Estimating Service Areas for Farmers' Markets in Southeastern North Carolina Using Two Main Spatial Interaction Models =ESTIMACIÓN DE ÁREAS DE SERVICIO PARA MERCADOS DE GRANJEROS EN EL SURESTE DE CAROLINA DEL NORTE USANDO DOS PRINCIPALES MODELOS DE INTER

In studying rural food security, food-related health effects like obesity and cancer indicate a direct relationship to inequitable access to healthy food options, but there are arguments as to what degree one affects the other. This relationship, if quantitatively measured, can be compared spatially and statistically using digital GIS (Geographic Information System).;This research aims to conceptualize and empirically estimate network service areas for Farmers' Markets based on its spatial interaction with the population at a granular enumeration unit within the Southeastern part of North Carolina. Two gravity models (Huff & Reilly) are used to create quantitative measures of this spatial relationship and the resulting service areas are collocated with age-adjusted death rates caused primarily by endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases. The results show very slight differences between the models used to parametrize Farmers' Market patronage, but show a significant association when its statistical extremes (high/low) are superimposed with that of the age-graded death rate.