UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Xibo Wan, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Connecticut, will lead a seminar on visitor patterns at farmers’ markets and prospects for improving access to healthy food.
His free talk – “Bringing the Local Farm to the Table: Can Farmers’ Markets Reduce Food Utilization Disparity?” – is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, Oct. 8, in 157 Hosler Building on the University Park campus. It’s part of the fall seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI).
Wan will discuss a study of cellphone and neighborhood socioeconomic data that tracked market visits by residents of food deserts and residents in other areas. The research illustrates discrepancies in visits between the two groups, and it includes policy suggestions for improving market use among residents of food deserts, or areas with limited access to affordable, quality food.
“Food-desert residents visit less and travel farther, choosing markets that are economically similar, but not racially similar, to their neighborhoods,” Wan said.
Gaps in market visits stem largely from travel preferences, travel costs and market availability, according to the study. Policy simulations indicate that steps such as universal acceptance of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and more evening market hours would help narrow gaps in usage.
A “benefit-cost analysis shows SNAP delivers the highest return per public dollar,” Wan said. New markets “generate large absolute benefits — particularly in rural areas — but at a higher cost, and evening hours are most valuable where evening demand is strong.”
Wan’s research uses big-data economics to explore how people interact with natural and food systems and to design equitable environmental and agricultural policies.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, EEEPI operates as a university-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the university and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.