scholarly journals Interviewing Baltimore Older Adults About Food System Change: Oral History as a Teaching Tool

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni A. Neff ◽  
Linnea I. Laestadius ◽  
Susan DiMauro ◽  
Anne M. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
System Change ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Food Cultures ◽  
Oral History Interviews

Urban food systems have changed considerably over the past half century. Older adults’ descriptions of place-based, personal food system history can help inform student learning and may contribute to expert understanding of food system change. Structural and social shifts in food purchasing and consumption contribute to diet-related disease and loss of historical food cultures in cities. Modern efforts to improve food systems are rarely informed by history, despite the potential benefits. Students performed oral history interviews with Baltimore older adults. Transcripts were analyzed using an inductive grounded theory approach. Interviewees described a shift from food they perceived as natural and healthy to food seen as lacking freshness, with additives and poor flavor. Many mistrusted the food industry including retailers. Some emphasized benefits of modern changes such as reduced preparation time. Despite low incomes, interviewee concerns went well beyond food prices. We describe and reflect on insights from the oral histories, while presenting a case study of the use of oral history in graduate education. To our knowledge, this is the first paper describing oral history with older adults focused on the food system.

scholarly journals Wayne Roberts: Food systems thinker, public intellectual, “actionist”

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Ballamingie ◽  
Charles Levkoe
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Food Studies ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Oral History Interviews

Wayne Roberts (1944–2021) was a food systems thinker, public intellectual, and “actionist.” This text was developed from a series of oral history interviews conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. It touches upon several of the key themes Wayne addressed during the interviews: adopting a food systems approach; employing the power of ideas; identifying solutions and being propositional; acknowledging progress for political credit; enhancing impact through media, old and new; working strategically to “seed” then “tip”; playing ball to influence government; and, forming alliances with academics and other champions. In addition, we provide selected links to additional resources from Wayne himself. In this article, which inaugurates the Interviews section of Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, we aim to do justice to the gift of Wayne’s experiences and knowledge by sharing a selection and synthesis of his words.

scholarly journals Seasonality of diet costs reveals food system performance in East Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (49) ◽  
pp. eabc2162
Author(s):  
Yan Bai ◽  
Elena N. Naumova ◽  
William A. Masters
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Food Environments ◽  
Nutrient Requirements ◽  
Nutritional Security ◽  
Retail Prices ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
Significant Intensity ◽  
Climate And Society

Seasonal fluctuations in food prices reflect interactions between climate and society, measuring the degree to which predictable patterns of crop growth and harvest are offset by storage and trade. Previous research on seasonality in food systems has focused on specific commodities. This study accounts for substitution between items to meet nutritional needs, computing seasonal variation in local food environments using monthly retail prices for 191 items across Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania from 2002 through 2016. We computed over 25,000 least-cost diets meeting nutrient requirements at each market every month and then measured the magnitude and timing of seasonality in diet costs. We found significant intensity in Malawi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia (10.0, 6.3, and 4.0%, respectively), driven primarily by synchronized price rises for nutrient-dense foods. Results provide a metric to map nutritional security, pointing to opportunities for more targeted investments to improve the year-round delivery of nutrients.

scholarly journals The Actors, Rules and Regulations Linked to Export Horticulture Production and Access to Land and Water as Common Pool Resources in Laikipia County, Northwest Mount Kenya

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariah Ngutu ◽  
Salome Bukachi ◽  
Charles Olungah ◽  
Boniface Kiteme ◽  
Fabian Kaeser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Common Pool Resources ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
Semi Arid

Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy, supporting up to 80% of rural livelihoods. Kenya’s export horticulture is currently the leading agriculture subsector in Kenya and is regarded as an agro-industrial food system based on the economies of scale, producing for mass markets outside of the production area. Much of the food consumed from Kenya’s export horticulture sector has undergone multiple transformations and been subject to a host of formal and informal institutions (rules, regulations, standards, norms and values). Kenya’s export horticulture production, driven by rising global demands, has expanded beyond the ‘traditional’ mountainous high yielding areas into arid and semi-arid (ASALs) zones such as Laikipia County, Northwest of Mount Kenya. An anthropological study of export horticulture viewed as an agro-industrial food system in Laikipia County was carried out utilizing the new institutionalism theory in anthropology to explore the actors, rules and regulations linked to export horticulture production and access to common pool resources. The study employed qualitative data collection methods to collect data over an extended field work period of eight months. The data from 40 in-depth interviews complemented by unstructured observations, four focus group discussions and five key informant interviews was transcribed, coded and analyzed thematically based on the grounded theory approach. This paper, therefore, presents findings from the qualitative case study on the actors as well as the rules and regulations (the institutional settings) of export horticulture production and access to common pool resources from an emic perspective of the involved actors. The formal and informal rules and regulations which form the institutional setting in this food system are viewed as changing and defining the operations of the food system’s access and management of common pool resources, namely water and land. With the agro-industrial food system competing with local food systems such as agro-pastoralism and small holder agriculture for these scarce resources in a semi-arid zone, there is potential for conflict and reduced production, as well as overall benefits to the different actors in the study area.

scholarly journals The Impact of Covid-19 on Livelihoods and Food Security

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thompson, John Thompson, John ◽  
Njuguna Ndung’u ◽  
Miguel Albacete ◽  
Abid Q. Suleri ◽  
Junaid Zahid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Food System ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Equity Core

Studies of livelihoods and food systems since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 have shown a consistent pattern: the primary risks to food and livelihood security are at the household level. Covid-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. The studies included in this Research for Policy and Practice Report and supported by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Programme span several continents and are coordinated by leading research organisations with a detailed understanding of local food system dynamics and associated equity and livelihood issues in their regions: (1) the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa; (2) supporting small and medium enterprises, food security, and evolving social protection mechanisms to deal with Covid-19 in Pakistan; and (3) impact of Covid-19 on family farming and food security in Latin America: evidence-based public policy responses.

scholarly journals Nutrition transition in Vietnam: changing food supply, food prices, household expenditure, diet and nutrition outcomes

Food Security ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1141-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody Harris ◽  
Phuong Hong Nguyen ◽  
Lan Mai Tran ◽  
Phuong Nam Huynh
Keyword(s):  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Vegetable Consumption ◽  
Nutrition Transition ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Fresh Food ◽  
Vegetables And Fruits ◽  
Transition Issues

Abstract While literature has noted the presence of a nutrition transition in terms of changing nutrition outcomes in Vietnam, very limited evidence linking changes in upstream food system factors to downstream diet and nutrition changes exists. Combining available data from different sources and analyzing it through a conceptual food systems framework, our study examines different pathways of nutrition transition through food supply, food prices, household food expenditures, diets, and nutrition outcomes in Vietnam. Our findings show that while Vietnam is at the start of its nutrition transition, change is happening rapidly. Undernutrition is falling, obesity is rising, and nutrition-related chronic diseases account for a significant burden of diseases and death. In terms of changes in healthful foods, the supply of vegetables and fruits is plentiful, and expenditure on vegetables remains consistent and small. Notably however, vegetable consumption has dropped, and increasing meat and milk consumption have been double-edged swords for nutrition. In terms of foods associated with the negative sides of the nutrition transition, the availability of sweets and sweetened beverages has risen in recent years, with oils and fats rising less. The expenditure share on food eaten away from home, in many contexts a marker for less healthful diets, has increased over time. While these changes are typical of a nutrition transition, Vietnam is also somewhat of an outlier in some respects: wet markets and daily fresh food purchases continue to dominate food purchasing behaviour, and food eaten away from home means a different thing in a country renowned for its diverse and healthy street food and roadside restaurant culture. While this study brings together important data on the food system drivers of a nutrition transition in Vietnam, it cannot link each of these issues into a standard statistical model of change due to data gaps at different levels, calling for data collection improvement in future diet and food systems research. Vietnamese health policy explicitly acknowledges nutrition transition issues, with targets for obesity reduction. This work on the food system drivers of the nutrition transition points to the need to further adapt policy in other sectors beyond health, however. At the same time as making nutrient-rich foods more accessible, nutrient-poor or ultra-processed foods need to be made less accessible and desirable if additional income is to contribute to a healthy diet in limiting Vietnam’s emerging nutrition transition.

scholarly journals Food Security

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Aparna Nayak
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
World Population ◽  
Developing Regions

Global food security is one of the most unrelenting issues for humanity, and agricultural production is not sufficient in accomplishing this. However, earlier analyses of agricultural food production barely ever bring out the contrasts associated with economic development and different climatic zones. The world population is increasing day by day and climate change will be causing more extreme weather, higher temperatures and changed precipitation. The crop contributes about 20 % of the total dietary calories and proteins globally. There is 1% annual growth in food demand in the developing regions. The developing regions (including China and Central Asia) account for roughly 53 % of the total harvested area and 50 % of the production. Although, unmatched productivity growth from the Green Revolution since the 1960s dramatically transformed world food production, benefitting both producers and consumers through low production costs and low food prices. One of the key challenges today is to replace today’s food system with new ones for better sustainability. While the Green Revolution freed essential ecosystems from conversion to agriculture, it also created its own ecological problems. Moreover productivity increase is now slow or stagnant. Attaining the productivity gains needed to ensure food security will therefore require more than a repeat performance of the Green Revolution of the past. Future demand will need to be achieved through sustainable intensification that combines better crop resistance plants, adaptation to warmer climates, and less use of water, fuel, fertilizer, and labor. Meeting these challenges will require concerted efforts in research and innovation to develop and set up feasible solutions. Necessary investment will be required to realize sustainable productivity growth through better technologies and policy and institutional innovations that facilitate farmer adoption and adaptation. The persistent lessons from the Green Revolution and the recent efforts for sustainable escalation of food systems in South Asia and other developing nations will definitely providing useful insights for the future.

scholarly journals How food systems change (or not): governance implications for system transformation processes

Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cees Leeuwis ◽  
Birgit K. Boogaard ◽  
Kwesi Atta-Krah
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
System Change ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Rational Engineering ◽  
Governance Strategies ◽  
Political Challenge ◽  
Discourse Coalitions ◽  
And Control

AbstractThis paper argues that supporting food system transformation requires more than obtaining science-based understanding and analysis of how components in the system interact. We argue that changing the emergent properties of food systems (what we call food system synthesis) is a socio-political challenge that is affected by competing views regarding system boundaries and purposes, and limited possibilities for central steering and control. We point to different traditions of ‘systems thinking’ that each emphasize particular types of interventions for achieving system change, and argue that food systems are best looked at as complex multi-dimensional systems. This implies that we need to move beyond rational engineering approaches to system change, and look for approaches that anticipate and accommodate inherent social tensions and struggles in processes of changing food system dynamics and outcomes. Through a case study on the persistence of an undesired emergent property of food systems (i.e. poverty) we demonstrate that a multi-level perspective (MLP) on system transformation is useful in understanding both how food system transformation has happened in the past, and how desirable transformations is prevented from happening today. Based on such insights we point to key governance strategies and principles that may be used to influence food system transformation as a non-linear and long-term process of competition, negotiation and reconfiguration. Such strategies include the creation and nurturing of diversity in the system, as well as process interventions aimed at visioning, destabilization and formation of discourse coalitions. Such governance interventions imply a considerable re-orientation of investments in food system transformation as well as a rethinking of the role that policy-makers may play in either altering or reproducing undesirable system outcomes.

scholarly journals Food Systems Sustainability: An Examination of Different Viewpoints on Food System Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Haysom ◽  
E. Gunilla Almered Olsson ◽  
Mirek Dymitrow ◽  
Paul Opiyo ◽  
Nick Taylor Buck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
System Change ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
System Research ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Perceived Needs ◽  
Urban Food System ◽  
Global Food

Global food insecurity levels remain stubbornly high. One of the surest ways to grasp the scale and consequence of global inequality is through a food systems lens. In a predominantly urban world, urban food systems present a useful lens to engage a wide variety of urban (and global) challenges—so called ‘wicked problems.’ This paper describes a collaborative research project between four urban food system research units, two European and two African. The project purpose was to seek out solutions to what lay between, across and within the different approaches applied in the understanding of each city’s food system challenges. Contextual differences and immediate (perceived) needs resulted in very different views on the nature of the challenge and the solutions required. Value positions of individuals and their disciplinary “enclaves” presented further boundaries. The paper argues that finding consensus provides false solutions. Rather the identification of novel approaches to such wicked problems is contingent of these differences being brought to the fore, being part of the conversation, as devices through which common positions can be discovered, where spaces are created for the realisation of new perspectives, but also, where difference is celebrated as opposed to censored.

scholarly journals Food, Eating, and Quality of Life in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 61-61
Author(s):  
Anna Vaudin ◽  
Nadine Sahyoun
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Maryland College ◽  
Community Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract Objectives Research that explores older adults’ perspectives on how food and eating impact their quality of life (QOL) is limited. The objectives of this study were to 1) understand the factors that impact QOL, both positively and negatively, and 2) understand the effect of food and eating on QOL, from the perspective of older adults living in the community. Methods Twenty five community-dwelling older adults completed in-person, semi-structured interviews. A grounded theory approach was used to assign codes to the participant's responses and organize them into categories representing similar concepts. Relationships between the categories were used to form a framework based on the data. Results Five main themes emerged from the data, representing categories of factors that influence QOL (health and vitality; independence; mental and emotional well-being; socialization and support; activities, both inside and outside the home). Four themes were identified in respondents’ answers explaining how food and eating affect QOL (food access and choice; food preparation; health and vitality; food enjoyment). Due to the interaction between the themes and the other factors in the framework, the results show that food and eating have a broad effect on QOL. Conclusions Many factors that affect QOL are modifiable, and the results of this study can be used as a basis for the development and tailoring of community interventions to improve older adults’ QOL. Additionally, to measure the effects of such interventions, measurement tools that include both physiological and non-physiological effects of food and eating on QOL are necessary. Funding Sources Healthy Food Systems Emerging Innovators Grant Program, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland, College Park

scholarly journals Can Labelling Create Transformative Food System Change for Human and Planetary Health? A Case Study of Meat

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Parker ◽  
Rachel Carey ◽  
Fiona Haines ◽  
Hope Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Food System ◽  
System Change ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Planetary Health ◽  
Regulatory Governance ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Food Equity

Background: One important way to transform food systems for human and planetary health would be to reduce the production and consumption of animals for food. The over-production and over-consumption of meat and dairy products is resource-intensive, energy-dense and creates public health and food equity risks, including the creation of superbugs and antimicrobial resistance, contamination and pollution of land and waterways, and injustice to animals and humans who work in the sector. Yet the continuing and expanding use of animals is entrenched in food systems. One policy response frequently suggested by parties from all sectors (industry, government and civil society) is voluntary or mandatory labelling reforms to educate consumers about the healthiness and sustainability of food products, and thus reduce demand. This paper evaluates the pitfalls and potentials of labelling as an incremental regulatory governance stepping-stone to transformative food system change. Methods: We use empirical data from a study of the regulatory politics of animal welfare and environmental claims on Australian products together with an ecological regulation conceptual approach to critically evaluate the potential of labelling as a regulatory mechanism. Results: We show that labelling is generally ineffective as a pathway to transformative food system change for three reasons: it does not do enough to redistribute power away from dominant actors to those harmed by the food system; it is vulnerable to greenwashing and reductionism; and it leads to market segmentation rather than collective political action. Conclusion: We suggest the need for regulatory governance that is ecological by design. Labelling can only be effective when connected to a broader suite of measures to reduce overall production and consumption of meat. We conclude with some recommendations as to how public health advocates and policy entrepreneurs might strategically use and contest labelling and certification schemes to build support for transformative food system change and to avoid the regressive consequences of labelling.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document