Food Gap & The Consumer Burden

Chris Crowley & Matt Lang

In recent years, the build up of cities and suburbs have been fixed around a spatial organization that limits and constrains the consumers’ food options.

Low income communities often do not have a diverse variety of food choices. Options are fixed to those in the vicinity of work or home, forcing individuals to choose from what is preexisting in their neighborhoods. In most cases, these choices are unhealthy, fast food restaurants. The disproportionate access to low-quality options greatly influences the frequency of consumption. The safety and consumption of consumers should be food industries’ main priority but this is not always the case. In this research project, we show how low income communities are shouldering a consumer burden caused by fast food industries exploiting the spatial constraints inherent to their social geography.

Many people are affected by poor meat quality in fast food restaurants and even certain ways in which it is prepared, such as seen in past breakouts of foodborne pathogens such as E.coli. Furthermore, the propensity of fast food chains to target low income neighborhoods exposes this demographic to the negative effects of long term consumption in an unequal manner. These areas are dubbed food swamps and food deserts in the U.S The prevalence of health complications in these communities-such as obesity and diabetes- is in excess to those with less access to fast food options. Present regulations attempting to mitigate health impacts of fast food are not effective. The modern consumer is being burdened with the negative ideologies of fast food industries.

Keywords:

Social Geography

Consumption

Unfair Burden

Food Swamps & Food Deserts

Public Health Complications

Food Insecurity

 

Catalogue

Part I: Spatial Inequality

Part II: Meat Quality & Pathogenic Diseases

Part III: Labeling Crisis

Part IV: Where’s the Help?

 

Works Cited:

Barbut, Shai. “Review: Automation and Meat Quality-Global Challenges.” Meat Science, vol. 96, no. 1, 2014, pp. 335–345.

Barrett, Christopher B. “Measuring food insecurity.” Science327.5967 (2010): 825-828.

Bassett, Mary T et al. “Purchasing behavior and calorie information at fast-food chains in New York City, 2007.” American journal of public health vol. 98,8 (2008): 1457-9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.135020

Dailey, Amy B et al. “Healthy Options: A Community-Based Program to Address Food Insecurity.” Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community 43.2 (April 2015), 83-94.

Edberg, S. C. L., et al. “Escherichia coli: the best biological drinking water indicator for public health protection.” Journal of applied microbiology88.S1 (2000): 106S-116S.

“Escherichia Coli O26 Infections Linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurants (Final Update) | November 2015 | E. Coli | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 Feb. 2016.

Grunert, Klaus G. “Future Trends and Consumer Lifestyles with Regard to Meat Consumption.” Meat Science, vol. 74, no. 1, 2006, pp. 149–160.

James, Peter et al. “Do minority and poor neighborhoods have higher access to fast-food restaurants in the United States?.” Health & place vol. 29 (2014): 10-7. doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.04.011

Oexle, Nathalie et al. “Neighborhood fast food availability and fast food consumption.” Appetite vol. 92 (2015): 227-32.  

“Painted Turtle Farm.” Painted Turtle Farm – Gettysburg College, Center for Public Service, www.gettysburg.edu/offices/center-for-public-service/students/painted-turtle-farm/.

Sharma, Lisa L et al. “The food industry and self-regulation: standards to promote success and to avoid public health failures.” American journal of public health vol. 100,2 (2010): 240-6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.160960

Szasz, Andrew. “Consumption.” Keywords for Environmental Studies, edited by Joni Adamson et al., NYU Press, 2016, pp. 44–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15zc5kw.18.

“What Is Food Insecurity in America?” Hunger and Health, Feeding America.

Yang, Shih-Chun, et al. “Current Pathogenic Escherichia Coli Foodborne Outbreak Cases and Therapy Development.” Archives of Microbiology, vol. 199, no. 6, 2017, pp. 811–825.

Cooksey-Stowers, Kristen et al. “Food Swamps Predict Obesity Rates Better Than Food Deserts in the United States.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 14,11 1366. 14 Nov. 2017, doi:10.3390/ijerph14111366

Ploeg, Michele Ver, et al. “Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food-Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences: Report to Congress.” USDA ERS, www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=42729.