Food Deserts

I live a food desert, something that’s getting a lot of attention in the news lately. (I prefer food desserts, which is eating cookies for dinner, but that’s a different blog post altogether.)

There isn’t, in my opinion, a good definition for “food desert,” but it’s basically a place where healthy, affordable food is hard to get. That’s totally relative, and one key that everyone seems to be missing is access. Example: There aren’t grocery stores in suburban neighborhoods. But those who live in the suburbs choose to live there and have cars. No one thinks twice about access to food.

(I was talking to a friend about this topic, and she was like, “Yeah, I totally live in a food desert, too. I have to drive, like, 5 minutes to get to a grocery store, and I’m like, OMG, I only need some organic soy milk. Like WTF, put a store closer!” Um… I think you’re totally missing the whole point???)

So as I was saying, in the so-called food deserts, access to the healthy, affordable food is the problem. Example: The nearest grocery store is maybe a mile or two away, but the residents don’t have cars to get there. It’s impractical to take toddlers in strollers on that long walk, for example, and I can tell you from experience that bags of apples, potatoes, and canned vegetables are really heavy. So this is where the problem starts – that it’s more convenient to go to the corner gas station or liquor store and buy unhealthy and more expensive food. (And then it’s more difficult to save up to buy a car, to move to a better location, or to otherwise change the various situations - a huge downward spiral.)

While we’re talking about convenience, I would just like to conveniently point out this convenience store that’s on my convenient bus route to Kroger. (Sign enlarged for your convenient inspection.)

Convinent. What?

But back to the point.

Who decided that having a car is an American right? What’s wrong with not having a car? There’s this certain attitude of pity and condescension about frequent bus usage going around. Like my last post suggested, some people believe that privileged white girls should not be riding the bus with all the riffraff (other than to commute to and from work downtown, when only the white and privileged are passengers). I’m kind of sick of this mindset.

And now back to the main point. I choose to live this way, and it's really fulfilling. I feel guilty, a lot of times, that my lifestyle is a type of game, a test, a challenge for myself – just one more way to learn something new and see the world from a different perspective. And as I’m looking around at the families around me, I see that not everyone else living this way has a choice about it. It’s not a game, and they can’t just get out of it at any time. I wonder if I would be happy if it weren’t my own decision.

On the Streets

Walking on the streets of China is dangerous. No, not what you're thinking. While there may be thieves and the like, I have yet to encounter any. What I mean is, walking on the streets is dangerous.

No one looks where they are going. At first, I thought it was inconsiderate to walk straight at someone and then dodge them at the last split second. After constantly zigzagging through crowds, I realized that I was walking about three times are far as the people I was with. Now I just walk straight ahead like everyone else.

I get run into and I run into other people, but it's just the way it is in China. I'm getting used to it.

And if walking on the sidewalk is dangerous, imagine trying to cross the street. I never cross alone, and my friends and I always hold hands or link arms when we cross. I'm serious.

Traffic in China is ridiculous. Even at a cross walk where the pedestrian light is green, there is a constant flow of traffic. Consequently, I'm not sure what the green light indicates. I have been narrowly missed by bicycles, buses, taxis, and cars while attempting to cross the road even in a large crowd. And it's not because I'm not paying attention or because I failed to see the vehicle. They come from nowhere and swerve.

On the subject of transportation, most people walk everywhere. Buses and taxis are used for longer distances instead of cars. In taxis and cars, though, no one wears seatbelts. Several taxi drivers have gotten offended when I put one on. Often, the seatbelts have been removed. Even now that I'm pretty used to it here, I usually reach for a seat belt out of habit. I always wear a seatbelt in America where drivers follow some sort of traffic regulations, but in China where anything goes, I can't wear one because I'll offend the Chinese.