The Myth Of "Food Deserts" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Brian Balfour, was originally published in Civitas's online edition.

    For years, NC legislators have been trying to insert taxpayer funding into the budget to make "healthy foods" available in small retailers in so-called food deserts. Indeed, they were finally successful in the 2017 budget, with a $250,000 appropriation included.

    The reasoning behind it is that low-income people who have no large grocery outlets nearby lack access to healthier foods. The smaller retailers that are in their community don't sell fruits and veggies. Its this lack of access that forces the poor into bad diet habits. If the gov't could subsidize these small retailers and get them to sell healthy foods, the theory goes, then the poor will have easy access to healthy food and thus will have healthier diets.

    This theory is Dead Wrong, says Free To Choose Media Executive Editor and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg. In the 90-second video below, Norberg explains research that shows that when low-income households get the same nutritional availability as the rich, they simply just keep eating what they did before.

    Like I wrote on this topic before: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

    Time to end this waste of taxpayer money before it grows even larger.