"Food deserts" are a hot topic among nutritionists They're areas where fresh, healthy foods can be hard to come by -- and they're are all over Florida. Efforts are under way in the Florida Legislature to encourage supermarkets to open up in these "food deserts."It takes fifteen minutes on a bus for Roberta Bell to get from her home in St. Petersburg to the closest grocery store. It takes even longer to get to the downtown Publix, where she says she can buy the best produce.
"Because it's fresher and it's cheaper, the Walmart fruit is just kind of blah, and they want to charge more than Publix, and Publix has the best, I'm sorry!", Bell said.
Bell lives in an area defined by the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service as a "food desert."
Michelle Ver Ploeg, an economist with the USDA's Economic Research Service, which maps "food deserts" across the country, explained, "There's no single definition for a food desert, but generally, by the term, they mean that it's usually a low-income area, and an area where there are a lot of people that may have problems accessing healthy food."
In general, the maps show areas that have a poverty rate of 20% or or more with about a third of the population living more than one mile from a supermarket.
That's in an urban area. In rural areas, more than 10 miles from a supermarket.
State Senator Dwight Bullard is sponsoring a bill this session he says will help solve the "access" problem in these places.
"There are large segments of the population that unfortunately do not have access to quality foods, and you see this most often of course in socio-economically depressed areas", said Bullard.
The measure would provide income tax credits to businesses that sell "nutrient-dense" food. For a definition of "nutrient-dense" food, we went to David Himmelgreen. He's a nutritional anthropologist at the University of South Florida.
"They're relatively high in vitamins and minerals, you know, the healthy nutrients relative to the total calories", Himmelgreen said.
Think fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Himmelgreen says tax incentives for stores to sell more of these healthier products in "food deserts" is a good first step.
"I mean, behaviors are difficult to change in terms of food habits, but a lot of times it does come down to whether or not it's available and whether they can afford it", Himmelgreen said.
Stores couldn't just start selling, say, bananas, to earn the tax credit. For instance, there's a requirement that "nutrient-dense" foods account for 20% of sales.
"When you're trying to incentivize grocers to produce in a community, what you want to do is to stimulate the idea among grocers that there is a viable community that is willing to spend money on nutrient-rich foods", said Bullard.
An area in south Saint Petersburg known as "Midtown" lost its supermarket about a year ago. That Sweetbay is where Roberta Bell used to shop for her family of four.
"I was like, oh no, now I'm going to have to go all the way to Walmart on First Avenue North, and then I have to walk two blocks across the street to get to it, and as you can see I have a walker", Bell pointed out.
Bell says the other smaller shops closer to her home are too expensive.
"Like the little neighborhood stores and stuff, they're just ridiculous", complained Bell. "I mean they want $3 for a loaf of bread, it's ridiculous."
In January, a Walmart Neighborhood Market opened in the former Sweetbay location. Bell is doing more of her shopping there - where she says a loaf of bread costs about a dollar.