Food Deserts

The government thinks if major supermarkets open stores in blighted areas and stock affordable healthy food options (that American's will eat more healthily). But not everyone shares...(this) optimism; in fact, some critics say opening new stores and markets in so-called food deserts will have little or no impact on how people eat.

... Many Americans have little experience eating or preparing broccoli, asparagus, and other produce; in fact, only 26 percent of the nation’s adults now eat three servings of vegetables a day. The poor, in particular, have become so accustomed to salty packaged foods and sugary beverages that they find fresh food bland, strange, and off-putting. “It’s simplistic thinking that if you put fruits and vegetables there, they’ll buy it,” said Barry Popkin, author of the UNC study. “You have to encourage it, you need advertising, you need support.” Changing Americans’ diets, in other words, won’t be as simple as telling them to eat their peas.

From America's 'Food Deserts' in The Week Friday August 12, 2011

“You have to encourage it...", marketing becomes education.