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Access to Food

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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics
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Synonyms

Food security; Food use

Introduction

Limited access is defined by the USDA (2015) through reference to three criteria: household income, ability to make reliable use of transportation, and distance to full-service grocers. While the USDA’s (2015) definition is somewhat narrow, it highlights elements that serve as a basis for a more general account of access to food. The three criteria of the USDA (2015) definition suggest that food access is a matter of wealth, ability to make use of infrastructure and resources, and how both affect an individual’s or community’s ability to eat a nutritionally sufficient and culturally appropriate diet (Maxwell and Frankenberger 1992).

Access to food can be contrasted to the availability of food. The availability of food is usually understood as a technical matter dependent on agricultural productivity and the efficiency of infrastructure and practices related to the transportation and processing of food. On the other hand, access to food is a...

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Correspondence to Clement Loo .

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Loo, C. (2019). Access to Food. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_551

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