The highly rated podcast 99% Invisible devoted an episode to exploring the root causes of America’s food deserts, drawing heavily from Stacy Mitchell’s analysis of waning antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and the rise of consolidation in the grocery sector.
“Food deserts didn’t used to exist,” Mitchell explains in the episode, adding, “poverty has been with us forever, but food deserts only arose in the late 1980s. And so this explanation that […] the community itself is deficient in some way and therefore can’t support a supermarket — that’s not actually why we have food deserts.”
The true reason, Mitchell explains, is Robert Bork’s influential interpretation of antitrust law that led the government to stop enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act. To hear Mitchell’s insights, alongside Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, listen to the episode here.
Stacy Mitchell“Everybody eats. Poor neighborhoods spend a lot of money on grocery stores. It’s not that there’s not enough spending in these neighborhoods. Something else happened.”
How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert.
The government's decision to stop enforcing the law in the 1980s fueled the collapse of Main Street. Now a revival is imminent.
The FTC's lawsuit against Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, utilizing the Robinson-Patman Act, could be an opportunity to restore fairness to the American economy
"Consumers will feel the benefits through greater choice, lower prices, and vibrant neighborhood business districts," says Stacy Mitchell