From Industrial Gardens to Food Desert

  I found it really surprising that an area that started off as promising, has turned into a food desert and has remained that way decades later. Having more grocery stores in the 1930s than the 1980s was baffling to hear, as I would typically expect the opposite. Especially considering the overall population increase since then, I believed that there would be more grocery stores in these areas since they have more residents. I also found it strange that liquor stores and convenience stores are more accessible than fresh produce. It enables addictions and unhealthy habits. Why is accessibility to beer being valued more than to healthy foods? Thinking more about this fact makes me think of this statistic I heard once that over 60% of tobacco stores are located close to elementary or middle schools. By exposing children to things like this, it teases their curiosity to try it, potentially leading to addiction. I can’t imagine this effect is much different in these food deserts. 

In my opinion, I think that educating people on nutrition and how to grow their own food is a good way to start making a change in food deserts. Rather than just donating nonparishable foods and such, teaching people what they can do personally to improve their situation is much more effective. However, as McClintock mentioned we have to “rethink and rebuild the entirety of the metropolitan and regional food system”. Doing this requires more than just educating people about nutrition, how to cook, or grow food. It will require a lot of larger corporations to change their policies, and how they function, which will take a while to get there. Despite this, smaller efforts do count and they do positively impact others within food deserts.