Another government "solution" in search of a problem.

"Healthy Food Access for All Americans (HFAAA) Act".

What jumps out at me is the use of the word "Healthy" in its name.

Does that mean these grocery stores will only be allowed to sell low-fat yogurt, and won't be allowed to sell ice cream?

Will they be allowed to stock rice cakes, but not cookies?

Will they be forced to sell all manner of diet sodas, but no soft drinks with sugar?

Will they be allowed to sell fresh vegetables, but be forbidden from selling potato chips?

There's this thing called the Law of Unintended Consequences, and I see potential for it to be on full display.

I know the nine scariest words an American can hear have been used here before, but this reminds me of them:

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Food deserts are typically inner city ares where you can only buy HoHo's, soda and potato chips. That is because the customers in these areas....the welfare queens, wont buy anything else. The notion that Food Deserts are rural farming communities is total bullshit. There is a simple solution to this problem and all the associated health problems like heart disease, childhood obesity etc. Limit the bar codes that an EBT Card will buy food from. No soda, no HoHo's, no potato chips. Only the foods that the liberal granola chompers approve of. I cant believe the former first lady...fat ass...didn't think of this....I mean she was so concerned about childhood nutricion.

Why not use the useless abandon buildings to grow food hydroponically, providing jobs at the same time.
Many such projects are going on in chicago, nyc and london...
I guess it's too much of a stretch for the bicameral brains we find in governments...it's probably way to "Free Market" for them...that would be blasphemy within their circle of idiots.

No matter what the problem is the best solution is to let people solve it themselves. Government intervention always depends on the ability to use violence to steal from one and give to another, thereby always creating another problem of greater consequence than the one they wanted to solve. I also suspect that the government 'problem solvers' were never interested in the people they were 'helping' in the first place. They are only interested in helping themselves.!

It isn't just high crime inner cities that are food deserts. Grocery stores, even in good locations, have abominably low profit margins (1-2%), and the high cost of leasing space in big city centers makes it difficult for them to survive. If they increase prices to stay afloat, the poor can't afford them, and the wealthy will either shop in the suburbs or have groceries delivered. Online food delivery is a growing industry, and appears to threaten established brick and mortar groceries. Some storefront grocers are allying themselves with the delivery companies to stay alive.

CTYankee got it right.If you want to do it voluntarily go right ahead. But blarman is right also. A waste that will only increase dependency, so idiocy is the right word.
Objectivists: One eyed persons living in the valley of the blind.

I've got a few food deserts in my city. The areas that are now deserted worked really hard to ensure they would be deserted.
It would be a shame to see the legislators work against the concentrated effort of a community like that.

moran is a moron as are those in bed with him.
let him tell those Kansan's to get a job so they too can if they chose get a desert.
moran should also get a job.
well meaning is not the correct observation it is more like control. if a civil servant came into my grocery store and told me I had to stop selling ice cream by government decree he might wake up in the dumpster.

I find this very interesting, actually. I'm not saying I am in favor of this action by gubment. But, the article reminds me of vast stretches of urban areas around here in Norcal - where there are lots of poor people and no grocery stores for them to shop at. It's unfortunate that a kid in a poor family has to deal with that. But, the problem isn't addressed in this solution. For here, around the state capital, I think back about 20+ years ago when the mayor of the city was writing letters to DC saying we wanted all our military bases closed. So, they closed them and moved the jobs to other parts of the countries. The neighborhoods around those abandoned bases match what is described here - hoods filled with dirty streets, people living in tents, grocery carts all over the place, etc. Why not just get out of the way of the economy? No...they have to screw it up.