Food Deserts - Printable Version +- Cincinnati Bengals Message Board / Forums - Home of Jungle Noise (http://thebengalsboard.com) +-- Forum: Off Topic Forums (http://thebengalsboard.com/Forum-Off-Topic-Forums) +--- Forum: Politics & Religion 2.0 (http://thebengalsboard.com/Forum-Politics-Religion-2-0) +---- Forum: P & R Archive (http://thebengalsboard.com/Forum-P-R-Archive) +---- Thread: Food Deserts (/Thread-Food-Deserts) |
Food Deserts - CageTheBengal - 12-11-2015 Quote: Food deserts can be described as geographic areas where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient travelling distance. For instance, according to a report prepared for Congress by 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. In urban areas, access to public transportation may help residents overcome the difficulties posed by distance, but economic forces have driven grocery stores out of many cities in recent years, making them so few and far between that an individual’s food shopping trip may require taking several buses or trains. In suburban and rural areas, public transportation is either very limited or unavailable, with supermarkets often many miles away from people’s homes. I didn't post the whole article you can read more here it was kind of lengthy. http://www.foodispower.org/food-deserts/ I became aware of this problem after watching a documentary showing inner city kids in Chicago who lived in a food desert. They got taught how to garden by an organization trying to cut down on food deserts and teaching people how to grow and sustain their own gardens. It was jaw dropping though how little they knew not only about how vegetables grew in general but how they couldn't tell the difference between a cucumber and an artichoke. Food deserts also seem to highlight why more and more gas stations are accepting EBT food stamp cards. If you have so many people who don't have a real grocery store (Healthy food options at a fair price.) to go to and a lack of transportation the only place they have to go are corner stores and gas stations which rape them in prices. These people are really in between a rock and a hard place. We all know how much buying normal food at a gas station costs and the lack of nutrition. RE: Food Deserts - Belsnickel - 12-11-2015 Okay, I'm a little depressed now. I knew about food deserts, and you got me wanting to look up some information on it for Virginia. I live in a what the USDA considers a food desert. Now, this is primarily just based on grocery stores and everything so it's not like in more urban areas, but I was looking at the numbers in a report and I'm just shocked. 37.3% of my city is SNAP eligible. more than 4 times the average for the Commonwealth as a whole. I'm just taken aback. RE: Food Deserts - StLucieBengal - 12-11-2015 Looked in my area. We are pretty clear. Once area is a 55 and older community but they have their own private facilities there on site. The other just north is mostly retail on US 1. Not many live there and it's mostly touristy retail crap. RE: Food Deserts - Mike M (the other one) - 12-12-2015 I don't like how gas stations take an advantage of the situation. It's a shame that there can't be at least a small supermarket in those areas, the don't have a be like Kroger Superstores, just small ones that carry primarily food that can be purchased with SNAP, but one of the problems is that theft in those areas is probably high. RE: Food Deserts - StLucieBengal - 12-13-2015 (12-12-2015, 03:46 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: I don't like how gas stations take an advantage of the situation. Wonder if it's a standards issue? They one carry certain foods they aren't forced to keep higher standards on like a grocery store. |