Irradicating The Food Deserts In America

Irradicating The Food Deserts In America

Eradicating the Food Deserts of America

The hot summer sun beat down upon me as I silently coaxed my weakening legs to keep moving.   Just a little further, I said, confident that the vision before me was not a mirage, but was in fact, the oasis I was seeking.   I had walked for miles, passing numerous outposts displaying their products, but none of them had what I wanted.   All I wanted to do was “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” (Pollan).   I had little need for products but an overwhelming need for produce.
And yet, produce is a rare commodity in this and every other urban environment throughout America.   There are 7-11’s selling overcooked hotdogs and microwavable entries, gas stations with chips, pretzels and soda, and mini-marts that contain canned meats, boxes of dried potato casseroles and beverages of every color: bright red, orange, chartreuse, and blue.   There are McDonalds, Popeye’s Fried Chicken and Baskin Robbins restaurants.   But nowhere to be found are markets with the essential ingredients necessary for a healthy diet.   The dandelion weeds growing in the cracks of sidewalks in every city look healthier than 99% of the food-like items sold in these urban food deserts.   Based on my experience of living in an urban environment and a so-called urban desert, I would submit that one significant cause of the unhealthy diets of many Americans is the sheer lack of nutritional food available in our inner cities.
So just how serious is this ‘urban desert’ problem.   According to Stephen Gray, “experts have declared roughly half of Detroit (pop.   916,000) a food desert and they estimate that nearly 633,000 of Chicago's three million residents live in neighborhoods either lacking or far away from conventional supermarkets” (Gray).   These statistics illustrate the problem in just two inner cities, and there is no question that those cities are no different than every other city in a country that is literally starving for healthier food options, (Gray)....