Lower-income families living in rural areas are facing a 'food desert' as local shop closures and poor public transport leave them at a disproportionately higher risk of hunger and cost of living pressures, research has revealed.
Over half of households with an annual salary below £40,000 per year living in the countryside in Britain are finding it difficult to access affordable and healthy food, including fresh produce and vegetables, a University of Sheffield study has estimated.
The research highlighted a distinct separation between the city and the countryside, with the results of the survey showing those living in relatively affluent rural areas are at a bigger risk of food insecurity than similar households in deprived city neighbourhoods with high poverty levels.
Research showed only seven per cent of lower-income households in deprived urban neighbourhoods lived more than 20 minutes' walk from the nearest store selling fresh fruit and vegetables. In contrast, this figure rose to 52.5 per cent for households with identical salaries in more rural areas of the country, the Guardian reported.
The Red Cross defines food insecurity as when a person is without reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious, healthy food, with many factors affecting this. In February, around one in eight UK households were estimated to have experienced some sort of food insecurity.
Dr Megan Blake, a senior lecturer and food security expert at the University of Sheffield and author of the study, said: 'For struggling middle families in rural areas, food security is not just about bank balance but physical and geographical barriers that make navigating the cost of living crisis nearly impossible.'
'When a struggling household lives in a food desert with no nearby shop and poor quality food options, their risk of food insecurity is over 22 times higher than a household in the same income bracket that can walk five minutes to a budget supermarket. It is not just about being poor. It is about the environment punishing you for being poor. Ironically, these are the regions that grow the food we eat and are central to the UK's food production.'
The rise in food and energy charges, the disappearance of village stores, scant public transport options, and grocery food logistics systems which favour cities come together to produce food deserts and heighten the risks of food insecurity.
One person living in the countryside said in the study: 'Village life or country way of life is not all it is cracked up to be. Being financially very poor and a lack of access to food just do not help.'
The Sheffield study took into account 14,158 households in England and Scotland earning under £40,000, stating that persistent household food insecurity 'exposes deep cracks in the structural foundations of our communities' and is associated with poor mental and physical health, stress, and social stigma.
As part of the study, it is calling for a national review of areas with poor access to food shops, honing in on rural areas, post-industrial and coastal communities, and more support for low-cost and subsidised food retail alternatives such as food clubs and social grocers.
A government spokesperson told the publication: 'Our goal is to build a food system that ensures everyone can access safe, affordable and healthy food. Through outcomes set out in our Good Food Cycle we are tackling food insecurity head-on, improving access to good food in deprived communities and delivering on our manifesto commitment to end mass dependence on food parcels. We have already expanded free breakfast clubs, widened free school meals to half a million more children, and proudly removed the two-child limit on benefits, lifting 450,000 children out of poverty.'
