Field Guides to Food

Daniel Block: Mapping Food Access and Food Deserts (overview and table of contents)

Geography plays an important role in our food system. It tells us where food is grown, what kind of food, how food travels to distributors and how consumers get to food. Maps can also reveal information regarding the demographics of a particular area in relation to its food network. This information can be useful in understanding where gaps in food system are in order to improve access to food. Daniel Block discusses the usefulness of maps when studying food access issues and further explains the buzz word "food desert" and what that means for a community.

These two focus areas, mapping food access and food deserts, are discussed from 3:10-12:13 in this interview.

Daniel Block is a professor of Geography at Chicago State University and is also the coordinator for The Fredrick Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center, which provides technical and research assistance to neighborhood based, community, and economic development organizations. He has an extensive background in food studies and Geographic Information Systems and is a founding member of the Chicago Food Systems Collaborative. In this interview, Daniel talks about his role as a geographer, mapping food access, food deserts and the aesthetics of supermarkets.

Table of Contents (00m00s indicates where the section occurs in the full version of this video, Section numbers indicate the section from the full video, ** indicates that the clip was also included in the trailer):

2. (0:10) GEOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTURAL POLICY (8min28sec-9min31sec in full version)
 Distribution of producers (1:34)

3. (2:00) FOOD ACCESS AND COMMUNITY ** (10m34s-12m58s in full version)
 Community Planning (2:28)
 Food Activism (2:43) **

6-7. (3:01) MAPPING FOOD ACCESS ** (22m52s-32m20s in full version
 Plotting supermarkets on a map (3:38) **
 Communication through mapping (4:41)
 Correlation between income and food access (5:12)
 Maps tell a story about food access (6:42) **
 Food deserts and health (7:40) **
 Map technology (7:51) **

7. (8:35) WHAT MAPS DO NOT TELL US ** (30m0s-32m53s in full version)
 Human behavior (8:32)

8. (8:47) FOOD DESERT DEFINED (32m56s-36m22s in full version)
 Mobility and Population Density (9:16)
 Why food deserts matter (10:15)
 Feeling disrespected by food (10:36)

9-10. (12:14) AESTHETICS OF FOOD MARKETS AND SOCIOECONMICS (36m24s-59m0s in full version)
 Landscape (12:20)
 Interpersonal relations in stores (12:41)
 Socioeconomics of Food Marketing (13:51)
 Food labels (15:40)
 
10. (16:37) CHOICE AND COMPLEX FOOD PURCHASING (46m01s-48m52s in full version)
 High End and Low End Shopping (16:50)

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