Seattle's Food Gap

An article in the PI earlier this week related the results of a community survey undertaken by a group of teenagers during the past few months comparing supermarket prices in different parts of town. Although the results were far from consistent, the overall conclusion was that prices were higher in more affluent neighborhoods.

The teenagers observed that there was some correlation between price and quality: PCC had the highest prices overall, but they had no mainstream junk food, which tends to be particularly inexpensive. They also found themselves asking important, thought provoking questions like how could bananas be so cheap when they're flown in from so far away.

I found the article particularly interesting because I've been slowly making my way through Mark Winne's "Closing the Food Gap", a book that came out earlier this year addressing the issue of inequities in the way food is sold and distributed in this country. (It's a very good book. I'm only reading so slowly because I have so much else going on.) The introduction describes Winne's experience moving to Hartford, Connecticut during the 1970's and discovering that the grocery stores in the heart of the city were dirty, decrepit, and expensive, while the stores in the suburbs were cleaner, better lit, and offered better prices.

With Winne's book as background, I was actually encouraged to read the results of the study related by the PI. It's better to have a direct correlation between price and quality than to have stale, dirty food costing more than fresh, appealing food. And it's better to have rich people paying more for food than poor people pay. (If they don't like it, they have the resources to drive to less affluent neighborhoods and pay less.)

There's still so much that's wrong with the food system in this country, but I do think we've taken some step forward when we're questioning why food is so cheap instead of asking why it's so expensive.