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Food deserts are a matter of lack of demand, not supply. Where poor people want fresh food the market is quite willing to sell it to them. > THE GEOGRAPHY OF P

Food deserts are a matter of lack of demand, not supply. Where poor people want fresh food the market is quite willing to sell it to them. > THE GEOGRAPHY OF POVERTY AND NUTRITION: FOOD DESERTS AND FOOD CHOICES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES > We study the causes of “nutritional inequality”: why the wealthy tend to eat more healthfully than the poor in the U.S. Using two event study designs exploiting entry of new supermarkets and households’ moves to healthier neighborhoods, we reject that neighborhood environments have economically meaningful effects on healthy eating. Using a structural demand model, we find that exposing low-income households to the same food availability and prices experienced by high-income households would reduce nutritional inequality by only 9%, while the remaining 91% is driven by differences in demand. In turn, these income-related demand differences are partially explained by education, nutrition knowledge, and regional preferences. These findings contrast with discussions of nutritional inequality that emphasize supply-side issues such as food deserts.

nitrogen 6y ago
Supply/demand is a feedback system. Both are the cause. When trying to change a feedback system, you don't look for a root cause because it's literally an infinite loop. Instead you either look for a way to break the loop, or look for a variable you can change that has the best ROI. In the case of a food desert within a residential area, it's probably a lot easier to boost demand by artificially increasing supply, rather than the other way around.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  Thankfully the researchers considered that point. From the above abstract > Using a structural demand model, we find that exposing low-income households to the same food availability and prices experienced by high-income households would reduce nutritional inequality by only 9%, while the remaining 91% is driven by differences in demand. On the topic more generally > Dr. Sturm found no relationship between what type of food students said they ate, what they weighed, and the type of food within a mile and a half of their homes. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/health/research/pairing-of-food-deserts-and-obesity-challenged-in-studies.html?_r=1&hp https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/health/research/pairing-o... Original study > School and Residential Neighborhood Food Environment and Diet Among California Youth > No robust relationship between food environment and consumption is found. A few significant results are sensitive to small modeling changes and more likely to reflect chance than true relationships. https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2811%2900849-X/abstract https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2811%2900849-X...

nitrogen 6y ago

Supply/demand is a feedback system. Both are the cause. When trying to change a feedback system, you don't look for a root cause because it's literally an infinite loop. Instead you either look for a way to break the loop, or look for a variable you can change that has the best ROI. In the case of a food desert within a residential area, it's probably a lot easier to boost demand by artificially increasing supply, rather than the other way around.

barry-cotter 6y ago
Thankfully the researchers considered that point. From the above abstract > Using a structural demand model, we find that exposing low-income households to the same food availability and prices experienced by high-income households would reduce nutritional inequality by only 9%, while the remaining 91% is driven by differences in demand. On the topic more generally > Dr. Sturm found no relationship between what type of food students said they ate, what they weighed, and the type of food within a mile and a half of their homes. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/health/research/pairing-of-food-deserts-and-obesity-challenged-in-studies.html?_r=1&hp https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/health/research/pairing-o... Original study > School and Residential Neighborhood Food Environment and Diet Among California Youth > No robust relationship between food environment and consumption is found. A few significant results are sensitive to small modeling changes and more likely to reflect chance than true relationships. https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2811%2900849-X/abstract https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2811%2900849-X...