By Matt Combs, The Register-Herald
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Access to and the need for fresh vegetables is central in combating health issues in West Virginia.
The term “food desert” is often thrown about to discuss the lack of access to fresh foods, especially in the rural reaches of the state. West Virginia’s food problem, however, isn’t just about access.
According to West Virginia University researcher Nicolas Zegre, a forest hydrologist who is studying the impact of climate change on human-built systems, approximately 63 percent of all the fruits and vegetables consumed in the Mountain State are grown in the Central Valley of California, an area more than 2,000 miles away that has dealt with extreme water concerns over the recent past and faces an uncertain food production future.
The dependency on other regions for healthy foods is only exacerbated by the fact that the state contains very little activity centered on growing healthy vegetables.
According to the recently released United States Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture, only 2,651 acres in the state in 2017 were used for growing vegetables for sale. …