Food retail environments, extreme weather, and their overlap: Exploratory analysis and recommendations for U.S. food policy

Abstract

Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change, yet many of their impacts on human populations are not well understood. We examine the relationship between prior extreme weather events and food environment characteristics. To do so, we conduct a U.S. county-level analysis that assesses the association between extreme weather events and two common food retail environment dimensions. Overall, we find a relationship between higher levels of historic extreme weather exposure and lower food availability and accessibility. In addition, we find heterogeneity in association across the distribution of the number of extreme weather events and event type. Specifically, we find that more localized extreme weather events are more associated with a reduction of access and availability than broad geographic events. Our findings suggest that as extreme weather events amplify in intensity and increase in frequency, new approaches for mitigating less acute and longer-term impacts are needed to address how extreme weather may interact with and reinforce existing disparities in food environment factors. Furthermore, our research argues that integrated approaches to improving vulnerable food retail environments will become an important component of extreme weather planning and should be a consideration in both disaster- and food-related policy.