Raja S, Ma C, Yadav P. Beyond food deserts: measuring and mapping racial disparities in neighborhood food environments. Journal of Planning Education and Research. 2008; 27: 469-482.
Summary: This article investigates how the food environments in neighborhoods of color differ from other neighborhoods. In their study of Erie County, NY the authors explain why fewer supermarkets and more small stores are located within neighborhoods predominated by racial and ethnic minorities. Networks of small grocery stores, supermarkets, vegetable markets, convenience stores, and meat/fish markets are compared.
General Concensus: Overall comments for this article were positive and many agreed that the definition of food desserts, although becoming more mainstream, needs to be streamlined. The article forced some students to question which policy decisions have resulted in so few supermarkets in dense urban areas.
Additional Comments:
"It may well be that any single piece of policy to improve fresh produce access in a neighborhood will be effective without addressing the overall, comparative food environment surrounding that single produce store." (UPPA)
"I wonder what would happen if the authors included market trucks that go around in neighborhoods- what do these service delivery options offer neighborhoods. What if large supermarkets had smaller market "outlets" for which they were responsible for supplying?" (Social Work)
"This article raises some critical questions to help infuse the "healthy food environments" movement with a dose of scientific evidence. Though I would argue that the methods are lacking somewhat, I believe the takeaway message from this article is that the food landscape is far more complicated than has been portrayed, both in terms of the wide variety of food stores available and in terms of the socioeconomic gradients of access to those stores. That being said, the block group does not seem an appropriate scale for measuring access, as block groups are too small (~1000 people covering well under 100 acres in urbanized areas) as a geography for identifying access to stores." (UPPL)