
Food Desert Locator - binarymax
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-desert-locator/go-to-the-locator.aspx
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ahi
I am a little skeptical of this data. I live in a food desert despite being 2
blocks from a Mexican grocery store and a half mile from a Food Co-op. No it's
not a Safeway, but they both packed a lot of variety into ~20,000 square feet.
If you can live with tortillas instead of hot dog buns (one thing I know the
Mexican store is missing) then it's fine.

The solution to food deserts is not more supermarkets. Our small markets fit
our community. Putting a huge supermarket+parking where they are would make
walking impossible for our poor and elderly residents. A real solution is
strengthening our food distribution systems so that our local stores have
better access to fresh produce.

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freehunter
I am also skeptical. I zoomed in on Big Rapids, MI (home of Ferris State
University) to find the entire town and half the campus is a food desert. How
is that possible? It's a college town! It has Meijer (Midwestern chain
supermarket), Wal-Mart, McDonalds/BK/Taco Bell/Little Ceaser's/etc. The on-
campus eateries are open to the public for $5. Plenty of local stores and
restaurants.

There's absolutely no way the downtown and campus areas of a college town
could be considered "low access".

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colanderman
Interesting. I was initially surprised by the largest food desert in my city
of residence, thinking, "that's where almost every restaurant in the city is
located; my wife and I regularly shop at the Trader Joe's (upper-middle-class
discount grocery store) there." But this only highlighted my blindness --
almost all of these restaurants target upper-middle class consumers, not low-
income; and the only other grocery store in the area is on the wrong side of a
busy highway. The only food sources targeted at low-income consumers that I
know of are a few corner stores on the main thoroughfare.

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columbo
I think they need to work on their numbers a little, I would consider the last
option "Percentage of housing units without a vehicle with low access" the
most important metric.

For example, two counties next to each other one has a 13.9 for no vehicle/low
access and the other has a 0.9. Both are pink.

Not having a car severely impacts your ability to buy good produce in a food
desert. Imagine taking the bus to get tomatoes, onions, potatoes etc... just
not happening.

tl;dr - I think these pink blocks should be shaded from dark red/light pink
based on vehicle access.

