A friend of mine liked a post on LinkedIn about a grocery store opening in his town northeast of Boston. This, and a trip to my hometown, got me thinking about food deserts and how they may be more prevalent in rural areas than in cities.
What’s a food desert? It’s an urban neighborhood that’s more than a mile from a full-service grocery store, or a rural area that’s more than 10 miles from a grocery. The classic urban food desert has convenience stores or bodegas that sell food as an afterthought to cigarettes, beer, soda, and rolling papers. [Remember I live in a state where recreational marijuana is legal.] There may be a couple of sad bananas or green potatoes for sale, but not much else in the way of fresh fruit and vegetables. And unprocessed meat? Forget about it. To get produce or fresh meat, residents in urban food deserts have to take mass transit. Ever try to schlep full grocery bags on a bus or up and down subway stairs? Not an easy task, even for those in good physical shape. Lack of access to nutritious food is a definition of food insecurity.
While it seems counterintuitive, farm country is more at risk for food deserts. Consider the following:
• Mass transit is uncommon in the country. A car is necessary to go grocery shopping. This can be problematic for elderly folks who no longer drive or, as is the case in my hometown, bad weather makes any grocery store hard to access.
• Despite city folks’ conception, very few farm communities are fully self-sufficient. Pepsi orchards don’t exist. As farms get larger and devoted to commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, tobacco), it can be more difficult to find locally-grown produce. Fruit and vegetable stands are mostly seasonal.
• Little family-run grocery stores have gone the way of the dodo bird in the country, especially as families move to suburbs or cities. Chain groceries are reluctant to move into rural areas. Amazon Fresh will never serve sparsely-populated areas. The cost of fuel to reach isolated communities is too high. Dollar stores are popular in the area near my hometown, but they don’t stock fresh meat, fruit, and vegetables. Walmart has moved into the grocery business; however, a superstore can still be far away from the smallest towns.
Here are a few potential solutions to rural food deserts. One innovation that deserves preservation from politics is the use of Electronic Benefit Transfers (alias Food Stamps) for farmers’ market and fruit/vegetable stand purchases. This program benefits both farmer and consumer. Another possibility that’s been used in Seattle food deserts is the grocery van. This is analogous to a food truck, although the contents are produce, dairy, and selected staples. Community-supported agriculture boxes could be expanded beyond the growing season and include items other than produce. Other creative ideas are needed to improve access to groceries in remote areas.
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