Food and Revitalization: Examining the Underlying Structural Problems of Food Deserts
BY ALEX BLUESTONE
For most, the term conjures up notions of an urban, post-industrialized city in which a poor—and often marginalized—neighborhood whose residents are limited in their ability to procure healthy food. The result is that, as some research has shown, in neighborhoods and areas with the worst access to food, residents die from cardiovascular-related illnesses at nearly double the rate of those in areas with proper access to markets and healthy food options.
But a food desert can be further understood as not only a social detriment to health and general well being, but also as roadblock to social mobility.
Food-insecure areas typically are unable to attract the economic investments necessary to promote a sustainable and prosperous model on which neighborhood rehabilitation relies. Perhaps this is the reason that some lament the name “food desert.”
In some activists’ view, this moniker masks the underlying social problems inherent with poor access to food. For instance, it affects crucial components to a neighborhood’s stability, especially in areas that are already highly marginalized—this includes stable housing, successful students and local schools, and even the potential for job creation.
In St. Louis, the most obvious examples of such economically-challenged and food barren neighborhoods can be found in the city’s north side (see map below).
For instance, one creative solution to the problem could be to use the large swaths of vacant land that blanket the north side. One idea that came out of a recent design competition to repurpose the former site of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex was to turn the 33-acre site into a large-scale urban farm.
According to the project proposal entitled “Farmscaping Pruitt-Igoe,” which was a finalist in the competition, “Modern architecture [is] seen as the urban design catalyst for the recovery of spatial and social problems…urban farming is an important part of the solution for current problems in Northside St. Louis…[and] urban farming can solve some of the current problems…[by] generating jobs and redeveloping plots.”
By repurposing existing sites, St. Louis could greatly improve its ability to feed its most marginalized residents. Similar efforts have already been successfully undertaken in Chicago, where an estimated 400,000 of the city’s 3 million residents live in food deserts.
If St. Louis is serious about addressing the city’s social mobility issues and spurring its transition to a 21st century city, its future must be grounded in the source and security of its food. Ramping up food production within the city may well prove to be a viable strategy in this effort given its economic and social benefits.