...Food Deserts Chris Richardson Eng/147 3/16/2015 Myrene Magabo Food Deserts Have you ever considered not having access to good healthy food? There are large amounts of people who don’t have access at all especially in deteriorated urban settings which suffer from a form of food deprivation called food deserts. Cities such as Detroit, have areas where mini- marts and fast food restaurants are their easiest, if not only access to food. In some cities people are becoming creative in solving this problem with a community driven “grow your own” approach that improves local health and economy simultaneously. Education is the First Step to Healthy Food Choices “Low quality food is resulting in diabetes, obesity, and sickness from processed food” (Bybee 2009). Bybee (p15) paraphrases Will Allen with the ideas that if people are not educated about good food choices, it makes a difference in what they choose to eat. Moreira and Padrão (2004) found lower economic classes may not have education on food nutrition decreasing the occurrence of healthy food choices. By being aware of best food choices when variety and fresh produce is available food dependent sickness is almost entirely eliminated. Once educated, access to better food choices depends on local availability. When there are few local grocery stores it takes time, transportation and money to gain access to healthy food, let alone any food. After the great recession in which grocery stores went...
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...Food Deserts in Chicago Food deserts are defined as parts of an urban area which are deprived of stores that provide fresh fruit, vegetables, as well as other healthy foods. These “deserts” can usually be found in the southern parts of the U.S. where poverty is more of an issue. For the past few decades, the consumption of unhealthy meals has increased. Social media plays a huge part in this recent spike of bad diets; Trends are set using social media, which influences many day to day decisions made by today’s youth. Education can also be considered a reason for such poor dieting. Children in the inner city are not taught about healthy dieting from elementary through high school. Instead, children are taught how to say ‘a’ for ‘apple’, but not that apples are a healthy alternative compared to McDonald’s French fries. As time progresses, these same children grow older and carry their bad eating habits along with them and completely disregard healthy eating. The fact that food deserts are practically abundant in their neighborhoods does not make this any better. In Chicago alone, minorities make up the majority of low-income neighborhoods, and in these neighborhoods, grocery stores are miles away from homes where fast food restaurants are thriving. The city is purposely constructed this way as a scheme to keep the health of minorities down, especially African Americans. This way, the minorities become dependent upon the system. African Americans who are faced with poverty...
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...Food, and access to it, is a determinant of health and well-being. The USDA defines a food desert as, “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas” ("USDA Defines Food Deserts", 2011). Food deserts are often found in rural, minority, and low-income areas because they lack large, retail food markets and have a higher number of convenience stores, where healthy foods are less available. Families and individuals living in a geographic area where residents experience barriers to accessing healthy foods, including, both physical and economic obstacles can face greater risk for adverse health outcomes ("Access to Healthy Food and Why it Matters", 2013). The burden of food...
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...There are multiple factors that can cause an area to turn into a food desert. A major cause of food deserts is when the area is low-income, which leads to a variety of other issues. From the 1960s to the 1980s, there was a large migration of people, mostly upper-income, to suburban areas. This caused approximately half of the supermarkets in the three largest cities in the United States to close. In addition, the median income in these urban areas dropped significantly due to the large migration, which decreased their purchasing power, making the areas less attractive to mainstream stores (Wright et al, 2016). When supermarkets open in food deserts, they require enough people to buy products in order to keep them open. However, this does not...
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...wanted to address this particular issue of “food deserts” because nutrition has always been a subject that is important to me. I have come to realize that in society, it is advertised that it’s vital to live a healthy lifestyle, however society makes it extremely strenuous for vulnerable populations to access nutritional food without difficulty. Since minorities are commonly living within low-income areas, “food deserts” can be a major component in effecting a minorities overall health. Many individuals within middle-class predominately white neighborhoods have access to all the nutritional food that they desire, which will allow for the middle-class predominately white person to maintain their overall health more simply than a minority. Increases in diabetes and diet related diseases are major public health problems today, these diseases tend to be worse in certain U.S communities, due to lack of access to nutritional food (United States Department of Agriculture, 2009)....
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...What many people do not realize is that the food they put in their mouths affects not only their weight, but the way their body and mind function. With the overwhelming amount of fast food restaurants taking place in towns all over this country, unhealthy eating becomes a habit for many people when in a crunch for time. There are 240,115 fast food restaurants in America alone and only 37,716 super markets in the US; this means that for every seven fast food restaurants there is only one grocery store in our Nation. So where are citizens to turn when looking for something to eat? When the odds are seven to one, statistically you'd be more likely to choose the fast food restaurants almost every time. By increasing the amount of healthier store alternatives in the US we can give Americans accessibility to more affordable, healthier options, and the equal choices the people of America deserve. For many people across America eating healthy is a difficult thing to do, because they do not know where to start. This becomes even more difficult when they do not have a grocery store near by in order to purchase healthier alternatives. Grocery stores offer fresher fruits, vegetables, and many now offer organic meats and milk. In the article “Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan he writes of how important it is for the health of American’s to eat a diet with less refined foods. Polan (2012) reports, “we should simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that...
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...Mojave Desert Food Web The life of the organisms in the Mojave Desert originates with the light and energy that the sun provides. In combination with the solar energy, rainfall, carbon, and nutrients the miracle of life begins with plants growing from seeds from the parent plant. Scientists refer to these plants as autotrophs, or producers because they make their own food energy by using the process of photosynthesis. A heterotroph cannot produce energy, and therefore are dependent on the producers and other herbivores to receive their source of energy. The first type of heterotroph is the primary consumer, which are the herbivore that eat only plants. These herbivores are one of the food sources of the omnivores, the secondary consumers, which consume plants and herbivores. Omnivores will also consume carnivores. Carnivores consume omnivores and other carnivores as their primary food sources. The connections of each species within this cycle are the networks that scientists call the food chain, and connected food chains a food network or food web. Another important connection in this cycle is the process of energy passing from one organism to the next. This process is the energy flow, and the food web illustrates the energy flow among the organisms in the food chain for the Mojave Desert ecosystem. The Pathways of Energy Flow Scientists identify food chains and food webs as the pathways that energy and matter pass from each link in the chain beginning with the...
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...that provide affordable healthy foods are far and few in between. Along with the issue of not having quality grocery stores available to low income neighborhoods; can we really say that food deserts are the main cause of poor nutrition and diets in urban and rural areas? Indianapolis the city where I live ranked number one as the worst city for limited access to healthy food. Food deserts have become a big problem in low income communities largely due to the lack of grocery stores. These desert areas are short on healthy food providers, and heavy on local quickie marts, and explain the link between hunger, poverty, and obesity, in low income communities. Innovative solutions to this problem include supporting a petition for the Food Deserts Act Bill, bring fresh produce and healthy affordable snacks to the local quickie marts, and start education programs on buying and cooking healthy foods. If the people can’t get to the healthy foods we have to find a way and help bring the food to them. (Brundage-Moore,5 2016) The United States Department of Agriculture defines food deserts as parts of areas in the city lacking access of fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. Food deserts are largely due to lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers. This has become...
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...Fresh Food Draft Access to affordable and nutritious food has become a topic of interest to the residents of Colorado. Food deserts, as defined by the Nutrition Digest, are “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers” (Gallagher). Areas of Colorado such as this exist in largely rural and urban or low-income neighborhoods throughout the state. In these underserved communities, the issue lies with the ability to reasonably travel to get fresh food and the, often, non-existent retail food presence. In an article published by International Health Geographics, authors Joseph Sharkey, et al. explain that “Individual and community concerns with food security, limited access to supermarkets, higher costs for food (food...
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...Sand... I could almost tell you exactly how many grains lay in this desert. The days are long and hot, and the nights are longer and cold. It’s not a mistake that I am here, I chose to live this way. My name is Gabriel, I am twenty-eight years old. The Wahiba Sands became my home five weeks ago.... I used to be wealthy, with a family, I even owned the largest law firm in the united states. I used to be happy, and filled to the breaking points with love, and life. Until my company that I spent every penny, and every ounce of me on, fell under. My deep black hair began to turn a grey color. We started losing cases, and with a rising rate of failure came the rising debt. The company was going to crash, and I knew. A few months later, the bank came around to take the firm out of my hands. I made a horrible decision, I went to the bank that all of the pension money was stored. I emptied all of the accounts, and carried the money out of the bank in bags. As I was leaving I called my wife, and told her and my son Adrian to pack their things and get ready to leave the country, and that I would explain when I got home. I pull into the driveway, and see my wife standing outside the house. Frantically I told her what just happened. “Gabriel what on earth are you trying to do?!” she exclaimed. “Please just get in the car, I don’t have time. I need to leave, if you wait any longer I’ll have to leave without you and Adrian.” I proposed. She stood, unmoved, and with an unchanged mind...
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...Hi, my name is Mya Chamberlain, and I have been a member of the Desert Sandblasters 4-H for about four years. I was first introduced to 4-H from the equestrian leader whom informed my mother about the group. When my mom told me that I should join the local 4-H club, I had no idea what 4-H was about. She told me that it would teach me about leadership and community service. Of course, that didn’t sound very amusing to a kid, but I said I would give it a try because I knew it would involve being around horses. When I first joined 4-H, I was only in the Equestrian project. I only knew two people, and had no idea that any other projects like cooking, sewing, or even photography existed. By my third year, I was in five projects instead of just one. I also, knew almost everyone in the club. One of the projects that I’m in, is Equestrian Drill. Equestrian Drill, is a project that I created. I didn’t feel like the other equestrian project was the right group for me, and I knew other kids that had felt the same way. Instead of just quitting 4-H, I decided to make my own equestrian group and invited other kids to join the group. Besides from the Equestrian Drill, I am in clothing/textiles, foods/nutrition, photography, leadership development, and outdoor adventure. With each one of these projects, I have learned great skills and have really enjoyed growing as a leader within the projects. In addition, I enjoy helping the younger member’s with their projects, and most of all encouraging...
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...Desert SCI/230 11/11/2012 Yasmin Henry Desert biomes can be defined as sandy regions that have very little rainfall as less than 50 cm a year with extreme temperatures and very scare vegetation. The fact that deserts are so dry the temperatures can change drastically, during the day temperatures can be as hot as 32 degrees Celsius, but at night temperatures can drop as low as -4 degrees Celsius because when the sun goes down there is no moisture in the air to trap the heat so it escapes into space creating cool temperatures. The organisms that can be found in this ecosystem are the following: Organisms in Ecosystem Cactus Wren | Desert Lark | Fat Sand Rat | Gila Monster | Great Jerboa | Horned Lizard | Rattlesnakes | Roadrunner | Thorny Devil | Camel | Lappet Faced Vulture | Sidewinder | Fennec Fox | Great Mouse Tailed Bat | Addax | There is not much benefit of this biodiversity within this ecosystem. The extremely hot temperatures and the very little rainfall makes it hard for trees to grow. Because there is limited water the few animals that live in this ecosystem have adaptations that help them survive. Major organisms in Ecosystem (P) Producers | (C) Consumers | (D) Decomposers | Cactus | Horned Lizard | Earthworms | Desert Shrubs | Great Mouse Tailed Bat | Millipedes | Soap tree Yucca | Desert Tortoises | Bacteria | Jumping Cholla | Water-holding frog | Fungi | There are three major categories of all living organisms’ producers...
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...A biome is a group of ecosystems that share similar climates and organisms. In Miller and Levine Biology, 10 biomes are discussed. They are the Tropical Rain Forest, Tropical Dry Forest, Tropical Grassland, the Desert, Temperate Grassland, Temperate Woodland, Temperate Forest, Northwestern Coniferous Forest, Boreal Forest, and the Tundra. They all have a vast amount of differences between all of the biomes, and they will be discussed. Although not discussed in the book, the taiga is the biggest biome. The average temperature of the taiga is 32 degrees fahrenheit with about 12 to 33 inches of precipitation per year. There is little diversity in plant life. A few broad leaf tree species live in the taiga but mostly evergreen trees are the only ones that have adapted to really thrive in this environment. There are some animals that have adapted to live in the cold and snowy environment. A predator called the ermine has a thick coat of dark fur that turns white in the winter. The snowshoe rabbit also has a fur that turns white in the winter. The wolverine is able to mate during ideal conditions by delayed implantation in which they suspend dormant fertilized eggs until the conditions are ideal for bearing their young. Rainforests are the most diverse having more than 15 million species living in the biome. The rainforest biome is sometimes separated into two different biomes. They are referred to as tropical and temperate. The tropical rainforests are located between the Tropic...
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...What is a place where it can be over 100° during the day, but at night can be below freezing cold? That is the Sahara desert, the biggest desert in the world! The desert is full of fun abiotic factors. Like animals and plants and weather oh my! Do you want to relax with no sound, this is the place to be. Plants Plants can be rare in some parts of the Sahara Desert, but there are a lot of plants. Like the cactus it can contain water and has shallow roots thats why it can survive in the arid deserts. Also The Aloe contains juice used as medicine. The medicine is for health problems, and the juice tastes good. The last plant is the tallest plant in the Sahara desert, the dragon tree. It has pointy leaves so animals can't eat it or hurt it. But it...
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...Desert There are two types of deserts Hot and Cold Where is the Desert located? • Covers about one fifth of the Earth’s land surface • Most Dry deserts are cold deserts • Most are near the Tropic Of Cancer or the Tropic of Capricorn • And also near the Artic Part of the Earth Climate Average Precipitation: Hot and Dry deserts have very little rainfall /short periods between long rainless periods 5cm is usually the amount of rain the desert gets Average Temperature: Hot Deserts: extreme temperature is 20 degrees to 25 degrees C Average ranges from 43.5 to 49 degrees C 5 Cold Deserts: • In the winter the cold deserts temperature is 2 degrees to 40 C and in the summer the temperature is 21 degrees to 26 degrees C • The Hot dry deserts are warm throughout the Fall and Spring seasons and very hot during the summer Animals • Borrowers • Mourning Wheatears Hot Deserts • Horned Vipers • Cactus Ferruginoug Pygmy Owl • Antelope • Ground Squirrels Cold Deserts • Jack Rabbits • Kangaroo Rats Adaptions • The Kangaroo Rat gets water from the food it eats • The Kangaroo Rat also has a cheek pouch which stores food while searching for shelter • The Cactus Ferruginoug Pygmy Owl adapts by sleeping in cactus during the winter Plants • Turpentine Bush • Prickly Pears • Brittle Bush • Shrubs • Short Woody Trees Adaptions • The ability to store water for long periods of time • And...
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