On November 16, 2022, Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman from the University of Dundee will present “Moving Toward a Continuous Local Food Access Measure” as part of the EEEP Seminar Series.
Abstract: Measuring food access in a particular location or among a specified population is important in many policymaking settings because food access is associated with both food security and healthy eating habits. We argue for a movement from the binary concept of a food desert (versus food access is fine) toward a continuous measure that provides much more information about the actual level of food access in a location. We then begin the journey toward such a continuous food access measure, producing data and maps at the census tract level on a scale from 0 to 1. We find that our continuous food access measure is more correlated with rates of food insecurity than the binary food desert measure produced by ERS.
Speaker Bio: Jeffrey Dorfman is the State Fiscal Economist of Georgia and a professor of economics at The University of Georgia where he teaches a class on the economics of the food industry. He assists the Governor in forecasting state revenue collections, economic policy analysis, maintaining the state’s AAA bond rating, and whatever else the Governor asks him to do. He has written four books, including a textbook on the economics and management of the food industry, and about one hundred scholarly articles. He was a regular columnist for Forbes and RealClearMarkets.com and a frequent economic expert on television and radio shows before being appointed state economist. Now, he mostly avoids the media.