A desert or a swamp: Food sources in urban environments

In response to The New York Times’ article:
“Studies Question the Pairing of Food Deserts and Obesity”
Gina Kolata
April 17, 2012


One of many issues this article averts, or avoids, addressing is all the qualitative data that can sway the "food desert" hypothesis' weight. I think this Roland Sturm, one of the researchers who concluded poor, urban areas are in fact replete with healthy food opportunities, should try living in a low-income, densely populated urban neighborhood and shop for healthy food there for a week and compare it to living in a more affluent location. Then he should revise his study and make an effort to find more truthful results on this critical issue. He should also do so without a car or a budget for a cab ride and throw in only having time to visit one grocery store for all his needs, regardless of selection or quality. It is just so tempting for privileged people in positions of power to tell the public what the "results" show, in this case denying those living in poor, urban environments should have any trouble finding healthy food choices. This is a positively systematic way to take power away from populations that already struggle.

Studies that can capture more accurate depictions of urban life would not be hard to design; they could be fairly classic ethnographic studies with some biometrics thrown in. It wouldn't take much work at all to see the quality differences evident even between grocery stores just a mile apart. So much is being left out of these conclusions including the safety of the grocery stores and surrounding areas, business hours and accessibility, cleanliness of the store and helpfulness of the staff. I'd also like to see him take into consideration prices. Grocery stores do stock varying foods at varying prices. Though quality can be poor in low-income neighborhoods, prices may be equivalent to stores in more affluent areas.

I thank Dr. Helen Lee from the Public Policy Institute of California for recognizing the study's potentially complicated methodologies. She suggests distance matters too. I second this and contribute that although Dr. Sturm finds that within a few miles of your given urban area, “you can get basically any type of food,” a "few miles" can make or break the feasibility of grocery shopping all together and should not be discounted.

Dr. Roland Sturm
RAND Corporation
Senior Economist; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School
(310) 393-0411, x6164
Roland_Sturm@rand.org


Dr. Helen Lee
Public Policy Institute of California
Policy Fellow
(415) 291-4418
lee@ppic.org