An Ethnic Spring in the Food Desert? How State Policy Affects Food Environments and Business Entrepreneurship.

本研究探讨了国家一级的政策如何改善或加剧制度化的不平等，在美国的粮食安全，粮食获取和食品企业所有权。2018年，估计每9个美国人中就有1个处于粮食不安全状态（3700万美国人，包括1100多万儿童）。COVID-19疫情的爆发加剧了美国的粮食不安全状况。在非洲裔美国人、拉丁美洲人和移民社区中，粮食不安全程度更高，导致这些社区严重的慢性病流行。2019年，美国六分之一的少数民族居民也生活在一个零售杂货店供应和可达性有限的社区。尽管如此，截至2020年，近五分之一的美国企业是少数族裔拥有的，其中一部分企业通过提供零售杂货和餐饮服务，为社区的食品环境做出了贡献。该项目研究了两个广泛的研究问题，涉及到构成社区食品环境的食品安全，食品获取和食品企业所有权的组合。第一个问题是：在美国的食品环境中，州和地方政策的作用是什么？此外，国家和地方的粮食政策如何影响个人的粮食安全和粮食获取？这项研究的广泛影响是多方面的。这些努力将发展学术，机构和社区合作伙伴关系，将政治学，公共事务和应用经济学研究联系起来，从而重新构想食品系统研究，不会将不同的利益相关者置于边缘，而是将其纳入现有的政治，经济和食品系统。此外，这项研究还将揭示美国州级食品政策中存在的种族、民族和出生地差异。该调查将采用两部分混合方法来回答与各州食品环境变化相关的研究问题。第一部分将把数据汇编成一个新的数据集，以了解食品政策对州和县一级食品环境的影响，以及食品环境对个人的影响。 第二部分涉及一个定性的方法，在城市，郊区和农村社区在加州，印第安纳州，缅因州，纽约和得克萨斯州的研究访谈，征求开放式的反馈意见，移民社区和社区的颜色如何看待他们的食品环境，食品企业的创业机会，和现有的食品政策。该项目将与社区合作伙伴共同创建，传播和分析访谈工具及其在五个战略选择的研究地点的结果。这些深入的研究访谈将突出国家政策如何塑造个人的态度和访问。最后，该项目将收集一个县级数据集，并根据定性访谈工具的调查结果，调查居民和企业家如何与地方和国家官僚机构及其当地的食品环境互动。这项调查将解释如何在国家一级的决策（政策和支出）显着相关的个人和地方食品环境的质量变化。最重要的是，这项研究将政治、政策和应用经济子领域纳入了关于美国粮食政策的讨论，在机构之间建立基础设施，以促进数据收集和分析，包括与社区研究伙伴和MSI学生研究人员的积极合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估来支持。影响审查标准。

This study examines how state-level policy ameliorates or exacerbates institutionalized inequality in food security, food access, and food business ownership in the United States. In 2018, an estimated 1 in 9 Americans were food insecure (37 million Americans, including more than 11 million children). The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity in the United States. Among African American, Latino, and immigrant communities’ food insecurity is higher leading to serious chronic disease prevalence in these communities. In 2019, 1 in 6 minority residents in the United States also lived in a community with limited availability and accessibility to retail grocery outlets. Nevertheless, as of 2020, nearly 1 in 5 U.S. businesses with employees were minority-owned, and a portion of these businesses were contributing to the food environment of communities by providing access to both retail grocery and dining services. The project examines two broad research questions related to the combination of food security, food access, and food business ownership that constitute a community’s food environment. The first question is: What is the role of state and local policy in the food environment in the United States? Further, how do state and local food policies affect individual food security and food access? The broader impacts of the study are numerous. The efforts will develop academic, institutional, and community partnerships connecting political science, public affairs, and applied economics research that allows for a reimagining of food systems research that does not keep diverse stakeholders on the fringe but incorporates them into existing political, economic, and food systems. Moreover, the research will shed light on the ongoing racial, ethnic, and nativity disparities embedded in U.S. state-level food policy. The investigation will implement a two-part mixed methods approach to answer research questions related to the variation in food environments across states. Part I will compile data into a novel dataset to understand the influence of food policy on the food environment at state and county levels, as well as the influence of the food environment on individuals. Part II involves a qualitative approach using research interviews in urban, suburban, and rural communities in California, Indiana, Maine, New York, and Texas, to solicit open-ended feedback on how immigrant communities and communities of color perceive their food environments, opportunities for food business entrepreneurship, and existing food policies. The project will work with community partners to co-create, disseminate, and analyze the interview instrument and its results across the five strategically chosen study sites. These in-depth research interviews will highlight how state policy shapes the individual attitudes and access. Lastly, this project will collect a county-level dataset informed by the findings from the qualitative interview instrument to investigate how residents and entrepreneurs interact with local and state bureaucracy and their local food environment. This investigation will explain how decisions at the state level (policies and expenditures) are significantly correlated with a change in the quality of individual and local food environments. Most importantly, the research brings politics, policy, and applied economic subfields into conversation regarding U.S. food policy, building an infrastructure among institutions to facilitate data collection and analysis that includes active collaboration with community research partners and MSI student researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.