Introduction
Interest in areas with poor access to healthy foods, or what have often been dubbed “food deserts,” has greatly increased over the past 15 years in the USA and the world. Since the 1990s, when the concept of “food deserts” and their possible connections to health was first suggested by researchers and activists in the UK, the idea that low access to supermarkets carrying a wide variety of healthy food items may lead to negative health effects has been investigated by a number of academic and nonacademic authors. In addition, working to eliminate food deserts has become a key focus area of many organizations working on urban food issues, particularly in the USA.
The term “food desert” originated in British antipoverty activism and policy. It is generally sourced to a resident of a Scottish public housing project who used it to express the experience of living in a deprived community (Cummins and Macintyre 2002...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
An, R., & Sturm, R. (2012). School and residential neighborhood food environment and dietary intake among California children and adolescents. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 42, 129–135.
Apparicio, P., Cloutier, M., & Shearmur, R. (2007). The case of Montréal’s missing food deserts: Evaluation of accessibility to food supermarkets. International Journal of Health Geographics, 6, 4.
Ashman, L., Vega, J., Dohan, M., Fisher, A., Hippler, R., & Romain, B. (1993). Seeds of change: Strategies for food security for the inner city. Unpublished masters thesis, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles.
Black, J. L., & Macinko, J. (2008). Neighborhoods and obesity. Nutrition Reviews, 66, 2–20.
Block, D., & Kouba, J. (2006). A comparison of the availability and affordability of a market basket in two communities in the Chicago area. Public Health Nutrition, 9, 837–845.
Burns, C. M., & Inglis, A. D. (2007). Measuring food access in Melbourne: Access to health and fast foods by car, bus and food in an urban municipality in Melbourne. Health and Place, 13, 877–885.
Burns, C. M., Gibbon, P., Boak, R., Baudinette, S., & Dunbar, J. A. (2004). Food cost and availability in a rural setting in Australia. Rural and Remote Health, 4, 311.
Caspi, C. E., Sorensen, G., Subramanian, S. V., & Kawachi, I. (2012). The local food environment and diet: A systematic review. Health and Place.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.05.006.
Cummins, S., & Macintyre, S. (2002). A systematic study of an urban foodscape: The price and availability of food in greater Glasgow. Urban Studies, 39, 2115–2130.
Gallagher, M. (2006). Examining the impact of food deserts on public health in Chicago. Chicago: Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group.
Glanz, K. (2009). Measuring food environments: A historical perspective. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 36, S93–S98.
Guthman, J. (2011). Weighing in: Obesity, food justice and the limits of capitalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lee, H. (2012). The role of local food availability in explaining obesity risk among young school-aged children. Social Science & Medicine.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.12.036.
Moore, L., & Diez Roux, A. V. (2006). Associations of neighborhood characteristics with the location and type of food stores. American Journal of Public Health, 96, 325–331.
Powell, L. M., Slater, S., Mirtcheva, D., Bao, Y., & Chaloupka, F. J. (2007). Food store availability and neighborhood characteristics in the United States. Preventive Medicine, 44, 189–195.
The Food Trust. (2001). The need for more supermarkets in Philadelphia. Philadelphia: The Food Trust. http://www.thefoodtrust.org/pdf/supermar.pdf.
Treuhaft, S., & Karpyn, A. (2010). The grocery gap: Who has access to fresh food and why it matters. www.policylink.org/grocerygap
Ver Ploeg, M., Breneman, V., Farrigan, T., Hamrick, K., Hopkins, D., Kaufamn P., Lin, B., Nord, M., Smith, T. A., Williams, R., Kinnison, K., Olander, C., Singh, A., & E. Tuckermanty. (2009). Access to affordable and nutritious food – Measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences: Report to Congress. USDA-ERS Administrative Publication No. (AP-036).
Wrigley, N., Warm, D., Margetts, B., & Whelan, A. (2002). Assessing the impact of improved retail access on diet in a ‘food desert’: A preliminary report. Urban Studies, 39, 2061–2082.
Zenk, S. N., Schulz, A. J., Israel, B. A., James, S. A., Bao, S., & Wilson, M. L. (2005). Neighborhood racial composition, neighborhood poverty, and the spatial accessibility of supermarkets in metropolitan Detroit. American Journal of Public Health, 95, 660–667.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Block, D.R. (2019). Food Deserts. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_196
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_196
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1178-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1179-9
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities