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What happens when a town loses its only grocery store?

The former grocery store in the village of Carrollton, Ohio, looks like your typical creepy abandoned building. It’s dark inside. It’s boarded up with moldy wood.

Last January, residents of Carrollton — population 3,135 — showed up to find the doors locked and a sign attached that read, simply, “store closed.” It was the only dedicated grocery store in a county of nearly 28,000 people.

Carrollton is located in eastern Ohio’s Carroll County, about a 40-minute drive from Canton. Tait Carter, the county’s economic development director, peered through the doors of the 30,000 square foot building. She said the place shut down abruptly.

“The electric company came in and shut the electric off, and all of the food was still left in all the coolers,” Carter said. “I don’t even want to imagine what it smelled like in there.”

This store was owned by Thorne’s Market, a local grocery chain founded in 1972. The company closed its four stores in January and disconnected its phone. The owners haven’t given a reason.

“I think they’d been struggling for a while,” Carter said.

Even before Thorne’s closed, Carroll County was a food desert. In rural places, that’s a low-income area where at least 500 people or one-third of the population live more than 10 miles from the nearest supermarket or large grocery store. About 4.5 million Americans live in rural food deserts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“In the Mississippi Delta, in rural Kansas, in upstate New York — in every rural community across the country, you’re hearing about a food-access challenge,” said Julia Koprak, a senior associate at a nonprofit called The Food Trust.

…(read more)

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California Fire Chief Raises Threat Level To ‘Never Used’ Purple | Here & Now

With winds expected at 80 mph, the director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection raised the fire threat level to purple — a critical level never used by the state before.

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Across Virginia – from Hampton to Richmond, Petersburg to Lynchburg to Wise County and all points in between – approximately 17.8 percent of Virginia’s population live in food desert. This documentary was produced by VSU as part of a study on food insecurity in the College of Agriculture. Produced by Jesse Vaughan & Cedric Owens – Co-Producer Dr. Jewel Hairston – Narrator Daphne Maxwell Reid

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BBC World Service – The Food Chain, I Won’t Farm!

The average age of farmers globally is thought to be around 60, and rising. So where have all the young farmers gone and who is going to farm our food in the future? It’s an issue that could affect every single one us and the food we eat.

Emily Thomas meets families in Kenya, the UK and the Netherlands to find out how farmer’s sons and daughters really feel about taking over the family business. How much of a role do economics, regulations, lifestyle and public perceptions play in driving them from agriculture?

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(Photo: Young woman standing in an empty ploughed field. Credit: Getty Images)

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