In times when an increasing amount of the population in many Western countries is becoming obese, urban scholars came up with theories about so-called ‘food deserts’. To what extent does this phenomenon indeed exist, and where exactly are we able to actually find them?
A review on the literature about food deserts so far makes clear that it is fundamentally controversial. First and foremost, this is because the concept itself still requires a clear definition. Nowadays, most people agree that a food desert can be understood as an often deprived part of a city where residents have limited or no access to an affordable and healthy diet and are thus forced to unilateral or simply unhealthy food (see: Cummins & Macintyre, 2002).
What remains still is the question of what should be considered to be a healthy food supply. Most scholars on the subject used supermarkets as a proxy for access to healthy food, since people will at least have the opportunity to choose healthy food when a supermarket is nearby. For this reason, several cities, such as Pittsburgh, try to improve supermarket access for those with poor access. A lot closer to home, even the neighbourhood in Glasgow where I am currently living in myself seemed to be in desperate need of affordable healthy food supply at the beginning of this millennium. Hence, a Lidl has been established in the centre of the area which fits very well in the city council’s aims to renovate the once so infamous and still deprived area.
The second topic of debate within the existing literature on food deserts is whether they do in fact exist outside of the United States or not. According to Beaulac et al (2007), evidence of the existence of food deserts in other high-income countries, such as the United Kingdom, is sparse and equivocal. Cummins & McIntyre even declared in 2002 that the existence of British food deserts could be seen as a so-called ‘factoid’: an assumption that is repeated many times until it is generally considered to be the truth.
Stephan Valenta and I decided earlier this year to consider Amsterdam in this regard with GIS tools. In Amsterdam, many policy makers and health institutions recently expressed concern regarding the increasing obesity levels amongst schoolchildren. According to Het Parool, in some schools in Amsterdam’s Nieuw-West district, about 40% of the children are overweight. The problems of obesity are largely located at the outskirts of the city: besides Nieuw-West, Amsterdam Noord and -Zuidoost seem to be particularly vulnerable areas. The Municipal Health Service of Amsterdam (GGD) published a report in 2005 (PDF), stating that the highest risk factors for children with overweight are an irregular and unilateral food pattern and a lack of physical exercise. One of the members of the Amsterdam city council also recently proposed measures prohibiting the sale of unhealthy foods such as chips, kebab, and energy drinks in the vicinity of schools, in order to combat student obesity.
Research poster by Jorn Koelemaij and Stephan Valenta performing a GIS analysis on whether or not food deserts exist in Amsterdam neighbourhoods
Click image to view the full poster
Our research mainly focused on the two districts in Amsterdam with respectively the highest and lowest percentage of overweight schoolchildren. Using a network analysis in ArcGIS, we calculated the service area taken from the secondary schools in those two districts, looking at the amount of both healthy and unhealthy food chains that were reasonably reachable during their lunch breaks. A summary of our findings can be found on this poster.
According to our observations, we made two conclusions. First and foremost, food deserts seems to be non-existent in Amsterdam, and, second, that other causes of obesity do probably exist besides the proximity of unhealthy foods. Perhaps socio-economic or cultural factors play a more important role regarding food habits. This is moreover in line with Hillary J. Shaw’s line of thinking, who proposed that the concept of ‘access’ could be broken down into three contributory factors to access problems: ability, assets, and attitude. In other words, physical, financial and mental factors can play an important role causing one’s unhealthy food habits as well.
Does all of this thus mean that food deserts in cities are actually complete fairy tales outside of the United States? I think that this still depends on the exact meaning that you might want to attach to the concept. To return to my own lovely Glaswegian neighbourhood of Possil Park: right opposite to my flat, one will find the giant Asian foodstore called Seawoo, which indeed sells fruits and vegetables as well, but where the majority of the customers are part of the Asian population that specifically comes here from throughout all parts of the city in order to buy Asian foodstuffs. In the rare case that I do not fancy rice or noodles, I need to walk quite a distance, either to the Lidl or to a supermarket in a different area. For me personally this is not much of a problem, but for elderly residents or those with mobility issues, it could be. Why endeavour to combat those constraints if they could also just order some fast food?
Furthermore, every morning when I’m walking to university, the almost irresistible smell of fries, hamburgers, and sausages is coming towards me. Directly next to the Woodside Health Centre, one will find a typical British snackbar. The doctors inside the health centres will probably regard this with sorrow. A cactus in the desert or just an odd tree in a fertile valley? Probably some extensive, qualitative research is needed to get a clearer picture about food accessibility and choices of people.
Great read! What’s the sense you get about how much culture plays into the existence of a food desert? I’m thinking of comparing the differences of food deserts in, say, the US/Canada/UK (i.e., fatty and starchy local cuisines) as opposed to Italy/Greece/Spain (i.e., cuisines with more fresh ingredients and more vegetable/fruit focussed). Thoughts?
As far as I know there has not been a lot of research yet on the existence of Food Deserts in Southern Europe. I could imagine that it is less of a problem over there, indeed due to the fact that (less affluent) people in these countries in general have healthier food habits.
What would be interesting though is to see an internationally comparative case study wherein a number of European cities are involved in order to explore the relation between ethnicity, overweight, and healthy food supply in particular areas. Or perhaps a comparison between for instance Turkish people in Amsterdam and in Istanbul? As I stated in my article, I think that qualitative research is needed to discover why some people have such unhealthy food habits while their neighbours don’t..
This is true. That’s certainly why the concept of the food desert doesn’t necessarily translate across cultural contexts because some cultures are just used to eating much healthier on the whole. Or even with cultures that have a generally low level of nutrition in the national cuisine (I’m looking at you, Netherlanders), you still have a really active and fit population that tends to mitigate the negative effects of Friday’s croquette.
Cool post, Jorn. I can really relate to the problem now, living in a NYC neigborhood where the diet within reach seems to exist out of fried chicken, pizza and donuts…
But, I bought a bicycle! I think cycling decreases the food-desert problem in two ways: It makes more stores accessible, while burning calories. For reasons like this one, I think you should be careful with cross-cultural analysis of accesibility based on distance or national cuisine alone. It is also about eating habits. Italian (pizza) and Turkish (kebab) fast food is also full of fat… Whereas the Dutch meals my momma taught me to cook at home, are quite nutricious!
I’m going to throw this out there: Dutch fast food is not more nutritious than Italian fast food (at least pizza has somewhat fresh vegetables on it). I’ll give it to you in the oil-rich American version, but if you’re going to make a comparison, make it an equal one.
That was not my point, but sure, there are definately vegetables on a pizza. In fact, pizza is a vegetable, right? http://imgur.com/gallery/7Dsod
Well, you were comparing fast foods from other cultures with home-cooked meals in yours: apples v. oranges. But that was pretty much the only right answer, haha.
More on food deserts at http://www.fooddeserts.org
Excellent blog and excellent post on food dessert. I thought that Glasgow had a program going on to introduce healthier food habits in the groceries. Do you know about it?
On the other hand, food desserts in the South ( I am Spanish): I think they might be showing up sooner than latter in the new developments around big cities. The new PAUs neighbourhoods don´t have much shops and the few are generally franchises, banks or a pharmacy. Most of the shopping is done in a mall attach to the neighbourhood built by the same company as the blocks. Despite these are middle income housing, the food habits are gradually shifting to pre-cooked hi calory stuff, although still vegetables, fruit and cereals play a substantial part of the diet. Maybe its more a matter of attitude and cooking culture than of actual lack of availability.
I don´t think there is any research on this, but I think there is a relation.
Thank you for your comment Andres! Glasgow has indeed set up quite a few policies throughout the city over the last few years in order to improve the health of its citizens. Despite all the efforts though issues regarding health still seem to be a serious problem in the city.
It is interesting to see how urban planners are taking care of issues of food supply while developing new neighbourhoods. In the so-called recent VINEX-areas in Dutch cities there is often also just one central place where retail and food supply is centered. It is difficult to define food deserts since it indeed has to do with both mobility and the lifestyle of individuals. I think by the way that it is also not necessarily an urban problem. In many rural areas in both Britain as Holland you see that villages with an ageing population are now losing almost all their facilities. Thus, the health of the elderly people, both in urban and rural areas, could become quite an issue in the future.
I think it is nevertheless interesting to do research on the existence of something like food deserts using a combination of GIS-tools and qualitative research. Furthermore I think that a solution to the problem of obesity might be a combination of accessible healthy food supply, education on schools and health centres about the risks of unhealthy food, and maybe even raising taxes of unhealthy food, like what happened in France to a relatively large extent. Also Jolien’s comment about the use of bikes definitely makes sense I think!