Wish you were here? The prevalence of farmers markets in food deserts: an examination of the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACTFood deserts have received considerable attention in recent years. Research has shown that individuals living in these areas have less nutritional diets and experience worse health outcomes compared with those not living in food deserts. Though the ramifications of living in food deserts are well known, less is known about efforts to alleviate these effects. One proposal for increasing food access while improving nutrition is the farmers market. While the farmers market has been championed as a potential solution and celebrated when it succeeds, little work has explored how often farmers markets are in food deserts nationally. This article explores this by using data from the United States Department of Agriculture and the American Community Survey. Results suggest that though much praise is given toward the promise of farmers markets in food deserts they are infrequently found there. This research contributes to illuminating the present state of US food deserts and proposes several questions about the efficacy of farmers markets as a tool to alleviate the impacts within food deserts.