Population Demographics Surrounding 15 of South Jersey’s Farmers Markets
Description
This map depicts the population demographics of census tracts surrounding 15 of New Jerseys advertised farmers markets. The aim was to compare total populations to the number of people in a specific marginalized community. Previously, Nazanin and I explored where 15 farmers markets were located in relation to 50 of Southern New Jersey’s biggest farms. We are now exploring what the populations surrounding these markets look like in order to understand who has access to the resources of fresh, locally grown and sourced produce in New Jersey. We acquired the population data from ACS population census on GIS Pro, which retrieved the data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The farmers market data was retrieved from a previous project. In order to create this data set we looked into ACS population statistics. The statistics we chose to explore were the population of Black or African American alone (not Hispanic or Latino) populations living within the census tracts of the fifteen farmers markets we previously researched. The results we found were as follows. In the 15 census tracts surrounding the farmers markets we researched, 63,672 people were present. Of those 63,672 people, 3,051 people identified as Black or African American. This equates to about 4% of that population being someone who is Black. These results demonstrate that there is a much lower distribution of people of color in areas with markets. Of the 15 census tracts compared, the largest held 6,591 people, in Burlington County, and of those people only 141 were Black or African American. The average number of people per tract was 4,245 and the average number of Black people per tract was 203 people. This data is important because it showcases the inequalities that exist around food security for marginalized groups. Understanding these inequalities can help us work to dismantle the system of systemic inequality that persists, and provide equal access to resources to all groups.