Penn State geographers’ in Food Security and Human Health contribute innovative knowledge on the diverse factors that contribute to health vulnerabilities and inequities over spatial and temporal scales. Current and future human health challenges are inherently geographic. Spatial disparities in access to employment, education, health care, and food are accentuated as urban areas grow and lower income regions become integrated into global economic systems. Infectious disease is a product of social and environmental systems and their points of interaction that produce differential vulnerabilities to illness and the conditions that contribute to good health. The United Nations recently emphasized the role of diet and non-communicable human diseases as the primary cause of death and disability in the world.
