Rural Poverty, Food Access, and Public Health Outcomes

Public health within the United States is becoming a concern not only from the perspective of rapidly expanding health care costs but also in terms of economic productivity. Obesity and other diet-related diseases are said to becoming epidemic. At the same time, in both rural and poorer urban areas, the notion of “food deserts”—geographic areas with limited access to and availability of affordable healthy foods—is gathering significant attention. While the complex relationships between poverty and health outcomes are well-documented, it is not clear if food access changes these relationships, especially in the rural United States.