Culture
What Food Desert Maps Get Wrong About How People Eat
Our understanding of food access seldom takes into account a key factor: mobility.
Food deserts, as they’re traditionally defined, assume a world without transportation. The United States Department of Agriculture measures them this way: A Census tract is considered a food desert if it meets a certain threshold of poverty, and if at least 500 people or one-third of the population reside more than a mile from a large grocery store.
This definition assumes that people only access supermarkets within a fixed – and arbitrary – radius of their home. And it sidesteps the reality that many people ride transit or cars to get there.