2400 Block of 38th Street, Milwaukee

​FOOD JUSTICE

When a single grocer serves an urban square mile; that’s a food desert. But also, when there are enough stores, but no wholesome foods available at an affordable price, that, too, is a food desert. 

Particular interest can be taken in low-income, low access¹ neighborhoods, where the food desert correlates with areas of concentrated poverty. A particular vulnerability is recognized here, in that not all of the neighbors over the years have been capable of recovering from the compounded impact of this unequal environment.
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In this question of equal distribution, not all food is equal. "Food must be available, accessible, and adequate.²" It is not only a right to food, but a right to good food.
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Here, unhealthy, processed foods outnumber healthy options. The impacts of this food swamp range from direct - higher rate of health complications due to poor nutrition³ - to long term - food illiteracy in the neighborhood and a glorified fast food culture, both of which complicate the issue and make simply providing more sources insufficient.

FOOD ASSET MAP

HEALTH DATA

​1. “Documentation,” USDA, last modified December 5, 2017, https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/documentation/.
      "Low Income and Low Access Tract ‘A low-income tract with at least 500 people, or 33% of the population,  living more than 1/2 mile (urban areas) from the nearest supermarket, supercenter, or               large grocery store.’”
2. “Fact Sheet No. 34: The Right to Adequate Food,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2. 
3. Andrea Freeman, “Fast Food: Oppression Through Poor Nutrition,” California Law Review 95, no. 6 (December 31, 2007): 2228.