Highland County, VA: A Food Desert
The research being conducted in this paper is how being located in a food desert affects obesity rates on local residents. I focused on the food desert of Highland County, VA and the effects of living in a food desert on the residents and how the residents overcome this issue. I also correlated location of a food desert to the distance from the nearest emergency room. The methods I used for conducting this research was to compare obesity rates within Highland County to obesity rates in Virginia and the United States. I also research why and how Highland County is a food desert and compared this food desert to other food deserts in the Appalachian region.
A food desert as defined by the US Department of Agriculture is an area where people cannot readily access healthy, affordable foods (Richards, 2012). These areas are usually found in low-income parts of the country where it is difficult for residents to get to a grocery store to buy healthy foods (Richards, 2012). In Highland County, the median income is $44,000 compared to the median income in the state of Virginia, $66,000 (Department of Numbers, 2018). Within Highland County, there are no actual grocery stores, no fast food restaurants, and no hospital.
Highland County has zero grocery stores in the entire county. It has one discount store, a Dollar General where most people do light grocery shopping and seven convenient stores (Grant et. al, 2014). Most residents travel at least thirty minutes to an hour weekly to grocery shop at a store such as Kroger or Food Lion. Most residents also use the corner sores and dollar general for items such as bread, milk, and eggs.
With the lack of access to grocery stores, nutrition and diet are factors in the well-being of Highland County residents. In most rural areas in Virginia, BMIs are inversely related to the number of grocery stores present (Richards, 2012). The unique thing about Highland County is there are no fast food restaurants in the county. Living in a food desert can have negative health implications including high blood pressure, diabetes, and especially obesity. In a study conducted that researched childhood obesity and food deserts suggested that the having more supermarkets in a location indicated lower rates of childhood obesity, meaning that in food deserts, childhood obesity is shown to be increased (Howlett et. al, 2015). In Highland County specifically, the obesity rate is around 26% which is actually lower than the national average obesity rate being around 39% (Overweight & Obesity, 2018). This is very interesting considering the extensive research done between the connection of food deserts and obesity. Many factors could play a role in this, including Highland County having no fast food restaurants so meal supplementation from unhealthier options such as McDonalds are not option for the residents. Many residents also grow their own food in gardens and raise their own animals to eat. Hunting is a main resource in Highland County as well, where most residents are able to kill their own food.
Living in a food desert can also correlate to a decrease in healthcare accessibility. In Highland County, the closest emergency room is 45 minutes away. Living in a food desert has a correlation to many health disparities so living this far away from and emergency room can be dangerous. Highland County is not the only place with this problem. While looking further into this, I found out that the same thing is present in Wise County, VA and also in Shenandoah County, VA where the closest emergency room for certain residents can be further than 30 minutes away.
Works Cited
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