USDA Food Environment + Health Outcomes

County-level food access data from USDA paired with CDC's PLACES health data enables real food-environment-and-health analysis. The trick is moving past correlation to actual causal identification using policy changes as natural experiments.

This project uses Dollar General store entry as the treatment variable in a staggered difference-in-differences design, estimating the causal effect on diabetes and obesity prevalence 5 years post-entry, controlling for income, demographics, and baseline food access.

Data sources: USDA Food Environment Atlas (free Excel), CDC PLACES API (free), Census ACS API (free with key).