Plant Based Inequity

In my previous blog post I established the meaning of equity. Equity is the idea that one’s access to resources corresponds with their need for them, in order to level the playing field of society. Inequity means that one’s access to resources does not correspond with their need for those resources. There is a tremendous amount of inequity present in the plant based food industry. Issues of equity in the industry fall mainly into three categories: access to healthy food, access to plant based food, and the cost of both plant based and healthy foods.

Meat consumption is directly linked to obesity, and rates of obesity are much higher in low-income communities. In an equitable world, access to plant based foods would be heightened in these communities in order to combat this issue, however, in reality the opposite occurs. A study found that plant based foods are on average 38% more expensive than their meat alternatives. This higher cost makes plant based foods inaccessible for many low-income people.

On top of this unfortunate reality, plant based food, or any healthy food for that matter, is often much less geographically accessible for low-income people. A study by the Food Empowerment Project found that in Santa Clara, California, higher income communities had 2.4 times more large supermarkets on a per capita basis than lower income communities. This study not only found that access to food was limited in low income communities – known as food deserts – but that access to healthy food was even more disparate. Meat and dairy alternatives were available in only 1-2% of supermarkets in low-income areas, compared with over 20% of supermarkets in high income areas. The study found that low income areas have 50% more meat markets and 50% fewer markets with fresh produce than high income areas. While the study focused only on a small area of California, its findings are telling of a greater national reality: access to plant based foods is highly inequitable.

While systemic (vertical) change must occur in order to promote equitable access to plant based foods, individuals have the opportunity to incur horizontal change and take charge of their own eating habits. While America’s food system is clearly flawed, the goal of Plant Based Equity is to give people the resources to have liberty over their food choices and to help promote a more sustainable food system.