America's food deserts

Like many reservations in the United States, the Oglala Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation's isolation sets the tone for a dire situation in food availability, in what is known as a food desert. For many years the only source of food to be found on the Pine Ridge reservation was in convenience stores accompanying gas stations peppered across the reservation. Imagine your only source of food being from a gas station, not very flattering is it? This has resulted in Pine Ridge's obesity rate being 17% higher than the national average, and having the most kidney dialysis centers per capita in the nation. Having access to fresh and healthy on the reservation has been near non-existent.

As of 2019 there's been a much needed change on the Reservation. In the town itself of Pine Ridge the reservation as a whole finally got it's first real grocery store. Stocked with fresh produce, meats and foods previously intangible. Although it isn't going to fix the food desert problem right away, it is a step in the right direction. Much of the rest of the reservation still has the problem of only having access to convenience store food, both by proximity and by monetary means. Poverty runs high on Pine Ridge, currently holding the second worst poverty rate in the country, fresh food is not cheap and unfortunately many will not have the means to afford it.

Another main contributor to Pine Ridge's food desert status is the inability to create and grow fresh food of their own. Historically the Oglala Lakota people were hunter gatherers, mainly subsisting off buffalo. When the US came and killed all the buffalo and relegated the Oglala Lakota to specifically undesirable, infertile land they were left completely uprooted. The harsh climate and infertile soil has made it near impossible to be able to grow anything on the reservation.

As of recently the Oglala Lakota college has started to explore modern techniques in agriculture in order to start growing their own food. They have started their own center for growing food for the community and bringing in families to teach them about how they can start growing their own food as well. These leaps in self reliance are the steps toward healing the food desert of Pine Ridge.

I originally first visited Pine Ridge in my junior year of high school, I learned about the problems that were plaguing the reservation and worked with the Oglala Lakota College building high tunnel grow houses to be used by families. Since then getting to the root cause of food deserts and finding ways to fix it has become a passion of study for me.