Areas with higher levels of poverty are more likely to be food deserts, but for other factors, such as vehicle availability and use of public transportation, the association with food desert status varies across very dense urban areas, less dense urban areas, and rural areas.

Areas with higher poverty rates are more likely to be food deserts regard- less of rural or urban designation. This result is especially true in very dense urban areas where other population characteristics such as racial composition and unemployment rates are not predictors of food desert status because they tend to be similar across tracts.

In all but very dense urban areas, the higher the percentage of minority population, the more likely the area is to be a food desert.

Residents in the Northeast are less likely to live far from a store than their counterparts in other regions of the country with similar income levels.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45014/30940_err140.pdf

Jamie Oliver is a lib