WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Paula Tarnapol Whitacre, Peggy Tsai, and Janet Mulligan, Rapporteurs
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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THE Public HEalTH EffEcTs
of food dEsErTs
Workshop summary
Paula Tarnapol Whitacre, Peggy Tsai, and Janet Mulligan, Rapporteurs
Food and Nutrition Board
Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources
Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Gov-
erning Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from
the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engi-
neering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This workshop was supported by Contract No. AG-3K06-C-08-0034 between the
National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any opin -
ions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations in this document are those
of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or
agencies that provided support for the project.
I nternational Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-13728-7
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-13728-4
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Copyright 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover credit: Top left: Urban corner store in Baltimore, MD, courtesy of Joel
Gittelsohn. Top right: Fast food stock photo, with permission from iStock.com.
Bottom left: Dollar store, courtesy of Joseph Sharkey. Bottom right: Enclosed urban
grocery in Baltimore, MD, courtesy of Joel Gittelsohn. Center: Farmers market in
Washington, DC, courtesy of Kamweti Mutu.
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adopted as a logotype by the Institute of Medicine is a relief carving from ancient
Greece, now held by the Staatliche Museen in Berlin.
Suggested citation: IOM (Institute of Medicine) and National Research Council
(NRC). 2009. The public health effects of food deserts: Workshop summary. Washington,
DC: The National Academies Press.
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“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.”
— Goethe
Advising the Nation. Improving Health.
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PLANNING COMMITTEE ON THE PUBLIC
HEALTH EFFECTS OF FOOD DESERTS*
BARRY M. POPKIN (Chair), Director, UNC Interdisciplinary Obesity
Program, The Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of
Global Nutrition, School of Public Health Professor, Department of
Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
ANA V. DIEZ ROUX, Professor, Epidemiology Director, Center for
Integrative Approaches to Health Disparities, Associate Director,
Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University
of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor
JOEL GITTELSOHN, Associate Professor, Center for Human Nutrition,
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore,
Maryland
BARBARA A. LARAIA, Assistant Professor, Division of Prevention
Sciences, Department of Medicine, University of California,
San Francisco
ROBIN A. McKINNON, Health Policy Specialist, Risk Factor
Monitoring and Methods Branch Applied Research Program,
National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland
JOSEPH R. SHARKEY, Associate Professor, Social and Behavioral
Health, Director, Texas Healthy Aging Research Network, Director,
Program for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, School
of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College
Station, Texas
Study Staff
PEGGY TSAI, Study Director
JANET MULLIGAN, Research Associate
HEATHER BREINER, Program Associate
PAULA TARNAPOL WHITACRE, Consultant Science Writer
LINDA D. MEYERS, Food and Nutrition Board Director
ROBIN A. SCHOEN, Director, Board on Agriculture and Natural
Resources
∗ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council planning committees are solely
responsible for organizing the workshop, identifying topics, and choosing speakers. The
responsibility for the published workshop summary rests with the workshop rapporteurs
and the institution.
v
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FOOD AND NUTRITION BOARD*∗
DENNIS M. BIER (Chair), Children’s Nutrition Research Center,
Houston, Texas
MICHAEL P. DOYLE (Vice Chair), Center for Food Safety, University of
Georgia, Griffin
DIANE BIRT, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa
State University, Ames
YVONNE BRONNER, School of Public Health and Policy, Morgan
State University, Baltimore, Maryland
FERGUS M. CLYDESDALE, Department of Food Science, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst
RICHARD J. DECKELBAUM, Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia
University, New York
GORDON L. JENSEN, Department of Nutritional Sciences,
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
REYNALDO MARTORELL, Department of Global Health, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia
SUSAN T. MAYNE, Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale
University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
SANFORD A. MILLER, Center for Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture
Policy, University of Maryland, College Park
J. GLENN MORRIS, JR., Department of Epidemiology and Preventive
Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
SUZANNE P. MURPHY, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University
of Hawaii, Honolulu
JOSE M. ORDOVAS, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research
Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts
MARTIN A. PHILBERT, School of Public Health, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor
JIM E. RIVIERE, Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and
Pharmacokinetics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
PATRICK J. STOVER, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York
WALTER C. WILLETT, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of
Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
∗ Institute of Medicine boards do not review or approve individual reports and are not
asked to endorse conclusions and recommendations. The responsibility for the content of
the report rests with the rapporteurs and the institution.
vi
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Staff
LINDA D. MEYERS, Director
GERALDINE KENNEDO, Administrative Assistant
ANTON L. BANDY, Financial Associate
vii
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BOARD ON AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
W. REG GOMES (Chair), University of California (emeritus), Oakland
PEGGY F. BARLETT, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
ROGER N. BEACHY, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis,
Missouri
HAROLD L. BERGMAN, University of Wyoming, Laramie
H.H. CHENG, University of Minnesota (emeritus), St. Paul
RICHARD A. DIXON, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore,
Oklahoma
DANIEL M. DOOLEY, University of California, Oakland
JOAN H. EISEMANN, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
GARY F. HARTNELL, Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri
GENE HUGOSON, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, St. Paul
KIRK C. KLASING, University of California, Davis
VICTOR L. LECHTENBERG, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana
PHILLIP E. NELSON, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
ROBERT PAARLBERG, Wellesley College, Watertown, Massachusetts
KEITH PITTS, Marrone Organic Innovations, Davis, California
CHARLES W. RICE, Kansas State University, Manhattan
HAL SALWASSER, Oregon State University, Corvallis
PEDRO A. SANCHEZ, The Earth Institute, Columbia University,
Palisades, New York
NORMAN R. SCOTT, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
ROGER A. SEDJO, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
KATHLEEN SEGERSON, University of Connecticut, Storrs
MERCEDES VAZQUEZ-AÑON, Novus International, Inc., St. Charles,
Missouri
Staff
ROBIN A. SCHOEN, Director
KAREN L. IMHOF, Administrative Assistant
AUSTIN J. LEWIS, Senior Program Officer
EVONNE P.Y. TANG, Senior Program Officer
PEGGY TSAI, Program Officer
CAMILLA YANDOC ABLES, Associate Program Officer
KARA N. LANEY, Associate Program Officer
RUTH S. ARIETI, Research Associate
JANET M. MULLIGAN, Research Associate
KAMWETI MUTU, Research Associate
ERIN P. MULCAHY, Senior Program Assistant
viii
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BOARD ON POPULATION HEALTH AND
PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE
JAMES W. CURRAN (Chair), Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
MARGARITA ALEGRÍA, Cambridge Health Alliance, Somerville,
Massachusetts
SUSAN M. ALLAN, University of Washington, Seattle
GEORGES C. BENJAMIN, American Public Health Association,
Washington, DC
BOBBIE A. BERKOWITZ, University of Washington, Seattle
DAN G. BLAZER, Duke University Medical Center, Durham,
North Carolina
DAVID R. CHALLONER, University of Florida, Gainesville
R. ALTA CHARO, University of Wisconsin, Madison
JOSE JULIO ESCARCE, UCLA Med-GIM & HSR, Los Angeles,
California
HOWARD HU, University of Michigan Schools of Public Health and
Medicine, Ann Arbor
MATTHEW W. KREUTER, Washington University in Saint Louis,
St. Louis, Missouri
MARGARET E. O’KANE, National Committee for Quality Assurance,
Washington, DC
GEORGE W. RUTHERFORD, University of California, San Francisco,
School of Medicine, San Francisco
SUSAN L. SANTOS, University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey,
Medford, Massachusetts
MARTIN JOSE SEPULVEDA, International Business Machines
Corporation, Somers, New York
SAMUEL SO, Stanford University, Stanford, California
ANTONIA M. VILLARRUEL, University of Michigan School of
Nursing, Ann Arbor
PAUL J. WALLACE, The Permanente Federation, Kaiser Permanente,
Oakland, California
GINA M. WINGOOD, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia
ix
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Acknowledgments
This report is a product of the cooperation and contributions of the
speakers and participants who attended the workshop on January 26-27,
2009. Their presentations helped to set the stage for the fruitful discus-
sions in the sessions that followed.
This workshop summary report has been reviewed in draft form by
individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise
in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Coun -
cil’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of the independent review
is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution
in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the
report meets institutional standards of objectivity, evidence, and respon -
siveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript
remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We
wish to thank the following for their review of this report:
Alice Ammerman, Center for Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Angela D. Liese, Center for Research in Nutrition and Health
Disparities and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina,
Columbia
Diego Rose, School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane
University, New Orleans, Louisiana
xi
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xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mary Story, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health,
School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Elizabeth Tuckermanty, Cooperative State Research, Education, and
Extension Service, United States Department of Agriculture,
Washington, DC
Although the reviewers listed above have provided constructive com-
ments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or
recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its
release. The review of this report was overseen by Dr. Eileen Kennedy,
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston,
Massachusetts. Appointed by the National Research Council and Institute
of Medicine, she was responsible for making certain that an independent
examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institu -
tional procedures and that all review comments were carefully consid-
ered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with
the authors and the institutions.
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Contents
SUMMARY 1
1 INTRODUCTION 5
Background, 5
Congressional Mandate, 6
Workshop Organization, 6
Defining Food Deserts, 7
Organization of the Workshop Summary, 9
2 DETERMINING THE EXTENT OF FOOD DESERTS 11
National Overview of Food Deserts by Demographics and
Socioeconomic Status, 11
Measuring Food Deserts: Focusing on Urban Areas, 14
Measuring Food Deserts: Focusing on Rural Areas, 17
Dynamics of the Food Shopping Environment, 21
Discussion: Measuring Food Deserts, 23
3 STUDYING FOOD DESERTS THROUGH DIFFERENT
LENSES 27
Epidemiological Approach, 27
Geospatial Approach, 30
Economic Approach, 32
Discussion: Different Approaches, 33
xiii
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xiv CONTENTS
4 DIET AND HEALTH EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT
IMPROVED FOOD ACCESS 37
Effects of Selected Dietary Factors on Obesity, 37
Effects of Selected Dietary Factors on Cardiovascular
Disease and Cancer, 40
Discussion: Health Consequences, 42
5 AMELIORATING FOOD DESERT CONDITIONS 45
Research Interventions, 45
Policy Interventions, 56
Small Stores, 59
Farmers Markets and Other Alternatives in Low-Income
Communities, 61
Discussion: Policy Interventions, 65
6 RESEARCH GAPS AND NEEDS 67
Development of Methodology and Tools, 68
Approaches to Measuring Food Deserts and Outcomes, 69
Next Steps and Closing Thoughts, 73
REFERENCES 75
APPENDIXES
A PLANNING COMMITTEE BIOGRAPHIES 79
B WORKSHOP AGENDA 83
C SPEAKER AND MODERATOR BIOGRAPHIES 89
D WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS 97