Bill creating healthy food study headed to Barbour

Bill creating healthy food study headed to Barbour

JACKSON — A bill headed to Republican Gov. Haley Barbour’s desk would create an advisory committee to study areas of the state with limited access to healthy food and make recommendations on how to solve the problem.

Rep. Toby Barker, a Republican from Hattiesburg who filed the bill, said he got the idea after attending a conference last fall. Experts there had said lack of physical exercise and a lack of access to healthy foods were the main contributors to obesity, said Barker.

“It actually opened my eyes a lot,” Barker said. “I believe obesity will be our biggest issue for the next 20 or 30 years because of the complications that come from it.”

AP
4/11/11