No. 03: Urban Food Deserts and Climate Change in African Cities

The underlying assumption in much of the Euro-American food deserts literature is that urban food deserts are dynamic spaces, expanding and contracting with the advent and withdrawal of supermarkets. This discussion paper argues that to tie such dynamism purely to the spatial behaviour of formal food retail outlets is both narrow and inappropriate in the African context, where the use of the food deserts concept requires a sophisticated understanding of the multiple market and non-market food sources, of the spatial mobility and dynamism of the informal food economy, of the changing drivers of household food insecurity and the local conditions that lead to compromised diets, undernutrition and social exclusion. The paper discusses the case of Cape Town, South Africa, where supermarkets command a significant share of food retailing and have been expanding into all areas of the city. After tracing the spatial expansion of supermarkets in the last two decades, the paper examines the nature of the food interactions between modern retail, the informal food economy and food access in poor urban neighborhoods from the perspective of consumer households. It argues that the concept of urban food deserts needs to be reformulated and redefined to fit African realities since there is very little evidence that the growth of supermarkets across the city and in low-income areas is eliminating urban food deserts. The paper also addresses one of the major silences in the food deserts literature; that is, the relationship between climate change and urban food security

Geomorphology of Mountainous Deserts

The peculiar land forms of the desert are due largely (1) to the paucity of plant growth, in consequence of which (2) disintegrated rock, produced more by physical than by chemical processes, which (3) vary with rock nature (hence granitic rocks assume forms of special interest), does not remain near its source long enough in the earlier stages of erosion to be reduced to very fine texture before (4) it is carried by stream floods or sheet floods toward or to (5) playa basins of rising base-level; but in an advanced stage of the arid cycle (6) the playa surface may be lowered by the wind, whereupon the rock slopes previously weathered down to sheet-flood grade and buried with sheet-flood waste will be (7) trenched by stream floods with respect to the sinking baselevel, and the buried rock floors will be laid bare until again reduced to sheet-flood grade. But (8) in deserts draining to the ocean these various processes will work with respect to a relatively fixed baselevel; also (9) in deserts where the action of water floods is dominated by wind action, the carving of the surface will be in part independent of any baselevel

Is Sustainable Development of Deserts Feasible?

Hot deserts that presently cover about one-fifth of the land area of our planet are rapidly devouring more and more arable lands mostly due to anthropogenic causes. We propose an interdisciplinary approach to revitalizing and commercializing hot deserts, which is based on systems thinking and Russian and NASA space technology experience in designing life-support systems for long-duration flights. We formulate ten principles for the design of sustainable life support systems in deserts, which can make the development of the deserts feasible. It is discussed how the principles can be employed to design and operate desert’s eco-industrial parks with greenhouses in which the transpired and evaporated moisture is collected and condensed. The potential benefits of setting up the eco-industrial parks in deserts include the slowdown and eventual reversal of the desertification trend, the migration of many industrial production facilities from mild-climate regions to deserts, the increased availability of potable water and food in deserts, the development of poor African countries, and the emergence of new investment markets

Are our actions aligned with our evidence? The skinny on changing the landscape of obesity.

Recent debate about the role of food deserts in the United States (i.e., places that lack access to healthy foods) has prompted discussion on policies being enacted, including efforts that encourage the placement of full-service supermarkets into food deserts. Other initiatives to address obesogenic neighborhood features include land use zoning and parks renovations. Yet, there is little evidence to demonstrate that such policies effect change. While we suspect most researchers and policymakers would agree that effective neighborhood change could be a powerful tool in combating obesity, we desperately need strong and sound evidence to guide decisions about where and how to invest

Identifying Arkansas Food Desert Blocks Suitable for a Peer-to-Peer Modeled Food Redistribution Program

Abstract Nearly 10% of Americans reside in low-income urban food deserts which are low-income areas that lack access to affordable and nutritious foods. Food deserts in Arkansas contribute to a food insecurity rate above the national average, making it one of the most food insecure states in the country. Increased internet usage and consumer interest in sharing based companies contribute to the idea of a sharing, or peer-to-peer (P2P) style food redistribution program. The objective of this study is to identify which of the 186,211census blocks in the state of Arkansas are food deserts and best suited for and in the most need, based on an identified set of criteria, of a P2P food redistribution program. A multi-criteria decision analysis was conducted using population, internet access, vulnerable communities, and vehicle availability as criteria. Results suggest that based upon the close proximity of priority areas, transportation access, ethnic/racial diversity, and the number of possible collection locations, Pulaski County be targeted for a P2P food redistribution pilot program

Food Access in Petersburg, Virginia: Final Report and Recommendations

The City of Petersburg has long suffered with issues of limited access to food and food insecurity. Food deserts, or areas underserved by retail food options, are prevalent throughout the City. As a result, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has ranked the city last of Virginia\u27s 133 counties in their annual health rankings. For the Fall 2019 semester, students from Virginia Commonwealth University\u27s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, through Dr. John Accordino\u27s Urban Commercial Revitalization course, focused on planning solutions to address food deserts in commercial areas, with the City of Petersburg being one of their clients. The class assessed the potential for commercial revitalization and made five recommendations

The Effect of Food Deserts on the Body Mass Index of Elementary School Children

Families in low-income neighborhoods sometimes lack access to supermarkets that provide a broad range of healthy foods. We investigate whether these so called "food deserts" play a role in childhood obesity using a statewide panel data set of Arkansas elementary schoolchildren. We use fixed-effects panel data regression models to estimate the average food desert effect. We next compare children who left (entered) food deserts to children who were always (never) in food deserts and homogenize samples for those whose food desert status changed as a result of a change in residence and those whose status changed only as a consequence of the entry or exit of a supermarket. We present evidence that exposure to food deserts is associated with higher z-scores for body mass index. On average, this is in the neighborhood of 0.04 standard deviations. The strongest evidence and largest association is among urban students and especially those that transition into food deserts from non-deserts. Our food desert estimates are similar in magnitude to findings reported in earlier work on diet and lifestyle interventions targeting similarly aged schoolchildren. That said, we are unable to conclude that the estimated food desert effect is causal because many of the transitions into or out of food deserts result from a change in residence, an event that is endogenous to the child's household. However, there is evidence that food deserts are a risk indicator and that food desert areas may be obesogenic in ways that other low-income neighborhoods are not

A commentary on social & experiential (e-)retailing and (e-)shopping deserts

Purpose – The last ten years have seen a gradual withdrawal of retail facilities from many local areas and the consequent growth of ‘shopping deserts’, resulting in social and health disbenefits. This paper examines the potential for e-shopping to fill the vacuum and to assist disadvantaged shoppers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses prior published research to comment on the extent to which e-retailing may be the shopping solution of the future? Findings – The Internet has limited potential to compensate for shopping deserts, as consumers who do not have a good range of physical shops within walking distance also tend to lack access to the Internet. Research limitations/implications – The paper is based solely on prior research. The authors recommend action research that may hopefully help excluded shoppers to become more included by addressing the problems of access to e-shopping. Practical implications – Government, service providers and e-retailers are may consider interventions such as subsidised Internet access, training and the provision of e-cash. Originality/value – The paper links research from diverse fields relating to shopping deserts, the digital divide, health, wellbeing, social and experiential aspects of (e-)shopping

Comparative metagenomic analysis reveals mechanisms for stress response in hypoliths from extreme hyperarid deserts

Understanding microbial adaptation to environmental stressors is crucial for interpreting broader ecological patterns. In the most extreme hot and cold deserts, cryptic niche communities are thought to play key roles in ecosystem processes and represent excellent model systems for investigating microbial responses to environmental stressors. However, relatively little is known about the genetic diversity underlying such functional processes in climatically extreme desert systems. This study presents the first comparative metagenome analysis of cyanobacteria-dominated hypolithic communities in hot (Namib Desert, Namibia) and cold (Miers Valley, Antarctica) hyperarid deserts. The most abundant phyla in both hypolith metagenomes were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes with Cyanobacteria dominating in Antarctic hypoliths. However, no significant differences between the twometagenomeswere identified. The Antarctic hypolithicmetagenome displayed a high number of sequences assigned to sigma factors, replication,recombination andrepair, translation, ribosomal structure,andbiogenesis. In contrast, theNamibDesert metagenome showed a high abundance of sequences assigned to carbohydrate transport and metabolism. Metagenome data analysis also revealed significantdivergence inthe geneticdeterminantsof aminoacidandnucleotidemetabolismbetween these two metagenomes and those of soil from other polar deserts, hot deserts, and non-desert soils. Our results suggest extensive niche differentiation in hypolithic microbial communities from these two extreme environments and a high genetic capacity for survival under environmental extremes.Fil: Le, Phuong Thi. University of Pretoria; Sudáfrica. Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie; Bélgica. University of Ghent; BélgicaFil: Makhalanyane, Thulani P.. University of Pretoria; SudáfricaFil: Guerrero, Leandro Demián. University of Pretoria; Sudáfrica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Vikram, Surendra. University of Pretoria; SudáfricaFil: Van De Peer, Yves. University of Pretoria; Sudáfrica. Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie; Bélgica. University of Ghent; BélgicaFil: Cowan, Don A.. University of Pretoria; Sudáfric

Hydrogeology of Closed Basins and Deserts of South America, ERTS-1 Interpretations

Hydrogeology of closed basins and deserts of South America (Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru), ERTS-1 interpretation