Local resilience and the food desert issue in the United States from 2010 to 2023

Food deserts are a problematic feature of the United States that has been on the radar since the 1990s and is still the center of many debates in academia and politics alike. This thesis analyzes an understudied area of this debate, that is the discourse behind the local communities who inhabit those areas. Unfortunately, although the inhabitants are often mentioned by media and academia/newspaper articles, they are seldom at the core of research. This thesis explores and analyzes a variety of accounts of local people, such as non-profit organizations and smaller businesses’ websites, pieces of interviews, and documentaries. These are analyzed by carrying out a qualitative and CDA analysis with the intent to identify a pattern of behavior and the impact that the local communities have on the food desert areas. The research shows that the local discourse is complex and fragmented and ranges from a more mainstream health and diet approach to a more historically charged perspective of food apartheid and food sovereignty. These findings fill the scholarly gap and give an insight into the food desert communities, unraveling their internal divisions, their resilience, and their solutions to the problem. This study concludes that each member of the food desert has its own interpretation of the issue that leads to a variety of solutions and creates a somewhat disjointed front. By studying the communities more in-depth, the food desert debate can be enriched and updated and more effective solutions – fitting of local populations’ needs – can be conceived.