Originally posted by mikemike These are the things that would have disqualified the places where I used to shop or a farmers market from being an oasis in a "food desert" according to the government. They had very little dairy, just whole milk and sliced american cheese, they didn't stock any traditional packaged or processed foods and there were no TV dinners. I am also doubtful that they had more than $2MM in annual sales.
Well, part of the problem there is the prices I mentioned: also, I can see the reasoning: if a bodega can't actually supply the neighborhood with food, especially affordably, people have to go elsewhere somehow, or resort to what's available ...which in large measure is those gas station food marts, if anything. In some ways it's a lot better than nothing, though.
Farmers' markets are great, but would have to be open a lot more to be really useful, and at least in some cases, have more-affordable fare. (The one in this town is supposed to be quite good, but it's actually a lot further away than supermarkets, since it's on the other side of town. Sweetie went there a few times, though, (Tends to involve too much walking in too much sunlight for me, unfortunately,) and everyone loves it.
The real shame of it is that there aren't actual physical *markets* for local produce and such: in a way, those farmer's markets are a symptom of the very fact that the supply chain and other parts of the system actually exclude so many when the 'market' for a market is right there. Again, the inflated real estate prices, especially in this state, make livable town centers all but impossible: the town centers have been thinned of everything but what gentrification can make a go of it because the tax laws are such that the real estate developers can write off the inflated rents they aren't getting against the profits of developing mini-malls and tract-housing that's all set up for car-dependency: just like with residential housing, the rents aren't falling despite the economy and bursting of the bubble: this state's even incentivizing property owners to keep accessible shop frontage shuttered rather than available to such ventures.
So what we've got is quality-of-life-reducing, job-kiling, enterpreneurial-stifling *overhead* in the way. Even the didtinctly downscale local market that's just at the edge of what'd be plausible walking range for me (Lack of sidewalks aside: I'd need to bring a cooler on all-terrain wheels thanks to lack of passable sidewalks,) seems to have trouble keeping its shelves stocked.
A lot of the problem is really about the big money controlling all the things the people would *need* to have local markets that are in balance with the real economy, rather than the likes of a Wal-Mart sucking all they can out of local economies... If that. Even if it's not a place they consider profitable, they have the effect of starving out and sifling the areas they *don't* want to serve.
As for the '1 mile' figure, two miles of walking is nothing to sneeze at, time and energy and logisticswise, every time you need to carry home enough to feed your family, or yourself if you're old and/or disabled. Mind you, I'm all for walking, but for a lot of working people, that's a big deal. (It's part of why I'm keeping an old car on the road: if there were older people around in the neighborhood, I'd probably be helping *them.*)