Food Deserts and Food Swamps

Food deserts and food swamps are terms used to describe communities that do not have easy access to healthy foods but have several small vendors with little to no healthy food options.

It should come as no surprise to learn that certain areas of the country don’t have the access to the food and water that others do. Even if you have never thought about this so directly before the evidence of this food inequality is everywhere. Maybe you’ve traveled to a smaller town and to get groceries you had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart. Or maybe you live in a low-income community, and you find that on every corner there is a fast-food establishment waiting for you to come in.

Whatever your situation may be, no one has to look very far to find a food desert and subsequently a food swamp.

Why are there food deserts and food swamps?

Food deserts and swamps became the glaring reality of our lives as our country has come to prioritize consumerism and profit over the general wellbeing of the public. They disproportionately affect poorer communities, specifically those that have people of color, and like all problems of this nature structural racism is to blame.

In the study written by Chelsea Singleton, a history of redlining, gentrification, and racial segregation are highlighted as contributing factors to food deserts and swamps. Since certain areas were marked as undesirable when it came to investment by big chain retailers who preferred more affluent areas; they were instead filled with all the smaller businesses that focused on fast and addictive foods that would turn more profit even from communities that were not as well off as their white counterparts. Similarly, more gentrified neighborhoods have more access to fruits and vegetables, but under the guise of “food mirages.” (Foods that are unaffordable to those who live in the area.)

Food deserts and swamps tend to be in areas that are largely populated by low-income African and Latin American communities. Studies such as the one done by Robert Jones show that previous attempts to understand the causes of food deserts often ignore the correlation between these places and the people who live in them. Alternative food activists that want to fix the issue tend to miss the real needs of the people in these situations because they fail to see the other problems they face.

Communities in food deserts and swamps have limited incomes that affect their food budgets and means of transportation. When supermarkets favor whiter neighborhoods people of color have to choose between riding a bus, biking, or spending money on gas when they can simply rely on the fast-food options that are closer to them. To make things worse the supermarkets that are in food deserts often have higher prices for lower qualities of healthy food, and they create safety and crime concerns that make it unsafe to shop at certain hours.

What are the consequences?

The obvious result of having little access to healthy food but an abundant amount high fat saturated foods is the health of Americans throughout the country. As Pierce X. Alston explains, there are spikes in obesity and diabetes within these areas and other complications caused by cardiovascular disease that cost the U.S. $550 billion dollars in medical costs. This number was taken from the operations, hospital stays, and other indirect costs based on death or inability to work in the year 2016 alone.

A more indirect result in communities that are swamped by unhealthy food options is that they no longer find healthy options as appealing. Healthy foods need to be within walking or biking distance for people who don’t have cars or as much gas money to compete with the unhealthy options, but they also need to be cheaper. Alton shows a study where a supermarket opened in a food desert and there was no significant change in the surrounding population's diet. They reported feeling better about the option being out there but still their food habits remained the same because it was easier to afford the unhealthy food. It is not enough to just open more supermarkets they do still have to compete with the affordability of high fat saturated foods.

I would also be doing the entire nature of this problem a disservice if I did not further explain the racial aspect of it as Singelton detailed. Supermarket redlining is something that only occurred in communities that were not as well off. Stores would permanently close down for more than just the money they would be making, and they would cause communities of color to become “chronic food deserts.” Without the basic access to a larger food retailer, communities already facing adversity because of overt racism also have to face a higher rate of health issues because of the race issues that are hardly spoken about.

What are some possible solutions?

As mentioned, there are people trying to solve the issue in ways that have so far been in vain. Opening supermarkets in the areas affected doesn’t work and letting other healthier businesses in leads to gentrification and both these options cause “food mirages.”

Alton suggests that a possible solution would be to give companies subsidies so they can lower the prices of healthy foods in their stores and therefore be more appealing to people stuck in food deserts. Of course, that approach would require quite a bit of planning and not to mention money.

A simpler plan that addresses all the issues that food deserts and food swamps face are urban community gardens. Yujia Zhang conducted a study that demonstrated all the ways that organized community gardens gave low-income residents access to healthy foods for free while providing green spaces that can cool the overall area. With the main issue of food deserts and swamps being proximity and access to fruits and vegetables, building gardens in urban areas that anyone can access is seemingly and obvious fix. Currently community gardens have to be started by local groups who must gather funds all on their own, but if there was a more structural system set in place that formed a larger organization; gardens could be planted strategically to benefit the neighborhoods that need it the most whether that be for food or shade.

Zhang addresses the fact that we would have to find a balance between prioritizing gardens for shade to cool comminutes down, and gardens for food to give people what they need to lead healthy lives. However, I believe it would not be hard to find this balance because this is a program that would benefit people on all accounts.

Final thoughts

Food deserts and swamps are a problem that affects all of us even when we can’t see how. With inflation on the rise and minimum wages staying virtually the same, more and more people in America are facing food insecurity. Even when we have bigger retailers to sell us healthier foods, getting groceries will never be cheaper than going around the block for chicken nuggets.

Diet culture and the stigma that bigger people face has a lot to do with how much money is available to them and the places where they live. There are a lot of spaces on social media where people are quick to jump and attack others for being “lazy” while pointing at their poor food choices to say they choose to eat this way because they don’t care about themselves. The truth is that it is cheaper to eat unhealthily and making drastic changes to your diet to better your health takes more money and time than many of us have.

There are too many stigmas around impoverished communities that put them down and act like their lack of access to better food is their own personal failure. When there are a million things that affect everyone's livelihoods in ways that we can’t even see at times.

Paying attention to the way these things affect so many people's lives allow us to have more sympathy for one another, so we can help each other to better all our lives. We are all part of the working class, and we will only ever be as well off as the poorest members of our society are.