Marginalizing Access to the Sustainable Food System: Examining Oakland’s Minority Districts

Camille Tuason MataQuadrant Fellowship PresentationOctober 13, 2010University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Existing Literature• Unequal access to food (marginalization)• Low intake of fresh foods: poor health conditions • Spatial access• Grocery store density• Weak transportation infrastructure• Low intake of fresh foods::high production levels

Research Question• How marginalized are minority residents in the West Oakland,

Fruitvale, and Chinatown districts from the sustainable food system?

Research Framework• What constitutes marginalization? How to measure

marginalization?• Spatial access

• Transportation network• Food venues• Grocery store density• Farmer’s markets• Urban and school yard gardens

• CSA drop-offs

• History • Minorities in American (organic) farming• CSAs drop-offs

• Participation• (organic) farming • Knowledge community

Study Site 1• 94607 (West Oakland): 50.8% African American (2000 U.S.

Census)

Study Site 2• 94607 (Chinatown): 26.7% Asian American (2000 U.S. Census)

Study Site 3• 94601 (Fruitvale): 49.6% Hispanic American (2000 U.S. Census)

Methodologies• Census data• Existing publications• Field observation• Farmer’s markets• Urban gardens• Grocery stores

• Surveys• Grocery store merchants

• Door to Door Surveys• Lower bottom residents

• Interviews• CSA farmers (phone)• WOFC (phone)

• OBUGs• Mo’ Better Foods• City Slickers Gardens• People’s Market

Research Findings• Unequal access to food differed across the three minority

districts:• West Oakland less food secure• Fruitvale and Chinatown sold foods from Asia and South America

• All grocery stores offered low volumes of organic foods.• Minority farmer participation is low.• Might affect their servicing minority neighborhoods

• CSA farms continue to service predominantly white neighborhoods.• Distribution scale to minority district neighborhoods constrained

by costs of delivery

Exceptions to marginalization• Social and environmental activists very involved in improving

access to organic foods:• School yard gardens• Urban food gardens• Organic farmer’s markets

• Extensive transportation network

Research gaps• Little data on minority participation in organic farming• Little effort to comprehensively map out the sustainable food

system• Exploring different ways to participate in CSA programs• How to retain interest in farmer’s markets