agriculture Article Interactions between Food Environment and (Un)healthy Consumption: Evidence along a Rural-Urban Transect in Viet Nam Trang Nguyen 1,* , Huong Pham Thi Mai 2, Marrit van den Berg 1, Tuyen Huynh Thi Thanh 2 and Christophe Béné 3 1 Development Economics Group, Wageningen University & Research, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands;
[email protected] 2 International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Asia Office, Hanoi 100000, Vietnam;
[email protected] (H.P.T.M.);
[email protected] (T.H.T.T.) 3 International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali 763537, Colombia;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: There is limited evidence on food environment in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the application of food environment frameworks and associated metrics in such settings. Our study examines how food environment varies across an urban-peri-urban-rural gradient from three sites in North Viet Nam and its relationship with child undernutrition status and household consumption of processed food. By comparing three food environments, we present a picture of the food environment in a typical emerging economy with specific features such as non-market food sources (own production and food transfers) and dominance of the informal retail sector. We combined quantitative data (static geospatial data at neighborhood level and household survey) and Citation: Nguyen, T.; Pham Thi Mai, qualitative data (in-depth interviews with shoppers). We found that across the three study sites, H.; van den Berg, M.; Huynh Thi traditional open and street markets remain the most important outlets for respondents. Contrary to Thanh, T.; Béné, C.