This paper provides an introduction to the 'food deserts' theme by outlining how the problem of access to food, particularly foods integral to a healthy diet, for low-income households in poor neighbourhoods in British cities, became an increasingly important issue in the social exclusion and health inequalities debates, during the late 1990s. It documents the emergence of a policy response by UK government to this issue and the way in which policy development ran somewhat ahead of systematic research on key facets of the problem. The paper outlines the research priorities which became apparent by the end of the 1990s and some of the projects which have been funded by the UK research councils and by government departments and agencies to meet this need for fundamental research.
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