Many seem to misunderstand how large the USA is, how dispersed the population is, and how impractical it is to implement alternate infrastructure to solve the alleged problem. Walking/biking infrastructure is only feasible with high enough population densities; below some threshold, "car culture" absolutely dominates unless you're raising your own food. Grocery stores require a minimum number of recurring customers (and low enough crime rates); given a sufficiently dispersed population, the average viable distance between stores may very well exceed the distance criteria currently defining "food desert", even though people have moved to those areas knowing full well stores were far away.
Following your link, I was surprised there's a "food desert" near my home; yes it may be a bit far from the nearest grocery, but if you live in this area you _must_ have a car and thus have no trouble reaching a ridiculous number of grocery stores.
> but if you live in this area you _must_ have a car and thus have no trouble reaching a ridiculous number of grocery stores.
And because of this mentality, everyone that cannot or will not drive will end up being ripped off with $5 US milk gallons and the like.
What will you do if you find yourself with a minor disability and unable to meet your financial obligations? Take one big hit, sell your underwater property and move to an affordable walkable area (where, exactly)? Or accept the death of the thousand cuts and keep buying at the local kwiki mart, fully aware that their mark up prices are twice or thrice what they should be?
You don't seem to understand my point. I live by the area, so have a clue about how & why it's a "food desert". There is no "local wiki mart" in that area, and the nearest one is just a block from a real grocery store; if you can get to one, you can get to the other. There's not enough population density to support a walk/bike infrastructure that's meaningfully different from existing roads, nor enough customers within the defined range of a grocery store to support one with a walking/biking population. If "you find yourself with a minor disability" you wouldn't be walking or biking there anyway, you'll either drive yourself (you wouldn't live in that area without a car) or get a ride from someone else (if you don't have a car, that doesn't stop practically everyone else around you from having one - this isn't a no-car area). It's a 5 minute drive from the farthest point on that map's "food desert" (in zip code 30040) to a Publix, Super Walmart, Super Target, Ingles, Kroger, Sprouts, and a dozen varying ethnic/local specialty groceries. Drive by the poorest communities and you'll see a car next to every home.
Please understand: in a large portion of the USA, not having a car isn't an option. That's not because of any intentional malice, it's just that grocery stores need a certain volume of customers to be viable, and the population density is low enough that walking/biking is absolutely not an option (no matter how good the infrastructure, for which there isn't the necessary tax base anyway). The infrastructures Europeans & many Orientals take for granted are only possible precisely because of the high population densities and limited quasi-urban distances. Here in the USA, outside [sub]urban areas we're really spread out, not congregating in villages that make local grocery stores & walking paths viable.
https://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/fooddeserts.aspx