After reading McClintock's article titled "From Industrial Garden to Food Desert", one thing became clear to me: most, if not all, areas containing food deserts, are tied to racism and low income communities.
Food deserts can be described by the USDA as, "a residential area where there is limited access to varied, nutritional, and affordable food options. Research is particularly focused in regards to low-income communities in both rural and urban settings" (USDA).
This targeted approach to lessening the options to those who come from low income families, or low income areas, can be extremely harmful to the overall health of the community. Many of these people cannot afford things like cars, and the closest grocery store could be miles and miles away. Leads you to think, how do the get there? How do they pay for their groceries? How are they bringing those groceries home?
After reading this article, it became apparent to me that much of the little things we do everyday and consider "normal", is not everyone's normal. Much of the trips to the grocery store 3 minutes away, and food I bring into my house every week is underappreciated and really taken for granted.
McClintock harps on the idea that not only do food deserts harm the people living in these low income areas, but they harm the area itself. There tend to be more abandoned houses and smaller populations, meaning there is nowhere for that town to go, but under.
Overall, I think it is important to recognize that the placement of these food deserts is not coincidental, and something has to be done about it. Possibly putting together programs in these areas to help with implementation of healthy, affordable, and local food could be a good start.
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