Limited Urban Food Access a Reality

Many experts posit that one of the factors that contributes to high obesity rates and the accompanying elevated disease rates among the poor is limited access to inexpensive, healthful foods. New research shows that urban food deserts―areas where people have low or no access to food shops―are not an urban myth.

A recent study (“Mapping the evolution of ‘food deserts’ in a Canadian city: Supermarket accessibility in London, Ontario, 1961-2005, Larsen, K, Gilliland J, International Journal of Health Geographics 2008, 7:16doi:10.1186/1476-072X-7-16) explored food deserts in the Canadian city of London, Ontario, to assess the changing levels of residents’ access to foods.

“More and more supermarkets are building in newer suburbs and smaller food shops are disappearing from older neighbourhoods leaving food deserts in their wake,” says author Jason Gilliland of The University of Western Ontario Geography Department, London, ON. “Poor people with no car can be severely adversely affected by living in food deserts and are more likely to suffer from bad health and low quality of life with diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Poor inner city residents have the poorest access to supermarkets...”

The researchers found that city residents in several areas had limited access to one of the city’s 28 supermarkets. Those living in food deserts paid almost double the price as their supermarket-shopping counterparts for products from small local convenience stores― which are also less likely to offer items that support a healthy diet.

The study noted that inner city areas were not always food deserts even with a doubling of the population in the study’s timeframe. In 1961, over 75% of the population of the urban core had easy access to a supermarket, but fewer than 20% of core residents have access now. It attributed this disparity to the increase in large supermarkets, which for economic reasons locate in less-developed suburban areas and follow the money, serving more-affluent shoppers.

“The bottom line is people need supermarkets and vice versa,” concludes Gilliland, encouraging the city to “actively encourage supermarket development in food desert areas. We still need to find out from these desert residents what are the psychological, economic and personal effects. After all, the continued closure of supermarkets will lead to more unemployment and devastating affects on the health of an already vulnerable population.”