When asked about our time in Grand Marais on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we tell the joke that the only store in town had a great selection of vegetables. We could choose between broccoli and broccoli and then there was … broccoli. Since we do a lot of cooking and stocking up in a small RV is not easy, it often happens to us on our travels that we can’t get our hands on the food we would like. So far, we have taken this as a challenge and overcome it. Our freezer is usually well stocked and we don’t have to go hungry.

Experiences like these make us realize every now and then that in a country like America, there are so-called food deserts. Areas where it is difficult to get fresh produce. The American Nutrition Association, the umbrella organization for several organizations concerned with healthy eating, define a “food desert” as an area where there is a lack of access to adequate supplies of fresh fruits, vegetables and other wholesome foods. There can be a variety of reasons, for example, that poverty in a region limits people’s mobility to the point where they cannot secure supplies. 23.5 million people in America are living in such an area, which represents 2% of all American households.

In Grand Marais, we actually weren’t very surprised. After all, we chose the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as our destination because it is so remote and because few people are living there. But even when we were in Ohio, we wondered why there were so few weekly markets or vegetable stands in a state with so much agriculture. One reason is probably that the agriculture in Ohion is determined by the mono-cultivation of corn and soy and one sees only few vegetable cultivation. Another possibly is the lack of demand for healthy foods. Especially in rural areas, the American diet is still based on the so-called SAD (Standard American Diet). In any case, Celina and Sidney in Ohio are also located in such deserts. Places that have several supermarkets in terms of size, but apparently do not have the infrastructure to ensure the supply of fresh food for all inhabitants.

23. July 2020