Langston Brown, Tony Maquiling & Jennifer Bruns
THESIS
The Greater Los Angeles urban area is rife with food deserts and areas without access to healthy and affordable food. Therefore, we recommend that the Los Angeles County government subsidize the creation of new grocery store-community garden complexes to improve community access to food and total welfare. In addition, using community gardens to supply these grocery stores will reduce costs that dissuade stores from establishing themselves in the community.
BACKGROUND
Food deserts can be defined as an area where it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. The common perception is that food deserts are areas where food availability is naturally scarce; however, it is rather systems and laws that have manufactured a lack of access to fresh food. There are two important dimensions of food deserts: geographic and structural. The USDA definition encompasses both, defining a food desert as either an area where one-third of the population lives more than one mile away from grocery stores or has a poverty rate greater than 20%.¹ This definition considers not only the distance and access to stores but also the quality of food provided by the stores. Despite having some of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, Los Angeles is host to multiple food deserts just miles away. Article 25 of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” recognizes the human right to a standard of living adequate for people’s health and well-being of themselves, including the right to food.² Despite the accessibility of food, the available food options in food deserts do not support personal health and well-being, impacting the standard of living of people in these areas. In order to support local food production and economies, a grocery store in Montreal has started growing fresh produce on the roof of its store.³ This solution ensures that fresh produce is available in the area and reduces the cost of fresh produce by eliminating transportation costs passed down to the consumer. Additionally, the maintenance of these gardens requires staff, and thus rooftop gardens could create economic opportunities for local community members, which would further improve their standard of living. If the government subsidized the construction of rooftop gardens on grocery stores in regions of Los Angeles that classify as food deserts, it would incentivize the stores to remain in regions for a greater opportunity for profits and address the welfare issue that food deserts pose to low-income families.
POLICY IDEA
Los Angeles should target subsidies for constructing new grocery complexes in regions defined as food deserts in the county. This subsidy should equal the positive externality of greater grocery store and community garden access in food desert areas to achieve an optimal point of production. Any subsidy should stipulate certain conditions for the community garden. Some proportion should be reserved for public use or public distribution. To reduce store operating costs, a smaller proportion should be reserved for private sale by the grocery store.
This subsidy provides multiple benefits for human welfare and rights. Economically, a subsidy for better grocery complexes increases the total production of grocery stores to capture the positive externalities present. At the direct level, greater healthy food access improves worker productivity and reduces the need for environmentally unfriendly food access, such as driving to distant stores or buying prepackaged foods. This policy hopes to remain attractive to private industries by allowing firms to sell a portion of food grown from community gardens in the store, reducing transportation and acquisition costs.
POLICY ANALYSIS
Subsidizing the construction of grocery stores while establishing a community garden to provide produce ensures that the stores are incentivized to stay because of the lower prices of food that the community garden sells them, and avoiding the cost of transportation of food that they would normally incur. According to the Brookings institution, traditional food access mapping ignores smaller, community-driven provisions of healthy food⁴, which is an effective tool to procure food in communities typically deprived of fresh produce. With the establishment of a grocery store supplied by a community garden:
Food knowledge and nutrition of the community are enhanced.
There is an economic benefit to the gardeners producing the food.
Retaining the infrastructure of grocery stores that can distribute food to the community on a large scale.
It still comes at an affordable price to consumers
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Los Angeles County should provide subsidies directly to firms opening new supermarket facilities in food deserts in the region. Funds will be in the form of grants reserved for the costs of constructing community gardens and the costs of opening a new facility in a food-desert region. In particular, we recommend advocacy through LA City Council Districts 8, 9, and 14 (Members Harris-Dawson, Price Jr., and Leon), who oversee regions with vast food deserts. Furthermore, this plan should fit within the County's existing budget framework of promoting health and economic recovery, using funds from the American Rescue Act.
POWER PLAN
Bringing together grassroots organizations representing areas where food deserts are prominent, such as communities in South L.A., will ensure that those communities get the adequate representation they need to make their case. Moreover, the use of existing community garden groups as a structure and example of how to establish and tend to the gardens will prove beneficial to building the grocery store.
References
1. “Mapping Food Deserts in the United States.” USDA ERS - Data Feature: Mapping Food Deserts in the U.S. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011/december/data-feature-mapping-food-deserts-in-the-us.
2. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
3. Roberts, Timothy. “A Montréal Grocery Store Is Selling Fresh Produce Grown on Its Roof.” 12 Tomatoes, June 26, 2020. https://12tomatoes.com/grocery-store-growing-produce-on-roof/.
4. George, Caroline, and Adie Tomer. “Beyond 'Food Deserts': America Needs a New Approach to Mapping Food Insecurity.” Brookings, March 9, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/research/beyond-food-deserts-america-needs-a-new-approach-to-mapping-food-insecurity/.
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