Food deserts—areas where residents have limited options for purchasing fresh foods—are not easy to quantify. Access to food depends on a number of factors, from geography to transportation to the choices of individual grocers. One simple way to sketch out food desert boundaries is to chart those regions where supermarkets are scarce. The map below does just that for South Dakota, marking out areas that are more than 10 miles, and in many cases 20 miles, from a supermarket. The map comes from a 2009 USDA report to Congress, "Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences." A somewhat different look at the nation's food deserts is available through the USDA's Food Desert Locator Web site.
The USDA researchers used a different metric for urban areas, where residents may be more reliant on walking and public transit. The map below of the Washington, D.C., area shows where residents are more than one mile from a supermarket.
Credit: Economic Research Service/USDA
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Add CommentThe problem with these "food desert" maps is they are only taking super markets into account. Smaller towns usually don't have super markets, but they still have places to purchase food. Farmers' markets, individual grocers, etc... often have even better foods than supermarkets in terms of freshness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTake a look at this google map of grocery stores in south dakota and compare that to the food desert map.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=grocery+stores&hl=en&ll=44.472991,-100.349121&spn=4.797803,9.569092&sll=45.065762,-99.030762&sspn=4.748871,9.569092&hq=grocery+stores&t=m&z=7
Food deserts? What a revolting term. The implication is that equitable food selections should be available to everyone no matter their choice of location in which to live. We don't live in a country that requires people to live in certain places. Stop with the socialism already!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne mile? That seems a little low. I walk over a mile every day to a spot right next to a grocery store. The assumption must be most people can't walk.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have a big vegetable garden, several fruit trees, and several egg-laying chickens. But according to the USDA I live in a food desert.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGovernment bureaucrats at work. Stupid is what stupid does.
GG has a good point. Things depend on context. Check this out http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2012/04/wow_im_the_deserving_poor.php
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo now socialism is having access to fresh food!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess more people will want to be socialists now!
If you look at combinations of income, residence & access to fresh food you will easily see that low income neighborhoods have great difficulties getting access to groceries & sources of reasonable cost fresh or other non-junk food options
What if residents use the USPS, UPS or FedEx to deliver nutritious foods ordered over the Internet? The missing element here is determining demographics that would eliminate the economic means for having foods delivered via carrier.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFood deserts are meaningless concepts for the wealthy, as any billionaire who lives on an island will attest.