Abstract
This study investigated how the socioeconomic status of mothers living in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre relates to food access, focusing on the interactions between socioeconomic status and motivations in the process of food choice and food acquisition. Thus the methodological approach chosen to collect data were in-depth interviews and participant observation with 20 women, which were later classified into different socioeconomic status groups. Through a content analysis method, we identified four main factors that mothers considered in the food choice and food acquisition processes: Price, Variety, Convenience, and Strategies. Our results emphasize that socioeconomic inequality influences food access through enhancing some aspects above others in the food choice process, ensuing in different motivations and ways to purchase food. Therefore, on a local level, access to food stores and food acquisition is deeply influenced by socioeconomic status, hence the different socioeconomic status groups’ eating practices contrasting very much polarized, such phenomenon is seen by the regional food valorization and the distinction of the regional food compared to the “outside” food.
Keywords:
Qualitative research; food environment; food system; food acquisition; food access