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Food Deserts: Myth or Reality?

BoogityBoogity said:
Its called exercise. Its good for you, and its relatively convenient in pedestrain-friendly urban areas. I guess its just not as convenient as calling Dominos Pizza. Many urban neighborhoods have chinese delivery, which can be very healthy, but I guess its not as tasty as pizza.

Michelle Obama is hard-pressed to blame capitalism (or society or whatnot) for obseity in urban areas, when obesity is primarily based on personal choice. Many suburban neighborhoods are also limited to fast-food options, but obseity doesn't seem to be as much of a problem there.
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Hard to tell if this is a serious post or not.
 
BoogityBoogity said:
Its called exercise. Its good for you, and its relatively convenient in pedestrain-friendly urban areas.
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How often do you carry all of your groceries by hand home 2 miles? How often do you walk 4 miles (there and back) with young kids? How often do you do those things together? How often do you do those things at 7 PM after getting home from 8+ hours on your feet and a long bus ride from work? You can't leave the house at 7, spend 1.5 hours walking to get groceries and then come back, cook dinner, and get your young kids in the bed at 10 PM. Most of the obese people I live around already walk quite a bit more during a normal day than the average suburbanite. Exercise is good, but it's unrealistic to apply what seems easy and simple for you to the lives of others.

BoogityBoogity said:
Michelle Obama is hard-pressed to blame capitalism (or society or whatnot) for obseity in urban areas, when obesity is primarily based on personal choice. Many suburban neighborhoods are also limited to fast-food options, but obseity doesn't seem to be as much of a problem there.
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Forget the political argument. There is certainly a problem of food deserts and a culture of poor eating choices that exists whether Michelle Obama blames capitalism for it or not. My being conservative and disagreeing with Obama on a lot of things doesn't change the facts. Politics only comes into play when discussing the cause of the problem and/or the solution.

Your argument about suburban neighborhoods is poorly made. 1) It's not true in most cases. 2) Suburbanites can easily drive 5-10 miles from their home to get better food options or pick it up somewhere along their 20 mile commute home. 3) You can drive 5-8 miles to the store, grab some groceries, and be back home in less time than it takes someone to walk 2 miles to the store.
 
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BoogityBoogity said:
Its called exercise. Its good for you, and its relatively convenient in pedestrain-friendly urban areas. I guess its just not as convenient as calling Dominos Pizza. Many urban neighborhoods have chinese delivery, which can be very healthy, but I guess its not as tasty as pizza.

Michelle Obama is hard-pressed to blame capitalism (or society or whatnot) for obseity in urban areas, when obesity is primarily based on personal choice. Many suburban neighborhoods are also limited to fast-food options, but obseity doesn't seem to be as much of a problem there.
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Yeah, all Michelle Obama is doing is blaming capitalism.

 
My favorite produce store is in a marginal neighborhood. I work in a purple area and the nearest grocery store is good distance. I have no idea where people that live in my neighboring blocks try to shop.
 
looking at Greensboro, most of downtown and some of the southeast (poorer) areas of the city were purple. There is another layer you can look at that purports to estimate "total retail grocery demand". Not surprisingly, at least to me, the areas with low supermarket access seem to very neatly coincide with the areas of very low "total retail grocery demand".

We're getting some kind of food co-op going in on the north end of downtown next year, that should help the actual core downtown dwellers but won't do much for some of the depressed neighborhoods south of downtown.

I am not too familiar with most of the purple areas so I can't say for sure how accurate the map is, but I did notice that there is a weekly farmer's market in the middle of one purple area and a very nice small locally owned grocery very near to another purple area. Those may not show up in the analysis since it is "low supermarket access".
 
RacerDeac said:
Absolutely a reality. I live somewhat in the middle of one. It's a decent hike to a grocery store, but the corner stores are only 3-4 blocks away, and they will gladly take food stamps. I regularly use public transportation and/or walk to the store, so I know the routes and know what I pain it would be for some of my neighbors to get to a proper grocery store or farmer's market. Especially with kids. "A couple of miles" is a long way when you don't have a car. You can't make a trip to the market every 4-5 days for fresh produce. It's a lot easier to find someone to watch your kids, make one trip to Walmart, and come back with enough cheap frozen food to last a while.

Now, as to the cause of food deserts, whether they contribute significantly to obesity, and whether or not there is enough demand for fresh meat/produce to support the supply within those areas, those still seem to be unanswered questions. Purely anecdotal, but I can say that some of my neighbors have been extremely willing to take any bumper crops we've seen from our garden so far. There is a new farmer's market about to open a few blocks from my house and I believe they plan on taking food stamps, so we'll see what the demand looks like there. I think there's a much larger culture and education issue at play though, and folks I know who work for charities or non-profits in the field say that to be the most important issue. Simply providing food sources won't change peoples' habits.
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racer, i don't think this is the one you were referring to (because you referred to a new market, and this one has been around), but the atherton market is starting to accept food stamps. good move in the right direction, IMO

http://obsbite.blogspot.com/2012/05...et.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
 
DeacHoops said:
racer, i don't think this is the one you were referring to (because you referred to a new market, and this one has been around), but the atherton market is starting to accept food stamps. good move in the right direction, IMO

http://obsbite.blogspot.com/2012/05...et.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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Cool. Atherton is one of the better markets in town. It's my go-to for now.

The new market I'm referring to is supposed to open in Peddler's Post on North Davidson.
 
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