These sea slugs can take off their heads and push back their bodies

As university in urban planning who teaches a course on food justice , I am aware that this disparity is largely due to the design. For more than a century, town planning has been used as a toolkit to maintain white supremacy who divided American cities along racial lines. And this has contributed to the development of what is called “ food deserts “- areas with limited access to reasonably priced, healthy and culturally relevant food – and” food swamp “- places with a preponderance of stores selling” fast “and” junk “food.

The two terms are controversial and have been contested on the grounds that they ignore both the historical roots and the deeply racialized nature of access to food, with white communities being more likely to have sufficient availability of healthy produce at reasonable prices.

Instead, a food justice specialist Ashanté M. Reese suggests the term “ food apartheid . “According to Reese, food apartheid is” intimately linked to the policies and practices, current and historical, which come from an anti-dark place . “

Regardless of what they are called, these areas of inequitable access to food and limited options exist. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 54.4 million Americans live in low income areas with limited access to healthy food. For locals, that means they are over half a mile from the nearest supermarket.

More expensive, less options

The development of these areas of limited healthy food choices has a long history linked to urban planning and housing policies. Practices such as redlining and Yellowlining – in which the private sector and the government conspired to restrict mortgage lending to black buyers and other minority buyers – and racial pacts that restricted the rental and sale of property to whites only meant that areas of poverty were racially concentrated. p>

Furthermore, owners associations who refused access to blacks in particular and federal housing subsidies who have richer white Americans made it more difficult for people living in low income areas to relocate or accumulate wealth. It also leads to urban blight.

This is important for access to food, as retailers are less willing to go to poorer areas. A process of “ supermarket redlining “has seen large grocery stores refuse to locate in low-income areas, close existing outlets, or move to wealthier suburbs. The idea behind this process is that when a city’s pockets get poorer , they are less profitable and more prone to crime.

There is also, the researchers suggest , a cultural prejudice among large retailers against the installation of points of sale in areas with minority populations. Speaking about why supermarkets were fleeing New York’s Queens neighborhood in the 1990s, then city’s Consumer Commissioner Mark Green put it that way : “First, they may fear that they don’t understand the minority market. But second, their instinctive assumption that blacks are poor and poor are a poor market.”

In the absence of large grocery stores, less healthy food options – often at a higher price – have taken over in low-income areas. Search among food suppliers in New Haven, Connecticut in 2008 found “significantly lower average product quality” in low-income neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a study of New Orleans in 2001 quickly found – food density was higher in poorer areas, and predominantly black neighborhoods had 2.5 fast food outlets for every square mile, compared to 1.5 in white areas.

“ Whole Foods and Whole Food Deserts ”

The geographer Nathan McClintock conducted a detailed study in 2009 of the causes of Les food deserts Oakland. Although limited to a single California city, I think what he found is true for most American cities.

McClintock details how the development of racially segregated areas in the interwar years and subsequent redlining policies led to concentrated areas of poverty in Oakland. Meanwhile, decisions made in the late 1950s by the then all-white Oakland City Council to build major freeways through the city effectively isolated Black West Oakland primarily from downtown Oakland.

The net effect was an outflow of capital and a white robbery to wealthy Oakland Hills. Black and Latino neighborhoods were emptied of their riches .

This, together with the advent of car-accessible surburban Oakland supermarkets in the 1980s and 1990s, led to a shortage of fresh food outlets in predominantly black districts such as West Oakland and Central East Oakland. What was left, McClintock concludes, is a “ raw mosaic of parks and pollution, privilege and poverty, Whole Foods and complete desserts . “

Urban planning as a solution

Food disparities in American cities have a cumulative effect on people’s health. Research has linked them to poor nutrition disproportionate of blacks and Latinos. Americans, even after adjustment for socio-economic status .

As much town planning has been part of the problem, but it could now be part of the solution. Some cities have started to use planning tools to increase food equity.

Minneapolis, for example, aims to “ establish an equitable distribution of food sources and food markets to provide all residents of Minneapolis with reliable access to healthy, affordable, safe and culturally appropriate food. “To achieve this, the city is reviewing urban plans, including exploring and implementing regulatory changes to allow and promote mobile food markets and mobile pantries.

My hometown of Boston is going through a similar process. In 2010, the city began the process of creating a urban agriculture overlay district < / a> in the predominantly black and Latino neighborhood of Dorchester, changing the zoning to allow commercial urban agriculture. This change provided jobs for the local population and food for local cooperatives, such as the Dorchester Food Coop , as well as restaurants in the area.

And that might be just the start. My students and I have contributed to the Food justice agenda . It includes provisions such as a formal process in which private developers should work with the community to ensure there is space for various food retailers and commercial kitchens, and licensing restrictions to discourage proliferation. fast food establishments in the poorest neighborhoods. If Wu is elected and the plan is implemented, it would provide, I believe, more equitable access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food, good jobs and economically vibrant neighborhoods.

As Wu’s Food Justice Agenda notes: “Food justice means racial justice, demanding a clear understanding of how white supremacy has shaped our food systems” and that “nutritious, affordable and culturally relevant food is a universal human right . ”

Julian Agyeman i is professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University.

Disclosure Statement: Julian Agyeman does not work for, consult with, own stock or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has not disclosed any relevant affiliation beyond their university meeting.

Republished with permission from The conversation .