Access to healthy food by all the members of society is one of the main conditions to reach sustainable development. However, in this regard, the current situation in the U.S. is far from ideal. According to the Department of Agriculture, 53.6 million people (17.4% of the total population) live in food desert areas signifying the existence of substantial nutrition inequality in the country. Therefore, government officials and decision-makers should seek to develop methods to counter the phenomenon.
There are believed to be two factors that are directly associated with the appearance of food deserts, namely the profit-maximizing of capitalism and social inequality. On the one hand, people from poor neighborhoods cannot afford to buy fresh and healthy fruit products. Therefore most educators argue that even if people had available stores in close proximity, they simply would not be able to access the offered goods due to financial restrictions.
As a result, low-income people residing in food deserts suffer from nutrition insufficiency. Although the direct connection between good quality food shortage and diseases is not firmly established, it can be argued that diet issues at least affect the everyday body energy levels. For that reason, it’s suggested that decision-makers should address the problem as soon as possible. The solutions may include food education, the creation of food cooperatives in suffering neighborhoods that would satisfy local demand and so on.
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