Regionalizing Food Systems for Resilience: A Conversation with Dr. Patrick Baron - WNC Health Policy Podcast Ep. 18
Image credits: Dr. Patrick Baron (background image: Khoirul Arif)
This episode kicks off a new series on food access and health in WNC as we approach the end of 2025. We start with epidemiologist Dr. Patrick Baron, Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Integrated Health Sciences at Western Carolina University, helps us understand the big picture for food security and resilience in WNC after multiple hits to the region’s food systems infrastructure, including:
The end of emergency allotments for COVID-19 in the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) program in 2023
Hurricane Helene in September 2024
Cuts to the USDA in Spring 2025
The One Big Bill Act of July 2025
In this podcast, we talk with Dr. Baron about the relationship of food access and population health, his 2023 work with MountainWise on rural food access and what lessons from Helene can teach us about resilience and recovery as we brace for federal cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, and the USDA.
Coming up: In future installments of this series, we’ll look at examples of community-led efforts to support food security in WNC.
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About the WNC Health Policy Podcast: In each installment, we speak about different public health strategies for improving health and well-being in Western North Carolina (WNC). The WNC HPl is a collaboration between the NC Center for Health & Wellness at UNCA and MAHEC, with generous support from the Dogwood Health Trust.
Individual opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this podcast are those of the author(s)/interviewee(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the WNC Health Policy Initiative or its host institutions of the University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA), Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) or our funders.
Transcript
AR: Andrew Rainey (WNC HPI)
PB: Patrick Baron
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