Conjecture here because I don't honestly know, but I think some of what you're observing might just be that food deserts are very regional. If you look at this

Conjecture here because I don't honestly know, but I think some of what you're observing might just be that food deserts are very regional. If you look at this image [1] you can see that it's basically just the Southeast/Appalachia. Rural Midwest, West, etc don't seem to have this issue nearly as much. [1] https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4565435/food_deserts_map.jpg https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4565435/food_deserts_map.jpg