2/1/2024 0 Comments Healthy food stores![]() Many groups are now using the term “food apartheid” to correctly highlight the how racist policies shaped these areas and led to limited access to healthy food. Language is important and using these terms prevents us from naming and addressing the root causes and making systemic change. Swamp, desert, mirage.all these sound like places to stay away from. ![]() People who work in public health have come up with another term for areas with easier access to fast food and junk food than to healthier food: “ food swamps.” Rather than simply building grocery stores, some of these communities need stable jobs and a livable wage to change their access to healthier food. And, as Karen Washington and research from Johns Hopkins University highlight, people who live in the places labeled “food deserts” most of the time do have food, but often the food they can afford is fast food or junk food. Sociologists have started using the term “ food mirage” to describe the phenomenon when there are places to buy food, but they are too expensive for the neighborhood. Sometimes grocery stores are unaffordable to their surrounding communities. Using that word runs the risk of preventing us from seeing all of those things.”īuilding more grocery stores won’t necessarily make things better. Number two, people in the ‘hood have never used that term.When we’re talking about these places, there is so much life and vibrancy and potential. She says, “Number one, people will tell you that they do have food. As farmer and activist Karen Washington points out, “food desert” is an outsider term, used by people who do not actually live in these areas. The term “food desert” obscures the presence of community and backyard gardens, farmer’s markets, food businesses, and other food sharing activities that exist in these areas. Using the word “desert” to imply a location’s inferiority as a desolate place writes off the people who live there, as well as the flora and fauna that are actually present in deserts. I thought it was going to be devoid of all life, but when I got there, I realized that the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, like most deserts, can be quite abundant, especially when they have the right resources. I fell into the trap of this misconception when I moved to Tucson. Common uses of the word describe the absence of life or activity, but most deserts are full of adapted plants and have sustained human and animal populations for centuries. First, the word “desert” typically conjures up dramatic images of vast arid landscapes with little to no vegetation and water.
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