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Survey finds continued urban-rural food security gaps

There continues to be a gap between rural and urban food security, according to the latest Purdue University Consumer Food Insights Report.

Jayson Lusk is the director of the Purdue Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability,

“Rural households were more likely to be food insecure, meaning they had a hard time affording enough food to eat relative to urban households,” he says. “Going along with that, rural households also said that their overall satisfaction and happiness with their diets was lower than urban households.”

Fourteen percent of all households and 23 percent of rural households are facing food insecurity. The survey also found that 71 percent of consumers in urban areas and 61 percent of consumers in rural areas are satisfied with their diets.

He tells Brownfield “on the one hand this is perhaps a bit surprising because rural households are closer to where there food is being grown and produced, but on the other hand maybe it’s not too surprising because there have been concerns over the years about food deserts and the distance people have to travel to buy the food they want. The greater food insecurity rate among rural households might not be too surprising in light of some of those previous concerns.”

The monthly survey of more than 1,000 consumers was conducted in mid-April.