Journal
FOOD POLICY
Volume 34, Issue 2, Pages 176-184Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2008.10.013
Keywords
US food stamps; Obesity; Policy change; Healthy food
Categories
Funding
- National Research Initiative of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, USDA [2006-55215-16720]
- USDA Economic Research Service
- University of California Agricultural Issues Center
- Center for Natural Resources Policy Analysis at the University of California, Davis
- Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
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Some have suggested that the US food stamp program (FSP) should be revised with a view to combating obesity among the poor. In this paper, we assess the likely impacts of allowing FSP participants to purchase only healthy foods when using food stamps. Our results indicate that FSP participants would probably increase their consumption of healthy food, but the implications for their purchases of unhealthy food are not clear. Market-wide consequences are even less clear, because changing what may be purchased using food stamps would lead to higher prices for healthy foods and lower prices for unhealthy foods and these price effects would feed back into consumer decisions, with adverse effects on consumption patterns of both participants and non-participants in the FSP. In addition, more restrictive rules on the use of food stamps would discourage participation in the FSP. We conclude that, while reforming the FSP may indeed to lead to better diets among participants, it is likely to be an ineffective and inefficient instrument for bringing about desired nutritional outcomes unless accompanied by additional policy instruments. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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