Date of Award

Spring 5-8-2024

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Environmental Studies

Advisor(s)

John Van Buren

Abstract

This paper aims to expose the food deserts of New York City and present ways that the government and non-governmental organizations can combat food insecurity in the urban environment. Food deserts are the product of insufficient access, availability, utilization, and stability of food in a particular area due to environmental racism. Food insecurity in New York City will rise with the increased impacts of climate change on our agricultural system. To that end, disadvantaged neighborhoods will bear the burden of environmental costs. The first chapter of this paper considers the failing agricultural system to prove that massive reform to protect the world's food security is necessary. It considers how climate change threatens food security by putting farms at risk through rising temperatures, desertification, and land loss. This chapter will propose policy solutions on the agricultural level, including the diversification of commodity crop subsidies. Chapter 2 will define the food desert as an environmental justice issue. It will examine the disparities in food distribution, comparing different neighborhoods in New York City while highlighting race as a significant factor. Chapter 3 discusses the irony of Hunts Point in the Bronx, a food distribution center that sources the largest amount of food to a surrounding area globally. Despite this, the Hunts Point community remains in a food desert. Chapter 4 looks into the adverse health effects of food deserts and identifies the food desert as an obesogenic environment. The fourth chapter will then focus on how an obesogenic environment impacts an individual's daily well-being. To erase food deserts, Chapter 5 argues that there needs to be a reconstruction of our supermarket networks, food system reconstruction, support of community gardens and mobile food stands, and helpful zoning policies. With the increased threat of climate change disproportionately affecting communities of color, food deserts must be taken seriously as a public health crisis.

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