Social and ethnic-racial inequities of physical accessibility to street markets in Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil

Abstract

Street markets in Brazil are important spaces for the commercialization of fruits and vegetables (FV), which access by the urban population is considered one of the key aspects for the socalled “healthy cities”. This study adopts an ecological approach with geographic-spatial emphasis to describe accessibility to street markets in Porto Alegre, Brazil, by four different modes of transport (walking, bicycle, bus and car). The distribution of markets across the city is more balanced than other food establishments, although physical accessibility is highly uneven across modes of transport: the ability to reach a market on foot in 10 minutes or less is restricted to no more than 25 % of the population, while almost 90% can do it by driving a car. More importantly, the study found a direct and positive association between levels of accessibility to street markets and income: wealthier areas can reach fairs in less time using any mode of transport than poorer ones (p<0.001). In addition, regions with a majority of white inhabitants have significantly better accessibility to the fairs on foot, by bicycle and by bus (p<0.01) than regions with a majority of Black, Indigenous or yellow populations. Our study highlights the importance of addressing inequalities in access to healthy foods.