Introduction to the special issue on food deserts and security: Bringing together diverse voices

Date01 August 2019
AuthorPaul Miesing
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1998
Published date01 August 2019
COMMENTARY
Introduction to the special issue on food deserts and security:
Bringing together diverse voices
Paul Miesing
Center for Advancement and Understanding of Social Enterprises (CAUSE), School of Business, University at Albany-SUNY, Albany, New York, USA
Correspondence
Paul Miesing, Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Advancement and Understanding of Social Enterprises (CAUSE), School of Business, University at
Albany-SUNY, Albany, NY, USA.
Email: paul.miesing@albany.edu
O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.(Buddhist version
from Jainism and Buddhism,Udana 68-69)
Academia, governments, and private enterprises are increasingly inter-
ested in addressing the issues surrounding food insecurity and nutri-
tional insufficiency. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
afood desertis defined as a geographic area with limited or nonex-
istent access to healthy, affordable, nutritious food options
(Cummins & Macintyre, 1999). These neighborhoods are most often
found in low-income, ethnic, or racial minority areas (Block, Scribner, &
DeSalvo, 2004). Rural communities, even those that appear to have
an abundance of farms, may also experience a food desert due to a
lack of local distribution and poor access to transportation. Other
issues such as physical and social environments and misplaced gov-
ernment policies can also contribute to food and nutrition insecurity.
Regardless of the cause, these areas are often populated by fast food
chains and convenience stores that result in unhealthy diets.
The inability of many citizens to provide healthy and balanced
meals for their families is becoming a global concern due to the multi-
ple consequences of inadequate nutrition at the beginning of life and
across the lifespan in terms of learning and growth. Poor consumption
of healthy foods is associated with obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardio-
vascular, and other major chronic diseases (Bowman, Gortmaker,
Ebbeling, Pereira, & Ludwig, 2004). And yet, most stakeholders in this
multifaceted problem seelike the blind men and the elephant in the
opening parableonly one aspect of the situation.
While potential solutions remain complex and controversial, there
is some consensus developing around the belief that food insecurity
and poor nutrition is interrelated with many social determinants for
individuals and communities, making it difficult to address realistic
solutions without acknowledging such root causes. For example, food
security and healthy food consumption is related not only to access to
nutritious food but also to knowledge, skills, and household resources
to support healthy nutrition as well as competing priorities related to
the challenges of living in poverty.
On the demand side, consumer food choices are influenced by
income, availability, mobility, time, convenience, knowledge, and skills
as well as culture, ethnicity, tradition, and customs. Other key behav-
ior factors include food familiarity, enjoyment, satiation, and shelf life
(Wright, Donley, Gualtieri, & Strickhouser, 2016). On the supply side,
grocery store location decisions depend on local demand, costs, zon-
ing, and scale; sales of alcohol, tobacco, and energy-dense snacks may
contribute to profitability but ill health as well. About half of U.S. food
retail is from small stores, with multiple alternatives such as bodegas,
urban gardens, farmers markets, food co-ops, mobile markets, com-
munity kitchens, and online sales providing various levels of afford-
ability and nutrient quality. According to U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Service, U.S. consumers increasingly
shop at nontraditional store formats for their groceries, including
supercenters and dollar stores (and other smaller formats) [and] pur-
chase the most healthful foods at supermarkets and club stores and
the least healthful foods at drug stores, convenience stores, and dollar
stores. In most cases, the strongest associations with respect to for-
mats and food choices are found for low-income households(Volpe,
Kuhns, & Jaenicke, 2017, p. 3).
A fundamental question is What problem are we really trying to
solve?The debate includes opinions about poverty, transportation,
convenience, and education. To begin examining this topic, a Sympo-
sium on Food Desert/Security was held at the University at Albany,
State University of New York (USA) on June 5, 2017, with the theme
Bringing Together Diverse Voices: Forging a Consensus on Problems
and Solutions.Multiple stakeholders met in five small working groups
to discuss different aspects of this situation, then reported their
DOI: 10.1002/pa.1998
J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1998. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of4
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1998

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