Food Deserts 2

The question of how to feed cities may be one of the biggest contemporary questions, yet it's never asked: we take for granted that if we walk into a store or a restaurant, food will be there, magically coming from somewhere. Yet, think of it this way: just in London, every single day, 30 million meals must be provided. Without a reliable food supply, even the most modern city would collapse quickly. And most people today eat food of whose provenance they are unaware.

Architect and author Carolyn Steel uses food as a medium to "read" cities and understand how they work. In her book Hungry City she traces -- and puts into historical context -- food's journey from land to urban table and thence to sewer. Cities, like people, are what they eat.

Food Deserts 1

It may not be obvious but it is quite possible for people living in the heart of a modern, first world city, to be at risk nutritionally. The chief executive of the supermarkets' own research organisation acknowledges that old and poor people will have serious problems over where to buy food because of the growth of superstores and the lack of town centre stores.

 For those who do not have their own transport and cannot afford extra delivery charges, their food choice becomes limited to a small area around where they live. This will often be restricted to fast food outlets and small, expensive corner shops. The poor diet leads to obesity and other health problems, which complicates employment and mobility issues, compounding the damage. This lack of access to healthy fresh food is the definition of a food desert.

Research leads us to believe that even for the better-off and mobile, the advantages of supermarkets are beginning to be outweighed by the drawbacks The decline of the town centre is well documented and attributable, at least in part, to the development of out-of-town shopping centres. The big retailers' claims to efficiency in transport are bogus. Much freight transport is unnecessary - produce could be sold locally. More than a third of the increase in freight transport since the late Seventies has been for food, drink and tobacco - which together account for less than one-tenth of the economy. Next time you use a motorway, count the supermarket trucks. No wonder the big retailers are such lavish supporters of the British Road Federation.