The issue of food in the United States is one that is seemingly paradoxical: more than 72 billion pounds of safe, wholesome food goes uneaten annually, while 41 million Americans go hungry. There is an abundance of fast food chains, super sized grocery stores, and diners, and yet over 15% of Americans are unable to meet their basic nutritional needs. This begs the question: of the immense amount of food we produce and distribute, how much of it is actually accessible to those in need?
For decades, researchers, academics, activists, and policy makers have zeroed in on the unequal geographical access to food—food that is both nutritious and affordable—as the key problem. This geographical focus gave rise to widespread acceptance of the concept “food deserts”—referring to a desolate area where fairly priced, high quality food is inaccessible.
This is especially relevant in Memphis, Tennessee, termed by a recent study—conducted by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)—America’s ‘hunger capital’. “There’s a lot of money in Memphis, and a lot of poverty,” Roshun Austin, Memphis community leader, says in reference to the city. Where the slow, sprawling nature of the rural South and the bustle of urban living converge, Memphis is a city built upon decades of history. Like its history, Memphis is complicated: a thriving city juxtaposed against the backdrop of poverty and crime. These inequalities extend to multiple facets of residents' lives- in particular those hailing from marginalized backgrounds—hindering their ability to access certain resources and opportunities. Thus, Memphis has an abundance of grocery stores, yet physically reaching the front steps of a well-stocked, affordable grocery store is not always feasible for every Memphis resident.
South Memphis Resident, Dolores Bateman, mother of five, describes the phenomenon, “There was a grocery store just across the street, but it’s been shut down for over ten years now. It just sits as an empty building.” Without a vehicle, Bateman’s options are restricted. “Sometimes, I catch the bus,” Bateman, says, referring to Memphis' scattered public transport system, “If the buses come on time, I get there in a little over an hour.”
This is perhaps where the concept of a food desert falls short; betraying its underlying structural issues. The issue is less about geographical access but rather, how financial insecurity serves as a barrier. For the comparatively wealthier, shopping beyond their immediate surroundings and neighborhood is a clear option, with the help of a vehicle. Another option is digital delivery services, reducing the trip to the grocery store to a matter of digital clicks. For Bateman, neither is a particularly feasible solution.
Within walking distance of Bateman’s apartment, the options are limited. With a ten minute walk, Bateman has access to a local convenience store- stocked with a little produce (two baskets of dubious looking onions and potatoes) but mainly aisles upon aisles of two litre sugary sodas, and brightly packaged snack foods in large quantity and varieties: candy, chips, and cereals.
As stated in the paper, Food Deserts: A Global Crisis in New York City, “Rather than produce oriented grocery stores, poor neighborhoods most commonly have small grocery stores (bodegas), which often do not provide healthy food option, but rather help perpetuate an unhealthy lifestyle by focusing their advertising on items like cigarettes, alcohol, and soda.”
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This image shows a local South Memphis grocery store—stocked primarily with low grade foods
“You can easily get to a McDonalds and there is food on every block,” Austin puts it, but “it's just not high quality food.” In Memphis- as in other food deserts across the United States- locals lack the basic human right that is easily granted to the richer half of the city: supermarkets. In these economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods, unbalanced diets become the norm, acting as the catalyst for negative health implications such as “impaired cognitive, development, lower resistance to disease and increased risks during childbirth for both mothers and children.” Compounded with other factors such as disparities in education, housing, and policing, often subjects poor, malnourished youth to a negative trajectory from birth. Behind each statistic, lies the lives and stories of individuals whose opportunities have been cut short by draconian policy and the cycles of poverty and inequality they, in turn, perpetuate.
The Cost of “Healthy”
Regardless of a person’s operating budget or disposable income, good and healthy food is- disproportionate to the cost of production—undeniably expensive. Dr. Adam Drewnowski, Director of the Center for Public Health at the University of Washington, calculated, “a 2,000 calorie diet would cost just $3.52 a day if it consisted of junk food compared with $36.52 a day of low-energy dense foods. Simply put, it is far easier—and at times unavoidable—to subsist on unhealthy, energy saturated food because it is often more accessible, quick, and more satiating in volume for its cost. Alongside economic factors, there is also a lack of knowledge and awareness within impoverished communities.
These disparities are not entirely by coincidence. The US Federal government heavily subsidizes the food industry so that large corporations and farms can create the largest amount of food at the cheapest price- mostly in the form of corn and soy. To say that these subsidies are substantial is an understatement: according to the Environmental Working Group’s compilation of Department Agriculture data, the federal government has provided approximately $424.4 billion in current-dollar subsidies including crop insurance, commodity payments, conservation payments, and disaster payments—to US farms since 1995. Injecting billions of government dollars into the U.S. global agriculture market creates distortions such as an economic incentive for consumers to purchase unhealthy crops like corn and derivatives like high fructose corn syrup, promoting obesity. More alarmingly, the same communities which are deprived of the option to eat healthfully are often those who lack a secure healthcare plan.
This underlying policy is why in Memphis- and throughout the United States- “healthy” is a privilege that comes at a high cost.
It is a privilege that a large sum of East Memphis community- a majority white, upper middle class area—is granted. Here, with individuals with multiple vehicles, and a variety of supermarkets within a close proximity, access to food is a non-issue. East Memphis is also dominated by upscale large national chain supermarkets such as Whole Foods, Kroger, Sprouts, and Fresh Markets- otherwise not seen in North and South Memphis.
Moving Beyond “Food Deserts:” Potential Solutions
As Nicole Reed, Memphis Dietitian, at local Memphis Children’s Hospital states, “For so long we have blamed the individual and we have to see that it’s not working. It’s not the individual's fault; it is the entire environment.” Thus, the challenges to solving the issue of food deserts are twofold.The solution cannot merely seek to implement more food banks and pantries in distressed areas; this is simply a bandaid on a larger issue. According to food justice advocate Karen Washington, the function of food pantries is supposed to be reserved for temporary emergencies, not a permanent way of life that keeps millions of Americans just barely afloat. A system of giving out food is not going to address the reality of 40 million Americans living below the poverty line. So what will?
Washington suggests that we may not the restructure the conversation, this time not around the concept “food deserts” which she believes to be a vast oversimplification, but rather, “food apartheid,” which “brings to us the more important conversation: what are some of the social inequalities you see, and what are you doing to erase some of these injustices?” As Washington says, “...food deserts sugarcoat what the problem is. If you bring a supermarket in, that's not going to change the problem. When we say food apartheid, “thats when the real conversation can begin.”
In Memphis, the conversation has also shifted, giving way to community-led initiatives such as farmers markets. The South Memphis farmers market—a product of the South Memphis Revitalization Action Plan—provided opportunities of health and good living to distressed areas of Memphis. The community-led aspect is especially crucial to Washington who probes, “Why do outsiders always have to come into our neighborhood to open a business? Give the people who already live here opportunities, give them the means of financial literacy, give them capital, teach them how to invest, teach them how to own businesses.”
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This image shows Memphis residents at the South Memphis Farmers Market shopping for fresh produce.
As Washington reiterates, so called “food deserts'' are far from empty desolate places; they are communities bursting with life, vibrancy, and potential. When we recognize the beauty in these collective stories, and acknowledge the diverse voices in the conversation surrounding “food aparthied,” we begin to start the real conversation- rightfully acknowledging healthful food as a fundamental human right, not a privilege for the few.
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