Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Summer:44:46-53.

The changing landscape of food deserts

Allison E Karpyn  1 , Danielle Riser  2 , Tara Tracy  3 , Rui Wang  4 , Y E Shen  4
Affiliations

The changing landscape of food deserts

Allison E Karpyn et al. UNSCN Nutr. 2019 Summer.

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the most recent trends in food-retail access in low- and moderate-income communities in the United States of America. We begin with a review of the current literature on the number of people impacted by food deserts and then review several critical retail trends, including supercentres (such as Walmart), dollar stores, farmers markets and online food retail. We discuss the growing investment in incentive programmes, as well as new understandings of the impact of food deserts on health. In the United States of America, the number of communities without adequate access to healthy affordable food has declined, though more than 5.6 percent of the population still lives in low-access census tracts. At the same time, racial and economic disparities in food access remain a considerable concern, with around 30 percent more non-white residents facing limited access to food retail than white residents. We also provide recommendations for areas of future research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ statement: The authors declare having no conflict of interest at the time of publishing.

References

    1. 115th US Congress. 2018. FIRST STEP Act. H.R. 5682. Introduced by Rep. Collins D. Received in the Senate 23 May 2018. (also available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5682/text?q=%7B%...).
    1. Adam A & Jensen JD 2016. What is the effectiveness of obesity related interventions at retail grocery stores and supermarkets? – a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 16: 1247. (also available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5192566/pdf/12889_2016_Arti...). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aggarwal A, Monsivais P, Cook AJ & Drewnowski A 2014. Positive attitude toward healthy eating predicts higher diet quality at all cost levels of supermarkets. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 114(2): 266–272. (also available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3947012/). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allcott HD, Diamond R, Handbury JP, Rahkovsky I & Schnell M 2017, revised 2018. Food Deserts and the Causes of Nutritional Inequality. NBER Working Paper Series 24094. Cambridge, MA, National Bureau of Economic Research.
    1. Bartlett S, Klerman J, Olsho L, Logan C, Brocklin M, Beauregard M, Enver A, Wilde P, Owens C & Melhem M 2014. Evaluation of the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP): Final Report. Alexandria, VA, United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. (also available at https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/ops/HIP-Final.pdf).