This TED Talk features food activist Davida Davidson,

recorded live at TED 2017.

I'm from Detroit.

A city that in the 1950s was the world's industrial giant,

with the population of 1.8 million people

and 140 square miles of land and infrastructure

used to support this booming Midwestern urban center.

And now today, just a half a century later,

Detroit is the poster child for urban decay.

Currently in Detroit, our population is under 700,000 of which 84% are African American, and due to decades of disinvestment in capital flight from the city into the suburbs.

There is a scarcity in Detroit.

There is a scarcity of retail, more specifically, fresh food retail,

resulting in a city where 70% of Detroiters are obese and overweight.

And they struggle.

They struggle to access nutritious food that they need,

that they need to stay healthy,

that they need to prevent premature illness

and diet-related diseases.

Far too many Detroiters live closer to a fast food restaurant

or to a convenience store or to a gas station

where they have to shop for food,

then they do a full-service supermarket.

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