This study addresses the knowledge gap concerning the demand for fresh fruit in an urban food desert, where healthy foods are scarce by definition. Using register data from a non-profit greengrocer in Detroit-one of America's largest and most severe food deserts-expenditure and price elasticities of fresh fruits are estimated. The results show that, if urban food desert consumers are given access to normally priced produce of acceptable quality, they will purchase it. Expenditure was found to play a major role in determining fruit demand. The food desert consumers were also found to be more price responsive than the average US consumer. The policy implications are clear: introducing neighbourhood stores providing access to good quality produce at competitive prices could be an important component of increasing fruit consumption.

The main objectives of this article were to determine the demographic factors, the program related factors and the behavioral factors that influence Michigan Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education outcomes. Secondarily, we sought to understand the trends and changes in Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores across the differing baseline score groups. The data were collected by nutrition instructors in a pretest, posttest design to capture change in healthy eating habits through changes in HEI scores. The participants were all low-income program participants during the years of 2011 and 2012, living in Michigan. Findings show that eating habits improved most in households with weekly per-person income within $100 to $500, and with Caucasian females living in cities or suburbs. Improvements were also greater with those who took part in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, where the participants exhibited higher baseline frequency of planning meals before grocery shopping, comparing prices, and budgeting enough money for food and food related purchases. Overall, the average change in HEI scores increased by 2.3 points, however, the variability between the participants' changes was high, suggesting that more targeted program lessons might increase program efficacy, especially for those participants with high baseline HEI scores.

La question de l'impact de l'agriculture urbaine sur l'environnement revient, fréquemment, au coeur des débats dans la gestion des villes africaines, comme Yamoussoukro. Les inquiétudes liées à la préservation de l'environnement urbain, eu égard à l'usage de pesticides et à la qualité des eaux utilisées, constituent une préoccupation prise en compte dans le cadre de cette étude. Celle-ci porte, aussi bien sur l'évaluation du risque sur l'environnement consécutif à de mauvaises pratiques agricoles que sur l'évaluation du risque sanitaire consécutif à l'usage des eaux usées. Pour atteindre cet objectif, la méthodologie utilisée a été d'une part, la collecte de données, à travers une enquête et d'autre part, des analyses au laboratoire. Il ressort que le maraîchage urbain à Yamoussoukro est une activité informelle. Les cultures pratiquées sont dominées par la laitue, l'oignon vert et la carotte. Le recours aux intrants, notamment les pesticides, est très répandu. Les dispositifs règlementaires sur la distribution des produits agrochimiques ne sont pas appliqués. Ainsi, 74% des pesticides recensés ne sont pas homologués pour les cultures maraîchères, 12% sont très toxiques (classe Ib) et 57% nocifs (classe II). Les risques encourus sont accentués par un traitement chimique qui n'est pas suffisamment maîtrisé. Les analyses physico-chimiques et microbiologiques ont mis en évidence, d'une part, des eaux d'irrigation aux caractéristiques très hétérogènes et d'autre part, une grande diversité microbienne et une contamination de ces eaux, suggérant des risques sanitaires avérés.

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Food deserts are associated with lower quality diets and higher obesity rates. One hypothesis for their emergence is that retailers avoid food deserts because demand side factors such as low income limit demand for healthy foods. A competing hypothesis is that supply side factors cause prohibitively high costs of operation for grocers -leading to limited access to healthy foods and thus low expressed demand. The direction of causality has important implications for improving diets and health of food desert residents. This paper analyses Detroit food desert residents' fresh vegetable purchasing behaviour using data from a non-profit grocer. The evidence confirms that these consumers respond to prices and income similarly to the average American, however, they face a different set of constraints. Both supply and demand side factors are at work -access problems are critical, but even with better access low incomes and other demand side issues limit vegetable consumption.