Those interested in food and social justice may see a nice irony in comparing these two maps.
1) Map of the best quality agricultural soil in the UK, the best, Grade One, is heavily present around The Wash area of Eastern England
http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6172638548328448 and click on pdf link
2) MSOA level obesity map, extract for East Anglia, Wash, Lincolnshire area. Available at www.fooddeserts.org, section 8, bottom of page. Red is the most obese decile, followed by pink, orange, yellow.... Silver is the least obese declie, followed by purple, dark blue, light blue, green....
In other words, the areas where the UK's fruit and veg industry is most productive is where there is most obesity. We don't pay the people who actually produce our 5-a-day enough to benefit from the health effects of 5-a-day. Nor do we pay the people who sell them to us enough to benefit from them, in the towns. To have a good diet you need to live in the areas where fresh produce is largely neither produced nor sold, the wealthy peri-urban regions just outside the main urban areas.
Dr Hillary J. Shaw
Director and Senior Research Consultant
Shaw Food Solutions
Newport
Shropshire
TF10 8QE
www.fooddeserts.org