Food Apartheid

Food apartheid is a term coined by food justice activist Karen Washington to describe the systemic destruction of Black communities' access to healthy, affordable food through deliberate policy choices such as redlining, disinvestment, and zoning decisions locating grocery stores in white neighborhoods while saturating Black neighborhoods with fast food and corner stores.

Unlike "food desert," which implies a neutral geographic phenomenon, food apartheid explicitly names the racial and power dynamics at play. The health consequences include higher rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease in communities subjected to these conditions.