Food Desert Essay

In major cities in the United States, citizen`s access to affordable nutritious food has become an emerging issue. Citizens find themselves without healthy options for nutritious food to feed themselves or their children. This is due to physical distance from supermarkets, food affordability, and many other factors. This phenomenon has been defined as a food desert. The Congressional report to the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture, about 2.3 million people (or 2.2 percent of all US households) live more than one mile away from a supermarket and do not own a car. This lack of transportation in conjunction with many over variables that will be discussed has contributed to this current issue in public health. A lack of healthy options could lead to poor diets and to diet-related conditions such as obesity or diabetes. If low-income households in food deserts can only purchase food at higher prices, they may be more prone to food insecurity—not having enough food for active, healthy living. In the United States major cities, which have high minority populations, access to nutritious food needs to be made more
An estimated 9.7 percent of the total population, or 29.7 million people, live in low-income areas more than one mile from a supermarket. This means that access to more affordable high quality food takes more of an effort, time, and transportation cost. The cost and effort that is required may deter citizens from purchasing the best quality food, and therefore purchasing food that is more convenient for them. For example, they may choose to eat McDonalds. In New York City, the country’s largest city, there are over 250 McDonalds. Another issue that has arisen is the redemption of SNAP benefits, the lack of full-service stores in some neighborhoods may also make less attractive if it is more difficult to get to stores to redeem