THE ECONOMIC PAMPHLETEER: The challenge: Making good food accessible

First paragraphs: In a previous column, I made the case that enough wholesome, nutritious, and sustainably produced food is affordable for everyone (Ikerd, 2022). However, the fact that good food is afford­able for everyone doesn’t mean good food is accessible to everyone or easy to locate, acquire, and prepare. For many, accessibility is a greater obstacle than affordability, and those who face the greatest challenges of affordability also face the greatest challenges in accessibility. As I pointed out in my previous column, farmers receive an average of only about 14% or US$1,120 of a typical US$8,000 household food budget. The rest, US$6,880, goes to pay the costs of processing, packaging, transportation, advertis­ing, and other marketing costs (Ikerd, 2022, p. 3). Some of these marketing costs are necessary to transform farm commodities into finished food products and thus cannot be avoided. . . .