Crazy About Food Deserts

Food deserts are super trendy right now. For those who aren’t yet hip to the trend, urban food deserts are qualified by the USDA as low-income communities where at least 33% of the population live more than one mile from a large grocery store (2014). Food deserts describe communities where theoretically there is little access to fresh fruits and vegetables; where the only foods that can easily be purchased are those from fast food restaurants and convenience stores. It is assumed that if residents of these areas have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, their health will improve.

Bodegas are a main source of groceries in food deserts

Well, a new study by Steven Cummins and his colleagues (2014) offers some evidence that supermarkets may not be the panacea that academics and local food activists (including me!) might have hoped. The study compared two Philadelphia communities, comparable in size (3 mi²⁾ and demographics, in which one community - the intervention community - got a shiny new 41,000 ft² supermarket. Data was collected from both communities for BMI, fruit and vegetable intake, and perceived access to fruits and vegetables. 

The mother ship of all grocery stores, Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, TX

Four years after the initial data collection, and one year after the introduction of the supermarket into the intervention community, only 27% of residents had adopted the new store as their primary grocery, and only 51% had used it for any food shopping at all. Surveys showed no significant change in BMI or fruit and vegetable intake. There was, however, a measurable difference in the way access to fresh food was perceived by residents of the intervention community: respondents reported greater choice and quality of food in general, greater choice and quality of fruits and vegetables, and a perception of lower cost for these foods. 

Cummins and his colleagues acknowledge limitations in their study; namely that the follow-up surveys were taken only a year after the introduction of the supermarket, and that BMI and other  food-related habits might be slower to change than the study allowed. But the low adoption rate points to other, more endemic challenges in getting people to change their relationships to food in the interest of positive health outcomes. Little attention was given to the economics of converting to grocery store shopping. I have lived in a food desert, in a low-income area of Indianapolis where my nearest grocery store required a trip on the freeway. But I was a young professional with access to a car and a budget that allowed for a plant-based diet. Also, my food habits were already set long before I moved to the area. If I had been raised on Cheetos and Ramen Noodles, the introduction of a grocery store into my immediate area would not have inspired a change in diet, just as when I moved to my current residence, down the street from a really good donut shop, I did not suddenly start eating donuts.

This study shows that “poor access to food retail environments may not always be associated with poor diet and obesity in children or adults.” Habits are identified as such because of their seeming obduracy in the face of change. If the course of obesity trends in the US and other countries is to be diverted or even reversed through changes in eating, the introduction of supermarkets appears to be a false panacea based on Cummins’ findings. We can find hope, however, in the change in perception amongst residents of the intervention community. Even though habits did not change, the change in perception could be the first step to a more systematic change in food habits. More research must be done to establish connections between food habits and obesity, obesity and geography, and geography and behavior change.  

Cummins, S., Flint, E., & Matthews, S. A. (2014). New neighborhood grocery store increased awareness of food access but did not alter dietary habits or obesity. Health Affairs, 3(2), 283-291. Retrieved March 14, 2014, from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/33/2/283.full.html

Food Deserts. (n.d.). United States Department of Agriculture Marketing Service. Retrieved September 8, 2014, from https://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/foodDeserts.aspx