Past research finds that living in a food desert is associated with an unhealthy diet and poor health; however, more recent studies of urban food deserts suggest that these findings may be spurious. In this article, we leverage the flooding and subsequent closing of the only grocery store in a small town to examine the effects of living in a small-town food desert. Using difference-in-difference methods, we find that opening a grocery store in a small-town food desert is not associated with changes in diet, but we find that opening a grocery store in a food desert is associated with improved food access. Findings from in-depth interviews shed further light on how residents of a small-town food desert decide where to shop and how routine activities provide access to a range of nonlocal grocery stores. Moreover, we find that the absence of a grocery store negatively affects social relationships. While the findings add to growing skepticism about food desert effects on diet, the findings reveal important food desert effects on food access and also the social consequences of living in a food desert.

中文翻译：

---

生活在小城镇食物沙漠中的后果：混合方法的准实验证据

过去的研究发现，生活在沙漠中与饮食不健康和健康状况不佳有关。然而，最近对城市食物荒漠的研究表明，这些发现可能是虚假的。在本文中，我们利用洪水和小镇上唯一一家杂货店的关闭来检查生活在小镇食物沙漠中的影响。使用差异方法，我们发现在小镇食物沙漠中开设杂货店与饮食变化无关，但是我们发现在食物沙漠中开设杂货店与改善食物获取相关。深入访谈的结果进一步揭示了一个小镇美食沙漠的居民如何决定在哪里购物以及日常活动如何使人们能够进入各种非本地杂货店。而且，我们发现，没有杂货店会对社交关系产生负面影响。尽管这些发现增加了人们对食物沙漠对饮食的影响的怀疑态度，但这些发现揭示了食物沙漠对食物获取的重要影响，以及生活在食物沙漠中的社会后果。