Can Technology Extend Grocers’ Reach into Food Deserts?
America’s food deserts have proven resistant to innovation in the past, with efforts like mobile grocery trucks and community gardens making at best a small dent in the problem. Now, the private and public sectors are betting on technology to provide solutions for the 37 million Americans living in neighborhoods without ready access to fresh foods.
Beth Racine, professor in the UNC Charlotte Department of Public Health Sciences and food desert researcher, offers commentary on proposed new solutions to this longstanding issue.