Food Security Commons^™

Shaping Effective Food Action Groups: Participant Perspectives On Structure And Stakeholder Involvement In Regional And Remote Western Australia, Stephanie L. Godrich, Sarah Goodwin, Jess Doe, Melissa Stoneham, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Issue Addressed: Food systems strongly influence food security outcomes. Food Action Groups (often termed Food Policy Councils/Coalitions/Networks internationally) offer a co-ordinated and collaborative approach to local food system issues. Their organisational structure and stakeholder membership significantly impact their focus and impact. Therefore, it is imperative to understanding community member and food system stakeholders' perspectives on how regional and remote Australian Food Action Groups should be structured to maximise their impact on local food systems, and identify the most appropriate stakeholders to facilitate and drive their action. Methods: A qualitative study using focus groups, was conducted in regional and remote townships …

The Dirt Underneath My Fingernails: The American Pastoral And 21st-Century Food System Reform, Annabella Isaacson

Scripps Senior Theses

The following is an amalgamation of my experiences personally and vested interests academically, and is meant to be read as just that. As a thesis that combines Environmental Analysis and Writing & Rhetoric degrees, this project challenges traditional academic forms by integrating creative nonfiction and poetry with academic writing and analysis. This thesis attempts to fuse the academic and personal essay into one cohesive piece. The inconclusive nature of the narratives and explorations that follow are intended to represent my process in grappling with the histories and significance of American pastoral literature through the ways in which this genre has …

Beyond Direct Education And Facilitation: Revisiting The Role Of Extension In Community & Regional Food Systems Development, Catie M. Demets, Lindsey Day Farnsworth

Journal of Extension

The fundamental issues that community and regional food systems aim to address are inherently systems problems, yet many Extension programs continue to focus food system development efforts on activities and actors that directly support the food value chain. While important, the impact of these interventions is limited. Drawing from interviews with directors of four of the nation’s leading Community and Regional Food Systems Extension programs, this article makes a case for rethinking Extension’s role in community and regional food systems development in relationship to key leverage points through a typology of Extension roles and corresponding examples.

Legal, Policy, And Environmental Scholars Discuss Global Food Systems At Indiana Law Symposium, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The Indiana University Maurer School of Law and its Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies are hosting scholars from around the country Friday and Saturday (Jan. 19-20) for an interdisciplinary discussion on one of the world’s most prevalent problems—food insecurity.

Data from the World Bank estimate more than 780 million people around the world suffered from chronic hunger in 2022. As climate change affects agricultural production and water accessibility, the problem could worsen in coming years.

“A Fragile Framework: How Global Food Systems Intersect with the International Legal Order, the Environment, and the World’s Populations” will bring together legal, policy, …

Beyond The Plate: Leisure Studies As A Recipe For Food Justice, Julia M. Montano

Undergraduate Honors Theses

To address the issues that have been derived from the dominant forces in our food systems, movements such as food justice strive to find solutions through decolonization and addressing barriers to accessing healthy, affordable and culturally representative food. One group of individuals that are heavily involved in, and impacted by, food justice are college students. This study seeks to explore the extent to which college students’ involvement in food justice is shaped by their free time. With this research, I strive to bring in the voices of college students, while also bridging a gap in the field by bringing leisure …

An Analysis Of Decolonization Efforts In Urban Agriculture: A Pathway To Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Cultural Revitalization, Sarah Fisher

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

My research focuses on applications of urban agriculture, relationships between Indigenous peoples and community-based agriculture projects, and decolonizing food systems. I provide insight on colonialist tendencies, or ways in which the marginalization of Indigenous peoples is deeply entrenched within government, educational, and other leadership settings, as a way to evaluate and restructure urban agriculture projects to serve, represent and heal Native communities. Conventional urban agriculture has many known benefits, including its capacity for food production; however, the extent to which Indigenous communities participate in and benefit from urban agriculture has not been widely studied. Ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from …

Agroecology Curriculum Proposal, Emily Kuhn

Pitzer Senior Theses

The purpose of this research is to establish the viability of an Agroecology major at Pitzer College. I begin by problematizing Industrial Agriculture and making a case for Pitzer College to become a higher education leader in the global paradigm shift towards socially and ecologically just food systems. The proposed curriculum compiles pre-existing classes, objectives expanded from the EA field group, and an internship component embedded at five local land-based learning partner sites. I conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the Environmental Analysis field group as a potential host for the agroecology track, including study abroad …

Pulling The Food System Up By The Roots: How Do We Build An Equitable Food System In The Twin Cities?, Aubrey A. Hagen

Geography Honors Projects

Prior to 2020, food insecurity was already a pervasive problem in the United States, with limited access to adequate, nutritious foods being linked to numerous poor physical and psychological outcomes. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and civil uprisings in response to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, the Twin Cities communities are facing overlapping crises that threaten individual and community wellbeing and food security. How do we build a just, equitable, and “crisis-proof” food system? Drawing from theoretical frameworks in social epidemiology and radical food geography, this paper assesses how the local food system and community food insecurity in …

Redesigning Our Conception Of Local Food Utilizing A Value-Based Approach, Heather Riesenberg

Sustainability and Social Justice

The goal of this study was to design a new method of evaluating and building local food systems which is based on a new conception of how we view local food. Beginning with a review of the current literature on how local food is defined and its apparent goals, I begin to pick apart the dated idea that local needs not be more complex than the 400-mile limit offered by the USDA. Utilizing the literature review, I bring together a host of values that local food seems to (want to) embody and use these to form a pathway toward the …

Fighting Waste And Feeding People: Exploring The Context Of Campus Food Waste And Student Recovery Efforts, Sarah Becker, Max Stout, Maddie Kuklentz, Savona Cerra

Environment and Sustainability Presentations

Wismer on Wheels is dedicated to our mission of not only reducing food waste on campus, but also reducing food insecurity in our wider community. The work of our team of over 35 student volunteers reflects that dedication. This past year we became the official Food Recovery Network chapter for Ursinus, broadened outreach efforts on- and off-campus, and boosted food waste education, all while recovering unprecedented quantities of food. In this presentation, we celebrate the accomplishments of our dedicated volunteers while exploring deeper questions about food waste on the Ursinus campus. Why are we seeing such massive food recovery numbers …

Full Circle: Building A Local Economy Through Pollinator Enterprises In The Food System, Catherine M. Demets

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

As the alternative food movement gains traction in mainstream American society, it is essential to document how enterprises in the movement are building robust local economies. As Eric Holt-Giménez (2010: 1) points out, the movement “has successfully shone the spotlight on hunger and food access in the US, created a drive for more local food, and gotten better policy from the federal to the local level,” yet no assurance exists that our society’s interest in food issues is not a passing fad. Rather, we should ask: “how do we turn initial reforms into lasting food system transformation?” (Holt-Giménez 2010: 1). …

The Human And Environmental Health Impacts Of Food Quality Among Emergency Food Providers, Alexina Cather

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Human health and environmental health are inextricably entwined, and the ways in which we grow, process, package, transport, market, and consume food are critical factors for both human and environmental health. The current industrial food system in the United States has numerous adverse effects on environmental and human health, which significantly impact the millions of food insecure Americans who receive their nutritional needs from emergency food providers (American Public Health Association, 2007). The widespread food insecurity in the United States and the increasing prevalence of obesity among adults and children have drawn attention to the role that emergency food …

Critical Research Needs For Successful Food Systems Adaptation To Climate Change, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Charles A. Francis, Chad Kruger, Carol Barford, Jacob Park, Brent H. Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

There is a growing sense of the fragility of agricultural production in the Global North and South and of increasing risks to food security, as scientific observations confirm significant changes in the Gulf Stream, polar ice, atmospheric CO₂, methane release, and other measures of climate change. This sense is heightened as each of us experiences extreme weather, such as the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, unseasonal temperatures, and erratic seasonality. The central research challenge before us is how global, national, regional, and local food systems may adapt to accelerating climate change stresses and uncertainties to ensure the availability, …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

The New England Food System In 2060: Envisioning Tomorrow's Policy Through Today's Assessments, Margaret Sova Mccabe, Joanne Burke

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay analyzes how the New England states' planning processes are envisioning revitalized local, state, and regional food systems. This Essay has five parts. First, it begins with examining compelling reasons for promoting more sustainable food systems based on national and global trends, and identifies strategies for promoting regional food systems approaches with a brief introduction to the major influences on the national and New England food system. Second, it describes the states' planning efforts and their enabling legislation or source of authority.

The Essay then introduces the New England Food Vision 2060 (the Vision) an emerging discussion of food …