ever hear of the concept of the food desert? picture lawrence of
arabia tromping through potato chips?

well, the idea is that even in wealthy countries there are patches of
desert in the midst of plenty, places, usually in the inner cities,
where there are far fewer supermarkets and they offer a smaller
variety of fresh, good food, at greatly inflated prices.

enter the redoubtable theodore dalrymple, no stranger to this list:
he writes an article criticizing the entire idea, and suggests that
the deserts are a creation of paucity of demand, rather than supply.
compelling stuff for anyone who thinks about the growing disparities
between rich and poor. i'd be interested to hear some criticisms of
his criticism....

<http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_4_oh_to_be.html>


barry