anatlasofproduceaccessibilityinlansing,michigan,usa.pdfVIP

VISUALIZING NUTRITIONAL TERRAIN: AN ATLAS OF PRODUCE ACCESSIBILITY IN LANSING, MICHIGAN, USA Kirk Goldsberry, Ph.D. Department of Geography, Michigan State University 116 Geography Building East Lansing, MI, USA 48824-1117 kg@msu.edu Chris Duvall, Ph.D. Department of Geography, University of New Mexico Bandelier West Room 111, MSC01 1110 1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001 duvall@unm.edu Abstract We present a new interactive atlas summarizing the “nutritional terrain” of Lansing, Michigan, USA. We define nutritional terrain as a continuous, fine-scale geographical characterization of food availability and accessibility. Recent public health research indicates that the incidence of diet-related health outcomes such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes is more prevalent in areas with inadequate access to affordable, nutritious food; people have significantly different access to retail locations offering this food based on their geographic situation. Studies have shown that lower income, minority-dominated, rural, and inner-city neighborhoods all generally have lower access to large retailers such as supermarkets, than more affluent suburban areas (Booth and Pinkston 2005; Cummins and Macintyre 2006; Lake and Townshend 2006; Morland et al. 2002; Smoyer-Tomic et al. 2008). Although geographically coarse in nature, this previous research has exposed links between 1) built environments, 2) socioe