What Is A Food Desert Information About Food Deserts In America

The United States Government defines a food desert as “a low income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store.”

What defines a food desert?

Food deserts are areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthful foods. This may be due to having a limited income or living far away from sources of healthful and affordable food. ... The USDA identified around 6,500 food deserts between 2000 and 2006.

Where are food deserts in the US?

The bleakest food deserts are the actual deserts of the American West, in Nevada and Wyoming. City dwellers, particularly those in the biggest, most dense cities tend to live closest to supermarkets and have the best food access.

How did food deserts start?

Most knowledge of food deserts has come from studies of the United Kingdom and the United States. In fact, the term food desert was introduced in the early 1990s in western Scotland, where it was used to describe the poor access to nutritious foods experienced by residents of a public housing development.

What is a food desert and why do they exist?

Food deserts occur in poor urban areas when there is limited or no access to healthful, affordable food options. Low income families are more likely to not have access to transportation so tend to be negatively affected by food deserts.

How do I know if I live in a food desert?

What are the telltale signs that you live in a food desert? The most consistent characteristic of a food desert is having a lack of access to fresh, healthful food. Living in a food desert doesn't necessarily mean there's no food available; it means that there are no healthy options readily available.

How do you get rid of food deserts?

Make healthy food available in all neighborhoods. Ensure people know how to cook and make healthy food choices. Reduce demand for unhealthy food while increasing demand for healthy options. Support research that evaluates food access initiatives.

Is NYC a food desert?

From this map, there are no food deserts in Manhattan or the Bronx by the traditional definition.

Who is most affected by food deserts?

The highest rates of escalation have been identified in Native American youth and African-Americans and Latinos of all age groups, with these groups suffering disproportionately higher rates of type 2 diabetes compared to whites.

How can food deserts be eliminated in America?

Food deserts can be eliminated by making nutritious food accessible and affordable. Having healthy food options in restaurants and grocery stores also helps. Eliminating food deserts can help fight childhood obesity.

Do food deserts exist?

However, recent research questions the concept of food deserts. For more than two decades, much evidence has supported their existence, but current studies suggest people in low-income areas actually live in food swamps, where they're inundated with a wide variety of both healthful and unhealthful foods.

What are the root causes of food deserts?

The root causes of this issue are:

Poverty. Poor families are most often impacted. The price of fruits and vegetables are high while the price of unhealthy food is low. ...
Food Deserts. Food deserts are neighborhoods that have no nearby access to healthy food. ...
High Price of Healthy Food.

What factors contribute to food deserts?

Areas with higher levels of poverty are more likely to be food deserts, but for other factors, such as vehicle availability and use of public trans- portation, the association with food desert status varies across very dense urban areas, less dense urban areas, and rural areas.

What is a food swamp?

A food swamp is an area where an abundance of fast food, junk food outlets, convenience stores, and liquor stores outnumbers healthy food options. It's distinct from a food desert, which is a neighborhood with little access to affordable, nutritious food.

Do food deserts cause obesity?

No, food deserts don't cause obesity. ... Scientists looked closely at the relationship grocery access has to obesity, and tracked changes to obesity and other health outcomes in low-access neighborhoods that got a new supermarket.

Is Philadelphia a food desert?

Much has been written about “food deserts,” areas that lack access to healthy, affordable foods. ... But the report shows that lower-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia suffer more from an over-supply of unhealthy food than a shortage of food.

How many food deserts exist in the United States?

In rural America, a food desert is defined as 10 miles or more from the nearest market.” Unfortunately, food deserts are not few and far between, “it's estimated there are more than 23 million people, more than half of them low-income, living in food deserts.”

How long have food deserts existed?

The term "food desert" reportedly originated in Scotland in the early 1990s and was used to describe poor access to an affordable and healthy diet (4).

What is a food desert Canada?

Food deserts are residential geographic spaces, typically in urban settings, where low-income residents have limited or no access to retail food establishments with sufficient variety at affordable cost.

How many fast-food restaurants are in NYC?

There are now 1,261 fast-food restaurant locations in New York City, making them by far the most numerous type of national retailer in the city.

Are there more fast-food restaurants in low income neighborhoods?

Residents of the lowest-income neighborhoods had 2.5 times more exposure to fast-food restaurants than those living in the most affluent neighborhoods.

Is the Bronx a food desert?

Described as a “food desert,” the Bronx has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the country. This includes not having sufficient well-stocked and affordable supermarkets within reasonable commuting distance for residents.