Summary and respond to "Conquering Food Deserts With Green Carts"

Summary

In the article "Conquering Food Deserts With Green Carts", the writer provides evidences that the government tries to overcome the problems of "food deserts" , which areas in the U.S. that do not have enough access to healthy food. The writer points out that the government wants to solve the problem by bringing in new vendors to provide more locations for the people in the grocery-deprived zone to buy fresh food. The New York City's Green Cart initiative is one of the program. Despite there are several problems need to be solved,such as the vendors repeatedly being ticketed for minor issues, the vendors are restricted to sell their products in specific places, many vendors are succeeding and providing more choices for the people. The government also tries to tackle the problems by issuing electronic food stamps and coupons which boost the purchasing power in the low-income area to buy fresh produce. The government also subsidizes people who want to start grocery stores in the "food deserts". It enables people to buy fresh food in their local areas.

Response

Even though the writer provides many evidences that government tries to provide low-income areas access to fresh food and produce. He seems to neglect the cost of the government to initiate all these programs. We all know that the U.S. government has already in deep debt. To keep these programs running will create a huge burden to the government. Instead of providing a large amount of  fund to people who want to start up a grocery store in the aforementioned areas, I believe that bring more new vendors is a more applicable way to solve the problem. The cost of running the carts is not as high as running a grocery store. The government can think of grouping  create a bigger market, which sell various stuffs , such as seafood, fresh fruit, poultry, and other daily necessities.