Supermarket Deserts in London, Ontario

The article, available to all in the open access International Journal of Health Geographics in provisional form in PDF, mapped food deserts, areas without access to supermarkets, in London, Ontario. Kristian Larsen and Jason Gilliland of The University of Western Ontario Geography Department mapped and compared supermarket locations in the city in 1961 and 2005 and assess the changing levels of residents’ access.

In short, with supermarket chains pushing into the more lucrative suburbs, older city regions have fewer food options. That impacts the quality of life for the poor and elderly. Not only do these residents have a harder time access food, when they do find it, it’s about double the price of suburban supermarkets.

Desertification has happened over time: In 1961 over 75% of the population of the urban core had easy access to a supermarket, fewer than 20% of core residents have access today.

The maps are at the very end of the PDF, with the captions a few pages before….