ABSTRACT
One element in the food insecurity discourse is the so-called food desert, alleged by Michelle Obama and many, many others to be the source of poor diets, malnutrition, and food insecurity in many low-income and African American communities. There seems to be agreement that the term "food desert" was first used in Scotland in the early 1990s to refer to areas that lacked access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food. Researchers and commentators have proposed different theories to explain how food deserts emerged in the United States. Food insecurity is highest in low income families and among racial and ethnic minorities, the same populations that are sharply over-represented among the residents of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-defined food deserts. Factors in food choices other than health and price typically result either from previous personal experiences or from differences in culture, custom, habit, and food traditions.
