Support of state and local policies for fruit and vegetable access among Americans

Only 14% of adults meet national objectives for both fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and most need improvement in overall diet quality. Greater access to healthier foods such as FV is associated with better diet, decreased obesity and decreased chronic disease. Policies that support FV access can lead to increased FV consumption. We therefore assessed Americans' support for such policies.

We used data from the 2008 HealthStyles mailed consumer panel survey of U.S. adults weighted to U.S. demographics. Participants were asked how likely, on a 5-point Likert scale, they would be to support changes to local or state policies that would: 1) create local community or farmers markets; 2) create a program that helps small food stores have fresh FV; 3) create community gardens or plots for raising FV; 4) require city/county governments to favor the purchase of locally grown FV to serve in cafeterias and meetings. Frequencies of being supportive (“very likely” and “likely”) were assessed. Of 5,311 respondents, 62.0% supported policy change for farmers markets, 54.2% supported FV programs for small stores, 47.2% supported community gardens and 58.1% supported governments purchasing locally grown FV. Analysis of those responding “neutral” and differences by sociodemographic characteristics will also be presented. For example, females (64.4%) were more supportive of farmers markets than males (59.5%).

Americans generally favor policy changes that increase community FV access. This majority may be enough support for governmental action in some regions, in others it may be necessary to target neutral respondents or specific sociodemographic groups.