Morland, 2014: 

• "Describes impacts of local food environments on health
• Reviews existing disparities within the US food delivery system
• Highlights past and present government policies and practices (including local, state, and national food policies) demonstrating their influence on how food is delivered to individuals in the marketplace
• Describes local food environments in relation to obesity and other diet-related diseases including diabetes and hypertension
• Defines methods needed to study the effects of local food environments on human health"

Cummins and Macintyre, 2005:

"in this commentary we focus exclusively on environmental issues in energy intake in the developed world. Our aim is both to provide an overview of recent findings on obesogenic environments2 and to point to cross national variations in their distribution. "

From the JHU Center for a Livable Future.  Introductory level background info for a class.

"Lesson Summary

Students will examine how the environments in homes, schools, restaurants, stores and communities can affect what they eat. They will use tools such as maps and surveys to measure the cost, availability and accessibility of food in communities. Food maps of Baltimore City are included for in-class activities. Key concepts include food deserts and grocery gaps."

NIH-NCI website:

"This Web site provides a compilation of articles that include community-level measures of the food environment, as well as some of the instruments themselves. Here, we define the food environment to include food stores, restaurants, schools, and worksites. Measurement of the food environment and its effects on dietary behavior is a relatively new, but growing, field of inquiry. This Web site will be updated on a weekly basis."

It has about 600 articles in its "Measures of the Food Environment" database.

"two complementary conceptual models"

1) "by Glanz and colleagues, (30)   ... Community nutrition environments ... are distinguished from consumer nutrition environments"

2) "by Lytle, (43) considers how individual, environmental, and social factors explain differences in eating behaviours."

see: 1) Glanz K, Sallis JF, Saelens BE, Frank LD. Healthy nutrition environments: concepts and measures. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2005;19(5):330–333. 

2) Lytle LA. Measuring the food environment: state of the science. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2009;36(4S):S134–s144. 

links to various white papers and journal articles about a healthy food environment.

"The food environment   is

• The physical presence of food that affects a person’s diet,
• A person’s proximity to food store locations,
• The distribution of food stores, food service, and any physical entity by which food may be obtained, or
• A connected system that allows access to food.

The food environment is also known as the community food environment, nutritional food environment, or local food environment. The retail food environment includes the community level (e.g., presence and locations of food stores, markets, or both) and the consumer level (e.g., healthful, affordable foods in stores, in markets, or in both)."

Maps: (many of these are data at the county level; a few are at the state level)

access to grocery stores

availability of stores by type

restaurant availability

food assistance (SNAP)

household food insecurity

food prices and taxes for selected beverages and snacks

local foods

health and physical activity

socioeconomic info