Opinion Piece: Nutrition Deserts

America doesn’t have a food desert problem, it has a nutrition desert problem. We are a nation of abundance without sustenance.

It’s likely that by now, you’ve heard the term “food desert” being thrown around. It’s often mentioned in conjunction with race and poverty or should I say at the intersection of race and poverty? 

There’s big money in big pharma and processed foods. Big money that leads wealthy families and giant companies to set up charitable foundations. Foundations that fund nonprofits that set the  narrative for charity and philanthropy. 

The food desert gospel has been preached by the grant recipients, the foot soldiers of foundations, public health officials, the trickle down beneficiaries of systemic classism, or in other words nonprofits who live and die by the charity of the wealthy. 

According to Bayer (yes the agricultural, pharmaceutical and consumer health giant), there are 6,500 food deserts in the United States and everyone’s refrigerator looks much the same. I’ve learned that if the axis of power and influence is in agreement on a concept like “food deserts,” then much thought and consideration needs to be given to why.

The image that has been painted with food deserts is one of scarcity for poor people living in urban and rural areas. When in reality it should look more like abundance lacking nourishment.

Food deserts are a great way to shift the conversation away from the deeper issues related to food in America, like the simple fact that if you’re an American today you’re likely to be living in a nutrition desert unless you are very wealthy or very intentional with your food. 

Nutrition Desert 

A nutrition desert is any household, grocery store, or community where processed food products and less nutritious produce take up the majority of shelf space.

Overly Processed Options

Think of any American grocery store like Fred Meyer, Meijer, Vons, Walmart, or Albertsons, try to picture how much of the store is dedicated to whole foods, fresh produce, and unprocessed foods. It’s a shockingly small portion of the store. So small that if the whole town decided to buy only these minimally processed options, then the store wouldn’t be able to meet that demand. 

Now, think about your own kitchen and pantry. How much of your food is processed versus unprocessed? Does your spread mirror that of the grocery store you shop at?

Less Nutritious Options

Since the 1950s, the nutritional value of American food has gone way down. According to National Geographic, fruits, vegetables, and grains grown today have less nutrients than they did 70 years ago, especially for: Protein, Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron, Riboflavin, and Vitamin C.

For example, if you wanted to replicate the vitamin A content of an orange grown in 1940s America, one would have to eat eight oranges grown today.

It’s not just America that is facing food with declining nutrients, Europe also is experiencing a similar phenomenon. This is due to modern day farming practices for mass production, which lead to soil depletion. 

Poor Health Outcomes

Eating a nutrient poor and overly processed diet, leads to poor health outcomes. Processed foods often contain high levels of sugar, sodium, and fat, which can lead to health problems like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Health conditions related to poor diet are on the rise for all Americans, not just poor Americans. However, the rate of increase is higher for poorer Americans.

According to the National Institutes of Health, 9.0 % of those who had a household income of $29,999 per year or less had diabetes, while 4.3 % of those who made between $30,000 and $79,999 per year and only 2.7 % of those who made more than $80,000 per year had diabetes.

The last study conducted by the USDA on how SNAP dollars broke down by food category was done in 2011, which is nearly 15 years ago. I’d love to see this study revisited today in a post-Covid world. If you dig into the data, it shows  that SNAP households have a tendency to buy more processed food options than non-SNAP households. This is likely because of a variety of reasons including affordability, ease of preparation and shelf stableness.

If you look at the summary report, it can be misleading because it shows meat and vegetables ranking high, but it’s when you get into the subcategorization where the data is telling. It’s here that you can see grouped in with vegetables are products like frozen french fries, pizza and pasta sauce. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

Potential Solutions to Nutrition Deserts

  1. Start with your own kitchen

Look at your kitchen and pantry. What’s the breakdown of processed foods to non processed foods? Start shifting toward more whole foods. If everyone did this at once, then grocery stores couldn’t support the demand, but if people did it slowly, then it might start to shift what grocery stores stock and don’t stock. Your own personal choices are akin to voting with your dollars. If you’re buying processed foods, you’re supporting processed foods.

  1. Sustainable Agriculture

Modern agriculture is often hard on the soil, which in turn yields less nutritious produce. I’m not an agricultural expert, so I’ll leave it to the experts, but supporting sustainable agriculture with purchasing and policy decisions is probably a good place to start.

  1. Support the development of policies to restrict the purchasing of processed foods with SNAP dollars while also working to negotiate deals at scale for whole foods

A large share of the processed food market is being funded by SNAP dollars. If we could develop and pass policies to restrict what SNAP dollars could purchase when it came to processed and overly processed foods, then we would effectively reduce the consumption of these foods. This is particularly important in low income populations where diets are heavily skewed toward these options.

Just like Medicare has some weight in negotiating drug and healthcare costs because of its sheer size, the SNAP program might also be able to negotiate food prices for whole food staples and vegetables. According to Supermarket News, SNAP families account for 24% of total Consumer Packaged Goods spend.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *