Annotated Bibliography

Scholarly

Entry #1: ​Grosser Grocers, Consumed Consumers

APA Citation: ​Shaw, H.J. The Consuming Geographies of Food : Diet, Food Deserts and

Obesity, Routledge, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1682203.

Summary:

In​ The Consuming Geographies of Food: Diet, Food Deserts and Obesity​, written by Hillary

Shaw, a “revolution” occurred in which the middle class lived in small urban quarters and did not

have the capability to store and generate food stuffs. Instead, the middle class utilized their wages

to attain and source their food (p. 90). The middle class had access to vehicles, but females

preferred to purchase their foodstuffs via phone rather than a crowded marketplace and delivered

to their home ​(p. 90-1). An evolution occurred as past cramped inner city and urban shopping

venues were no longer utilized and fresh food stuffs were difficult to obtain by markets in the

city.(p. 91) Socioeconomic factors and ease of importing fresher foods drove the creation of

Department stores and supermarkets in the suburban areas (p. 92). ​As the city center outgrew its

capacity to sustain suitable healthy living, those of higher incomes chose to nestle in the outer city

limits, that which is popularly known today as the suburbs. Due to this shift in supply and

demand, city planning was designed in such a way that those with private automotive
transportation would easily get to and from new supermarkets that housed fresh produce and

organic foods whilst those left in the inner city would find it difficult arranging those trips.

​Evaluation:

Shaw explores in depth why fresh and healthy food was unable to obtain in the pre-supermarket

era. His research appears thorough and conclusions a plausible. He supports his arguments

through visible trends observed in the middle class as well as a trends seen with middle class

women and their shopping habits of the era, additionally supporting the argument is the impact of

and new widespread use of automobiles in the middle class.

Significant Quotes:

● “​Revolution. The urban working class, living in cramped terraced housing, had little

storage space for food and no land to grow it themselves; they had to use their factory

wages to buy food from shops.”

● “The US had a prosperous car-owning middle class whose female half disliked jostling

with the hoi polloi in cramped city centre stores; these women ordered goods by phone to

be delivered to their home. The spacious malls of 1920s America were attractive to such

people, and accessible only to car owners.” (p.90-91)

● “The stage was set, first in America and later in Europe, for a departure of high-class

retailing from cramped, impractical, expensive, dangerous, inaccessible, inner city venues

to spacious clean suburban sites well served by roads that efficiently brought both

customers and timely bulk deliveries of goods.” (p. 91)

 ● “As with the rise of the department stores and the advance of the American supermarket,

underlying socioeconomic factors played a major role in this transformation of the grocery

retailing sector.” (p. 92).

Entry #2: ​Studying Food Deserts Through Different Lenses, Diet and Health Evidence to

Support Improved Food Access

APA Citation: ​Board, on Population Health and Public Health Practice Staff, et al. The Public

Health Effects of Food Deserts : Workshop Summary, edited by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre, et al.,

National Academies Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central,

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3378502

Summary:

The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts : Workshop Summary, t​ he authors approach healing

the eradication of healthy foods in urban living i.e. food deserts through evidence based research

(p. 28). Research would suggest that; (1) socioeconomic status dictates the supply of fresh food

available to consumers based on vicinity within the same county (p. 28), and (2) cost of fresh

produce is correlated with childhood obesity (p. 29). However, after considering multiple

factors, it is insufficient to just provide healthy fresh foods and focus on availability, healthy food

must be competitively priced. The consumer needs to be educated about healthier foods and

endorse the preference for healthy food. Media has a large effect on affecting consumers and

their consumption of foods. Lastely, we have to consider the economics of healthy food and less
optimal choices as sellers must make a profit to support their store. Unhealthy food is cheaper

and has a larger profit margin than healthy foods (p.73).

Evaluation:

Whitacre et al. creates a comprehensive study investigation many facets that are involved in

healthy food availability. She begins with the biological, involves social factors, zoning, and law.

She recognizes that the factors that create food deserts are extremely complicated and ultimately

difficult to predict.

Significant Quotes:

● “​Neighborhood differences, including race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors, may

contribute to health inequalities and have public health and policy relevance.” (p. 28)

● “supermarkets were less common in low-income areas, and liquor stores and small

grocery stores were more common (Moore and Diez Roux, 2006). The smaller stores did

not stock many healthy foods. Moreover, even supermarket offerings can vary by location.

A comparison of two supermarkets— one in predominantly African-American Baltimore

City and one in predominantly Caucasian Baltimore County— showed that the inner-city

store offered far fewer healthier options” (p. 28)

● “Another study (Sturm and Datar, 2005, 2008) confirmed that higher prices of fruits and

vegetables were linked to greater increases in children’s weight over time.” (p. 29)
 ● “The new paradigm is an interdisciplinary one and integrates transportation, urban

planning, food access, and community development policies as part of dealing with

people's health.” (p. 30)

● “​The excess availability of energy-dense snacks and fast foods in food deserts is a concern

because both have been linked to obesity, and current interventions have attempted to

increase the availability of healthy foods to mitigate those effects in food deserts​” (p. 37).

● “A systematic review of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains consistently showed that

higher consumption of these foods is significantly associated with decreased risk of both

coronary heart disease and stroke (Hu and Willett, 2002).” (p. 41)

● “Mattes said from an obesity perspective, the time has come to abandon the idea that there

is a single cause of obesity that a particular diet will correct. Just as it was once believed

that a single treatment for cancer could be possible, it is now clear that obesity is caused

by diet composition for some people, energy expenditure for others, and eating frequency

or portion size for someone else.” (p. 43)

Entry #3: ​Walkability, transit, and body mass index

APA Citation: ​Smart, M. J. (2018). Walkability, transit, and body mass index: A panel approach.

Journal of Transport & Health,8​, 193-201. doi:10.1016/j.jth.2017.12.012

Summary:

Smart conducted a 4 year study of several factors involved in the daily commute of a group of

test subjects and their effects on body mass index. The study observed that test subjects with the

most optimal transit, and pedestrian conditions lost 5 lb from those who have the worst
conditions. The differential between groups having the worst pedestrian and best pedestrian

conditions alone accounted for a 2 lb improvement. The single biggest factor in affecting body

weight is the use of a car for a daily commute which resulted in a 3 lb loss in mass.

Evaluation:

Smart investigated a very interesting subject, but did iterate that meticulous care needed to be

taken study in this realm as error is very likely to occur. Smart researched his topic from data

collected as far back at 1968, He noted that the data sets from past research tended to have large

populations of low socioeconomic status persons and minorities. Most of the subjects were male.

Three-fourths of those people lived in a Food Desert. As such he noted that drawing conclusions

from such data may be biased. Regarding his own data collection, Smart reported that his data

could be skewed as well. Data collected from his subjects relied on self report and may have been

biased. Persons who moved from less optimal conditions to more optimal conditions showed a

loss in weight after a significant passage of time (4-6 years).

Significant Quotes:

● “​The transit access data show a maximum difference of eight standard deviations possible,

suggesting that moving from the ​worst​ transit neighborhood to the ​best​ in a region might

result in about a 4.8 pound (2.2 kg) difference in weight.​” (p. 6).

Popular

Entry #1: ​USDA Defines food Deserts

APA Citation: ​Gallagher, M. (n.d.). USDA Defines Food Deserts. Retrieved from

http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts

Summary:

Food deserts are areas where fresh food and whole foods cannot be found in a particular area.

Those areas rely on fast food, convenience stores to provide food to the population. The Healthy

Food Financing Initiative was designed to provide fresh food for those areas. Most food deserts

are found in the SE United States and Midwest.

Evaluation:

This article is very small and is mainly dominated by a graphic of food deserts in the United

States. However, the author gets the point across that food deserts occur throughout the

United States.

Significant Quotes:

● “​fresh fruits and vegetables, instead, they are heavy on local quickie marts that provide a

wealth of processed, sugar, and fat laden foods that are known contributors to our nation’s

obesity epidemic. ​”

Entry #2: ​Food Deserts Gateway to Health Communication

APA Citation: ​Food Desert | Gateway to Health Communication | CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/toolstemplates/entertainmented/tips/FoodDesert.html

Summary:

Food deserts are areas with a lack of nutritious food, and typically occur in minority and low

socioeconomic status areas. The definition of Food Desert can vary. Changes in zoning, laws,

and improved public transportation can address food deserts with local governments and

community.

Evaluation:

The article is very brief, upon detailed reading, the article lacked any citations and appeared to be

incomplete. The author may have written the article as an outline and does not appear to

compete.

Significant Quotes:

● “​Only common theme among food desert definitions is that there is limited access. Either

cite USDA or delete.​”

Primary Source

Entry #1: ​The unexpected challenges of living in a food desert

APA Citation: ​O'Leary, L., & Velasco, P. (2018, January 5). The unexpected challenges of living

in a food desert. Retrieved from

https://www.marketplace.org/2018/01/05/world/unexpected-challenges-living-food-desert

Summary:

O’Leary and Vazquez participate in an interview regarding the challenges in areas known as food

deserts. Frozen vegetables are 14x more likely to be found in a high income area than in a food

desert. In food deserts, people are poor both in money and in time which makes it even harder to

cook fresh foods. In these areas, buying in bulk is not an option since few areas have bulk sellers.

Lastly, transportation to stores that have healthy food is critical as public transportation is the only

affordable method.

Evaluation:

The interview between O’leary and vazquez in an interesting exchange of topics that are left out

of the mainstream of food desert discussion. It was fluid, but short as other topics were not

discussed.

Significant Quotes:

● “​immigrants to this country actually eat healthier in the communities that they came from

because they were able to grow their own food. ​”

● “you can go in bulk and buy things really cheap. But one, not a lot of these locations these

grocery stores have bulk sections.

● “ a lot of people are exactly time-poor and cash-poor, meaning that they're working

several jobs to make ends meet, and they don't have a lot of time to sit and cook a meal

from scratch.”
 Investigative Essay

What is a food desert? The definition appears to vary from study to study, but the common

understanding is that food deserts are areas in which nutritious and healthy food such as fresh

fruits and vegetables, cannot be found within a reasonable distance. This also includes sources of

fresh protein sources such as fish, poultry and other meats. In their place, high fat and high

calorie foods are substituted. Food deserts tend to be found in areas with populations of lower

socioeconomic status and high populations of minorities. Scientific study has shown that there is

an increased correlation with unhealthy, processed, and high caloric foods with diabetes, and

other health disorders. Food deserts can be found in many places in the United States, but they

can be addressed and combated at multiple fronts that must include both government and

community cooperation, but action must also be taken to change society, media, and educate

those vulnerable in the food deserts.

Food deserts are unusually prevalent in the United States. According to the USDA, a

food desert is defined as not having a local supermarket selling fresh nutritious food within 1 mile

of an urban or suburban population of people, and 10 miles for a rural population (CDC ). If you

were to look at a map and see where these vulnerable populations exist, you would note that every

state in the United States has a food desert. The most food deserts are found in the interior of the

United States. However, the majority of the worst of these food deserts are localized in the

Southwest, Midwest, and Southeast United States. Food deserts are a severe problem as they are

widespread (Gallagher, 2010). These food deserts have signatory characteristic in which the

stores and businesses that sell food are primarily convenience stores , corner markets, and liquor
stores. They do not have the capability to keep fresh food as they have limited space and do not

have the logistical support to sell fresh nutritious food.

The question now becomes apparent, why do food deserts exist? The answer is not as

simple, there are multiple factors that have created food deserts such as cost, profitability. City

zoning, socioeconomic status, and transportation availability. Fresh food costs more to buy than

frozen or unhealthy food. It require refrigeration and has a shorter shelf life. Fresh food costs

more money to maintain, as they require constant refrigeration as through transport and in the

store.Fresh food is not mass produced or processed, and such it is at the mercy of supply changes

and availability which can also increase costs. Frozen food, such as pizza and ice cream, have

many advantages over fresh food. They can contain processed ingredients and preservatives

further extending their normal shelf life. They can be made with cheap ingredients such as high

fructose corn syrup rather than expensive sugar resulting in huge cost savings. As such, it does

not need to be cycled out of the store very often. Reduced costs benefit both the purchaser and the

seller as profit margins can be larger, and a hungry person can buy food at a low cost. City

zoning is also an issue. In crowded established urban areas, the creation of a large supermarkets

are not possible, there is simply no room to build one. As such only small corner stores and

Circle Ks can be built and become the only source of food in a crowded urban area. In areas

containing low socioeconomic status persons, a common trends is that people spend a majority of

their time working to make money and have less time available to cook. As such, they tend to by

cheaper food and food that does not require time to cook and prepare. Lastly, transportation is an

issue. In urban areas, those with low socioeconomic status tend to rely primarily on public
transportation. As such, this population can access only stores near those public transportation

lines and further restrict their choices in food stores.

How does one combat food deserts? The answer is as complex as the question. An

interplay of media, societal preferences, education, community involvement and cost incentives

must occur to address these and promote meaningful change. Firstly, the adults and children of

the United States have preferences for sweet sugary snack foods that much change. Such change

can be catalyzed through education in schools and in the community. We need to educate all

adults and children about food deserts and the cost that unhealthy food has on their health. They

need to be introduced to viable low cost alternatives such mail order services through Amazon

and Hellofresh which send fresh food to a person’s door. Community involvement such as

Michelle Obama’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative which is designed to being healthy foods to

food deserts by reducing the cost of healthy foods to be competitive with that of unhealthy

processed foods. Lastly, me must consider the factor or media. For decades, people have watched

TV ads for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Hershey’s chocolate, delicious snack cakes, which have equated

happiness with their product. Society has been conditioned to consume products that are

unhealthy. Media needs to be changed or at least a media campaign be subsidized to combat

unhealthy food products.

In conclusion, the issue of food deserts is extremely complex. Unhealthy, preservative

bearing, and fatty foods are cheap and profitable. The allure of low cost seduces the consumer

and seller. Unhealthy food is tasty and convenient and lasts weeks at corner stores and can be

frozen in space saving boxes. The allure that these food products has on urban areas and people of

low socioeconomic status is powerful, not to mention taste good. Unhealthy snack foods, and
processed food manufacturers continue to insidiously market their profitable products on

television and social media. The only way to combat these forces is to change hour our society

views food and prioritizes healthy food through education and media, and financial subsidies to

make the cost of healthy foods competitive. Community and government involvement by

changing zoning laws to make access of healthy food easier will play a key role in making fresh

foot a logistical possibility. In closing, the food desert problem will not have an easy solution but

with comprehensive effort from every aspect of government, community, and the media, food

oasis will become available to all.