Food Access
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Consumer choices about food spending and diet are likely to be
influenced by the accessibility and affordability of food
retailers--travel time to shopping, availability of healthy foods,
and food prices. Some people and places, especially those
with low-income, may face greater barriers in accessing healthy and
affordable food retailers, which may negatively affect diet and
food security.
ERS is a national leader in measuring the people and places
facing barriers to accessing healthy and affordable food and
conducts research examining the consequences of food access
limitations on food spending, diet, and health.
ERS conducts economic analyses of:
- the extent and characteristics of people and places that lack
access to healthy and affordable foods, and
- the relationships between food access and food shopping and
spending patterns, diet and health.
ERS also provides publicly available mapping tools for
indicators of the food environment that allow users to create maps
and download data--the Food Environment Atlas and the
Food Desert
Locator.