Eliminating Food Deserts

Eliminating Food Deserts May Take More than a Grocery Store. New Agricultural and Applied Economics Association member research on efforts to provide consumers fresh food near home.

 

There is an active movement nationwide to eliminate the growing problem of food deserts. Dr. Carola Grebitus, an agribusiness professor at Arizona State University, is researching challenges that exist in expanding the urban farming movement and defines food desert. "it is an area where, if you lived in that area, you would not have access to grocery stores. Sometimes it is just the gas station store."       

Current legislation on the local and federal levels is in place to attempt expanding access to fruits and vegetables in areas that are under-served by the industry. But are these policies effective? That is the focus of new research by AAEA member Linlin Fan of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "The Welfare Impact of Expanding Access to Fruits and Vegetables in Food Deserts" looks at how consumers respond to better access to fruits and vegetables. "There have been a lot of policies put in place to eradicate food deserts," Fan said, "but these policies may not be as effective as leaders expect them to be."

In fact, there is something Fan says is "ten times more important" than the proximity of a grocery store.