Chicago Food Deserts

The good news about Chicago food deserts should be considered just as important as the bad. Despite the large number of city blocks that lack access to and investment from mainstream grocery-chains, according to recent studies, the food deserts in the city have decreased by at least 40%.

Serving as an innovative model to other North American cities in the realm of environmental progress, the great thing about Chicago is the leadership that continues to support sustainable initiatives in it’s approach to repositioning itself in economic development. Mayor Rahm Emanuel supported a zoning code amendment for the presence of urban farms, especially where it’s needed such as the food desert neighborhoods.

Yet the top down approach is not the only deciding factor. Residents aren’t waiting around for divestment to be reversed. They are creating their own channels to access healthy produce and other food stuffs, slowly but steadily. This is an amazing illustration of where there’s a health-conscious will, there’s an environmental way.

Industrial agricultural practices have long been toted as one of the highest emitters of carbon that leaves one of the largest ecological footprints on the environment. It would only then be a sustainable solution to reverse the harmful effects of industrial agriculture and encourage utilization of vacant land parcels, along with every other ounce of usable space to support the development of local urban gardens, especially when the health of a community can be directly impacted by their access to fresh produce.

The Trouble with Food Deserts

A term cultivated in the UK, food deserts were assessed early on in developed countries where healthy diets are often trumped by highly processed meals.

You’ll have no trouble recognizing the moment you find yourself in a U.S. food desert: vast expanses of urban land that is dotted with fast-food chains like KFC, McDonalds, and Burger King with minimal access to fresh food. The ethnic and economic demographics in these areas will consist mainly of lower-income African-American, Latino and other non-white ethnic groups. Gas stations and convenience stores with an inferior selection of produce, if any at all, are the only source of food and are frequented by the community for salt and sugar-saturated meals.

The actual trouble with food deserts for the communities where they exist is the lack of healthy grocery-chain alternatives, the long distances required to travel to these grocery chains, and the obvious racialized boundaries that curb said chain investment in these areas. United States cities like South LA, Detroit, and Chicago are among the most well-known examples.

But the real trouble might possibly be the greatest underlying impact of their existence the rate of diabetes and cardiovascular disease which is linked to the lack of access to fresh food and health education for residents in these deserts.

With the knowledge of personal health and the will to demand equality in a neighborhood where real food is concerned, some residents have left their place in the waiting line. They instead, are utilizing the vacant lots and backyards of their houses and apartment buildings to create their own food alternatives. These alternatives are known as urban gardens.

These urban gardens provide a steady growth in a wealth of not only access to healthy produce and other organic products like honey and even eggs and meat, but they are also contributing to a wealth of knowledge that was lacking before.

But will traditional fast food outlets have their place in the future of these urban neighborhoods? With the presence of urban farms and legislature to back it, the food choices in these communities are destined for change.

References:

“The Food Desert” from Chicago Magazine, July 2009