Local food environments outside of the United States a look to the north: Examining food environments in Canada

Abstract

A swell of international interest is growing among health practitioners, researchers, and urban planners regarding potential strategies for redesigning local food environments (LFEs) to maximize human health and social justice and to reduce long-term environmental impacts. As highlighted throughout this book, emerging evidence from the United States has demonstrated that both the availability of nutritious food and the prevalence of diet-related health outcomes such as obesity and diabetes vary across neighborhoods and among geographic regions. Outside the United States, a growing knowledge base about LFEs is also emerging, but little systematic attention has examined the food environment literature in other affluent countries such as America’s nearest neighbor, Canada.