Towards the development of a GIS method for identifying rural food deserts: Geographic access in Vermont, USA

Abstract The food desert metaphor has been widely used by academics and politicians alike. While there is general agreement on what a food desert is in a relatively vague sense, strategies to identify food deserts, especially in a rural setting, using a systematic method remain undefined. The purpose of this paper is to contribute towards the development of a method for rural food desert identification strategies using the location of food retailers and residential units. We apply a methodologically innovative GIS approach to the primarily rural state of Vermont, USA. Areas of inadequate geographic food access are identified and some are found to overlap with high poverty locations. Aims for future work are identified including fieldwork to validate these findings.