Dear colleague,

To determine the availblity and accessibility of food in a community; you can use HFSA ( house hold food secur and access qiestionaire) from  

Dear colleague,

To determine the availblity and accessibility of food in a community; you can use HFSA ( house hold food secur and access qiestionaire) from  

An article that answers your question: "ffordable and Accessible in the City of Yarra, Victoria-Australia? An Analysis of Cost Disparity and Nutritional Choices" published in Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2008, pages 44- 63.

"is a healthy diet affordable and Accessible in the City of Yarra, Victoria-Australia? An Analysis of Cost Disparity and Nutritional Choices" published in Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Volume 47, Issue 1, 2008, pages 44- 63.

Thank you so much for your answers!

There are many studies looking at availability/accessibility of foods in a neighbourhood. A team at the UEA uses geographical information systems to log food outlets on digital maps. I think the ecological framework has been used in research on food in the environment. I am working on a study linking childhood obesity with availability/accessibility of food in the environment.  Here are a few publications that might help you. 

Andreyeva, T., D. M. Blumenthal, M. B. Schwartz, M. W. Long and K. D. Brownell (2008). "Availability And Prices Of Foods Across Stores And Neighborhoods: The Case Of New Haven, Connecticut." Health Affairs27(5): 1381-1388.

Carter, M. A. and L. Dubois (2010). "Neighbourhoods and child adiposity: A critical appraisal of the literature." Health & Place16(3): 616-628.

Cetateanu, A. and A. Jones (2014). "Understanding The Relationship Between Food Environments, Deprivation And Childhood Overweight And Obesity: Evidence From A Cross Sectional England-Wide Study." Health & Place27: 68-76.

Edwards, D. (2013). "Healthier choices pilot."

Egger, G. and B. Swinburn (1997). "An Ecological Approach to the obesity pandemic." British Medical Journal315: 477-480.

Jennings, A., A. Welch, A. Jones, F. Harrison, G. Bentham, E. Van Sluijs, S. Griffin and A. Cassidy (2011). " Local food outlets, weight status, and dietary intake: associations in children aged 9-10 years." American Journal of Preventive Medicine40(4): 405-410.

Macdonald, L., Cummins, S., Macintyre, S. (2007). "Neighbourhood fast food environment and area deprivation-substitution or concentration?" Appetite49: 251-254.

Mu, L. (2009). Thiessen Polygon. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. R. K. Thrift. Oxford, Elsevier: 231-236.

Pickett, K., Pearl, M. (2001). "Multilevel analyses of neighbourhood socioeconomic context and health outcomes: a critical review." Journal of Epidemiological Community Health1(55): 111-122.

Smoyer-Tomic, K. E., J. C. Spence, K. D. Raine, C. Amrhein, N. Cameron, V. Yasenovskiy, N. Cutumisu, E. Hemphill and J. Healy (2008). "The association between neighborhood socioeconomic status and exposure to supermarkets and fast food outlets." Health & Place14(4): 740-754.

Timperio, A., Ball, K., Roberts, R.,Campbell, K., Andrianopoulos, N., Crawfood, D. (2008). "Children's fruit and vegetable intake: Associations with the neighbourhood food environment." Preventive Medicine46: 331-335.

Wasserman, J., Suminski, R., Mayfield, C., Magie, R. (2014). "A multi-level analysis showing associations between school neighbourhood and child body mass index." International Journal of Obesity38: 912-918.

Thanks a lot!

you are most welcome, good luck.

I would suggest to start the search from review papers. The following three review papers are the best reviews I have found so far: 

1. Neighborhood environments disparities in access to healthy foods in the U.S. by Larson et al. 2009;

2. Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature by Walker et al. 2010;

3. Measuring the food environment using geographical information systems: a methodological review by Charreire et al. 2010. 

The question also depends on if you approach the problem from a personal perspective by answering questions such as "does individuals in the community have equal access to food "or a place-based perspective such as "does food provision in the community is sufficient to cover all households?". Evaluating the problem from these two different perspectives will result in very different findings.

The link below is my dissertation on this problem, and I hope this could help improve your understanding.

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1404313043&disposition=inline

Hi, although this is more geared to cities rather than rural or isolated communities, via the Harvard Shorenstein Center (posted on Nov.18,2014) "The relationship between city size and food prices and availability", I came across the main article "Goods prices and availability in cities" by Jessie Handburg and David E. Weinstein in the Review of Economic Studies, advanced electronic posting on Sept. 18, 2014. This may give you some elements for a framework, I hope. Best, Johan

Thanks a lot! 

Whilst most ecological approaches assumes a horizontal spatial orientation in food accessibility and production, an alternative approach can be found in a comparison between accessibility and production for the case of vertical farming. In such a framework, isolated "urban islands" such as cities, create a food ecology that rely on social workers as catalysts for the adoption vertical farming:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263334886_Vertical_Farming_Social_Work_and_Sustainable_Urban_Agriculture_in_an_Age_of_Global_Food_Crises 

Article Vertical Farming: Social Work and Sustainable Urban Agricult...

It is possible to use Geographical Information Systems to determine a small area and link with other data showing the food outlets in that area. This has been used by Professor Andy Jones and his colleagues at the UEA. The research is focused in UK so not sure whether you could draw on similar data sets?