RAFI and the University of Chicago Data Science Institute’s Open Spatial Lab Announce the Grocery Gap Atlas
— New Tool Highlights Corporate Concentration in the U.S. Grocery Industry,
Revealing Food Access Inequities and Corporate Dominance —
[Pittsboro, NC, September 16, 2024] — RAFI, in collaboration with the Open Spatial Lab (OSL) at the Data Science Institute of the University of Chicago, recently released the Grocery Gap Atlas. The Atlas geographically visualizes corporate concentration in the U.S. grocery industry, including how it affects food access and who it impacts.
The Grocery Gap Atlas seeks to create opportunities for substantial data analysis that can more reliably inform policy decisions addressing concentration in the grocery industry, engage and educate the public, and highlight potential solutions to poor food access. This tool visualizes current and historical data, creates snapshots of states, counties, and census tracts through reports, and illuminates high-level findings with case studies. Ultimately, RAFI’s goal in partnering on creating this tool is to support advocacy through robust supportive evidence of the correlation between corporate concentration and poor food access, as well as inform the public and create outlets for narrative change. Three such narratives include creative solutions to food apartheid exacerbated by concentration, state-level corporate concentration rates by parent companies, and the impact of the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger.
Initial Findings
The project found that geographies at the intersection of high concentration and poor food access are most at risk of experiencing food insecurity, with rural and non-white communities experiencing food insecurity at disproportionately high rates. Between 2000 and 2023, the U.S. grocery industry’s
CR4 (concentration ratio of four parent companies metric) increased from 42.5% to 67%, an increase of 57.64%, with nearly 70% of all money spent at grocery stores across the country going to four top parent companies per state. As corporations continue to consolidate marginalized regions, Walmart stands out as having captured the highest percentage of market share in the country over the course of two decades.
“The Grocery Gap Atlas starkly reveals the effects of a concentrated food system, where a handful of corporations dictate access to food in our communities driven solely by profit and shareholder interests,” says Edna Rodriguez, RAFI’s Executive Director. “The Grocery Gap Atlas demonstrates that large corporate retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons fail to provide equitable food access to all communities. Instead, they use their market dominance to block competitors from addressing the gaps they create.”
The consolidation of the grocery industry over the past 20 years has impacted competition and food access, and the Grocery Gap Atlas allows for a more robust analysis of this phenomenon. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to estimate market concentration is used to determine market competitiveness — the closer a market is to a monopoly, the higher the concentration and the lower its competition. The harm this poses to the public has tangible consequences, such as:
- Workers suffer worse working conditions due to the lack of accountability.
- Consumers are subject to the whims of corporations that prioritize the bottom line. They are susceptible to price gouging, divestment of grocery options in their neighborhoods, and poor food access.
- Farmers who struggle to break into such a restricted market are robbed of opportunities to feed their communities and generate cash flow for their operations.
- Without a reliable analysis of market consolidation’s pervasiveness and its consequences across the country, corporations can continue to evade accountability and further concentrate the grocery industry.
“RAFI works with hundreds of farmers of color throughout the country, and the majority are either independent livestock producers or diversified specialty crop producers. Independent and cooperative grocery stores and smaller regional grocery chains play a vital role as cornerstone buyers within regional food systems, and when they are acquired or run out of business by dominant national grocery corporations, farmers like those we work with are negatively impacted,” says Aaron Johnson, RAFI’s Policy Co-Director. The runaway consolidation of the grocery sector over the past two decades, especially in rural areas, has drastically reduced these producers’ ability to access markets for their products.”
Learn About the Grocery Gap Atlas
Join RAFI and the Open Spatial Lab on November 1, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. ET by registering for a webinar introducing the Grocery Gap Atlas. This tool visualizes corporate concentration in the U.S. grocery industry, highlighting its impact on food access and community health. The session will feature a live demonstration, key findings, and a discussion on how this tool can be applied to policy and advocacy. Register now to explore how corporate dominance shapes our food systems. For those interested in an in-person demonstration, RAFI and OSL will present on the Grocery Gap Atlas at the 2024 Come To The Table Conference in Rocky Mount.
Support for the Grocery Gap Atlas was provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
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About RAFI
RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International – USA) challenges the root causes of unjust food systems, supporting and advocating for economically, racially, and ecologically just farm communities. We envision a thriving, sustainable, and equitable food system: where farmers and farm workers have dignity and agency; where they are supported by just agricultural policies; where corporations and institutions are accountable to their community. RAFI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and incorporated in 1990.
About The Open Spatial Lab
The Open Spatial Lab (OSL) at the UChicago Data Science Institute creates open source tools and analyses to solve problems using geospatial data science. OSL’s mission is to diversify perspectives included in spatial data science practice and reach a broader audience through more accessible tools for data exploration, management, and visualization. The Lab works with community partners locally and across the U.S. to understand needs and uses to activate data for community and policy decision support. Support was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.