of race or wealth, must participate (Liese and Liu, 2018).
Discrimination in grocery stores and supermarkets is not exclusively found in compactly populated cities, as food deserts outside of urban zones also present immense difficulties for rural communities. For instance, the subject of food sovereignty is prioritized in numerous Native American communities. An exemplification of this issue is the Oglala Lakota people who rely on 95 percent of their goods shipped in from outside the nation (Howlett, Davis, and Burton, 2016). The dependency triggered by this food desert limits those living within the community and stops communities from upholding their independence. People residing within urban and rural deserts create the insistent matter of food deserts as an environmental justice subject. Withdrawing access to goods from specific communities based on race and income rejects the right for all to lead safe and healthy lives and stresses the growing status of providing equal prospects for adequate food. Hence, the cases of obesity rise in the community (Luan and Quick, 2015).
Food deserts are pointers of more than just socioeconomic injustice; they show public health and safety fears for those living within their borders. Residents with a chronic lack of access to adequate food resources are shown to have a high obesity rate. Families who cannot afford grocery stores will purchase food from the ever available and affordable fast-food restaurants, causing higher obesity illnesses to develop in the population. Along with medical bills that may exceed what a family can pay, obesity can cause diet-related cancers and even premature deaths. These severe consequences of living in a food desert signify the potential for a life expectancy far shorter than counterparts living near a grocery store. For instance, Fitzpatrick (2019) argues that adults diagnosed with obesity can anticipate a life 15 years quicker than expected for a healthy person. In this instance, continued access to healthy food is truly a life or death state.
Besides experiencing shorter life expectancy, families living within bounds of food deserts are subjected to decrease wealth as time passes. By their nature, food deserts are situated in low population zones and low income, but as time passes, these two features are worsened. As wealth abandons a neighborhood, businesses follow (Testa and Jackson, 2019). This implies that when a new store opens, they select zones of relative wealth and prosperity. Lack of new businesses to bring economic attention to a neighborhood attracts less wealth over time. This decreasing wealth trend represents a positive feedback loop, in which low initial wealth causes even lower wealth to develop within a population. Besides, food deserts have a long-term effect on the economic success of children raised within those areas. Kids facing poor nutrition or obesity are statistically more susceptible to encountering social and behavioral problems in school, especially child hunger. Such issues can prevent educational advancements, causing children to incur administrative discipline or academic probation. Living in a food desert can stand between educational, and therefore economic, failure, or success (Vergas and Granado, 2017).
While causes of food deserts are systematic, and their impacts often cyclical, several solutions attempting to address aspects of the harm caused by food deserts arise. First, the opening of community-based food cooperatives is essential. In zones such as North Carolina, Greensboro, communities previously living within food deserts are given a sense of duty when shopping at their co-op grocery store because not only are they improving their health, but they are also showing the value of communities that mobilize and make democratic decision to benefit one another (Alcott, Diamond, and Dube, 2017). However, a point often overlooked is that increasing access to the grocery store and supermarkets does not change behavior. According to Horst (2017), community members in which access was expanded showed no increase in the consumption of vegetables or fruits. To further decrease food deserts’ harm, new initiatives need to be created to address the connection between community awareness and individual action. A good program auspicious the eventual cut of food deserts originates from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Dubowitz, and Cohen, 2015). USD aims to increase access to local nutritious food by working with producers and consumers to promote independence, create long-term solutions, and construct beneficial programs for the whole community.
In conclusion, causes, effects, and solutions of resource security found inside food deserts reveal the complexity of the problem and the importance of environmental justice. Food deserts lower the wealth and health of affected communities, leading to increased obesity levels and propagating the poverty cycle. Programs that acknowledge the issue, and bring it into the public sphere, are crucial to combating food deserts. Grocery stores alone cannot solve food deserts; hence, fast-food culture should examine socioeconomic disparities.