New book tackles what people get wrong about food deserts in Southernside, West Greenville

Kolb’s book is due out in December.

Ken Kolb, professor and chair of the sociology department at Furman University, is set to publish his second book, “Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate” (University of California Press). Ahead of its December release, Macon Atkinson of The Greenville News spoke to Kolb, who said the narrative about food deserts has been flawed from the start. He argues the real conversation is not so much about access to healthy food, but rather a more troubling, decades-old problem. “[It’s] about retail inequality — “the legacy of public and private sector abandonment of poor Black neighborhoods across the country,” he said.