Food Security Commons^™

On The Path To A Resilient Urban Food System In A Rural State: A Mixed-Method Needs Assessment Of Urban Producers And County Extension Agents In Arkansas, Catherine Elizabeth Dobbins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project utilized a mixed-method needs assessment approach to urban agriculture in Arkansas, a predominately-rural state. Chapter II was a qualitative study, using semi-structured, in-depth interviews, that investigated the perceptions, needs, and experiences of Arkansas urban farmers and their interactions with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service (CES). Interviews were conducted with 16 urban farmers in Northwest and Central Arkansas. The interview data revealed individualized needs based on the size, years in operation, and mission of each urban farmer interviewed. General needs were determined, such as market pricing, co-ops, and access to appropriate equipment, but generally …

Measuring Cocoa Agricultural Productivity: A Spatio-Temporal Econometric Approach, Yurlady Chaverra-Palacios

Master's Theses

A significant increase of 50.5 percent in the national production of cocoa was registered between 2011 and 2015 in Colombia. Nevertheless, 5,890 tons were imported in 2015 to supply domestic demand. Unlike other crops, the production of cocoa has made a significant contribution to the income of approximately 38,000 families of which 90 percent are small farm-producers with very little capital. Facilitating credit for investment is one of the main strategies of the national government to increase cocoa productivity. Correspondingly, the impact of the credit for investment on the cocoa agricultural productivity and if those investments have a spillover effect …

Nutrition And Vulnerable Groups, Amanda Devine, Tanya Lawlis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Food insecurity is a complex 'wicked' problem that results from a range of unstable and uncertain physical, social, cultural, and economic factors that limit access to nutritious food...

The Effect Of Foreign Direct Investment On Food Security: A Case Study From Rural Mozambique, Kali Fleming

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Poverty and food insecurity in the sub-Saharan African region have been exacerbated by the worst drought in 23 years, which impacted 25 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa from 2015-2016. In Mozambique alone it was estimated that the 2015-2016 drought resulted in over 1.5 million people becoming food insecure (FAO, 2016). To mitigate the increasing problem of household food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Food Program recommends job creation to target the most vulnerable populations. Job creation is often the result of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, critics of FDI often cite concerns of human rights abuses, inadequate working …

Legislative And Executive Branch Developments Affecting The United States Department Of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Sheila Fleischhacker, Alyssa Moran, Sara N. Bleich

Journal of Food Law & Policy

For more than forty years, the United States Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly Food Stamps) has offered nutrition assistance to nearly forty million eligible individuals and families each month. This article first provides a brief overview of the evolution of the United States’ largest domestic food security and nutrition safety net program. Then, the article reviews Congressional actions taken regarding SNAP during the 2018 Farm Bill deliberations, appropriations for fiscal years 2017 through 2020, and oversight (in)activities. The article focuses on Congressional activities regarding block grants; participant eligibility; benefit adequacy, issuance, and redemption; and strengthening SNAP’s …

Diversity And Health: Three Essays Exploring Social Context And Outcomes, Aaron Novotny

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the world becomes more diverse and more integrated, examining how racial, political, and food diversity influences individuals’ consumption, behaviors, and health becomes more paramount than ever before. The United States grows more racially diverse with large racial and ethnic shifts on the horizon regarding the proportion of the population. With the U.S. population expected to become more diverse, individuals’ political affiliation becoming more prevalent to personal identity, and food security becoming more problematic; we examine how racial, political, and food diversity influences individuals’ consumption and preferences with the intent to understand what changes in health and preferences may occur. …

Food Insecurity Awareness, Acknowledgment, And Actions On A University Campus, Heather Adams

Undergraduate Research Conference

The purpose of this pilot study was to understand student awareness of food insecurities. Subjects for the study were students enrolled in a Foundations in Human Sciences course at a university located in East Texas (n=55). Students were asked to complete an online survey concerning knowledge of food insecurities, impacts of budgeting on food buying, previous personal food insecurity, skipped or had less nutritious meals due to the cost, and the food pantry on campus.

Regenerative Grazing And The Benefits Of Livestock On Soils In Northern New South Wales, Raymond Mooney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Conventional cattle grazing has received criticism for environmental degradation in the past. Regenerative grazing and the principles of regenerative agriculture show encouraging signs that proper livestock management and planned grazing can reverse degradation and mitigate climate change. An emphasis on soil health and increasing soil carbon and organic matter levels reveals positive feedback for environmental health, the economic security of farmers, and nutritional health of consumers.

In this study I looked to investigate the benefits of regenerative agriculture, reasons why it is being practiced, and the extent it is practiced within the grazing in comparison to traditional methods within Northern …

Humanitarian Assistance In Protracted Emergencies: Rethinking The Role Of Food Aid In Adjumani, Victoria Puglia

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Humanitarian food assistance is incredibly susceptible to funding cuts, which reduces the quantity of food available to refugees. If refugees depend solely on food aid for survival, the implication of reductions is increased food insecurity at a household level. The Government of Uganda champions a self-reliance strategy that has failed to support refugees to the desired extent, especially when food rations are low. This study aims to assess the impact of humanitarian food assistance on the socioeconomic structures of refugee settlements in Adjumani, Uganda to understand the consequences of unstable food aid. The research was conducted over a four-week period. …

The Impacts Of Warming Coffee: The Climate Change-Coffee-Migration Nexus In The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Connor Lynch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As climate change continues to threaten every corner of the world, one of the key features of the 21st century is migration, as a response to the myriad of effects related to a warming planet. This paper seeks to analyze the role of climate change as a motive for migration. The climate change-migration nexus is illustrated in this paper by revealing how slow-onset effects of climate change jeopardize the production of coffee in the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), a region that is particularly vulnerable to the many effects. Thousands of people who depend on coffee production around Guatemala, …

South West Food Community: A Place-Based Pilot Study To Understand The Food Security System, Stephanie Louise Godrich, Jennifer Payet, Deborah Brealey, Melinda Edmunds, Melissa Stoneham, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The objectives of this study were to: (i) Identify initiatives supporting healthy food availability, access and utilisation in the South West region of Western Australia (WA); and (ii) understand how they were functioning as a system to enhance community-level food security (FS). This study used a novel approach; a Systemic Innovation Lab, to interview initiative leaders/stakeholders about their FS initiative. Initiative characteristics measured included those which were associated with creating the effective conditions for FS systems change. Information was uploaded to an innovative online tool, creating a 'transition card' (matrix) of initiatives and partnering organisations. Fifty-one participants reported on 52 …

Building More Climate Change Resilient Fishing Communities: Focus On The Icare4fishers Iniative, Maria Francesca O. Tan, Miriam R. Nguyen

CPAf Policy Brief

This Policy Brief is based on the results of a research project funded by the Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Agricultural Research. Titled “Developing Strategies Towards More Resilient Fishing Communities Amidst Climate Change: The Case of Major Lakes in Luzon,” the project was conducted from 2017 to 2019.

Social Determinants Of Health Theory: Policy Entry Points For Healthcare Providers, Kiah R. Vandergrift

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a shifting paradigm in the U.S. healthcare system that will re-define the role that the healthcare provider plays in the production of health. It does this by first acknowledging two differing economic theories on the production of health: Human Capital Theory and Social Determinants of Health theory, and how both schools of thought have contributed to the paradigm that healthcare providers only play a role in the end stages of health production - to heal those who are already ill. However, policy, payment, and delivery system reforms have begun to force healthcare providers to re-think how they …

Food Pantries And Stigma: Users’ Concerns And Public Support, Peter A. Kindle, Mckayla Foust-Newton, Marissa Reis, Margaret Gell

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

This study compares the perception of stigma measured as social distance between users (n = 40) and non-users (n = 202) of local food pantries in the Upper Midwest. Utilizing the concept of social distance to measure social disapproval and stigma with a new Food Pantry Stigma Scale, these nonprobability results indicated that users’ perception of stigma was significantly higher than the non-using public (Cohen’s d = 1.56). These findings suggest that public support for need-based use of local food pantries in the Upper Midwest is substantially higher than those facing food insecurity anticipate.

In The Round: The Future Of Food, Teddy Bekele, Jane Black, Mitchell Davis, Jon De La Para Harper, Natalie Dinicola, Virginia Dunleavy, Sam Fiorello, Kimberly Flowers, Raj Gollamudi, Daniel Hewett, Jak Knowles, Tom Laurita, Robert Lawrence, Maureen Mazurek, Robyn Metcalfe, Mike Miille, Hari Pulapaka, Jenneffer Pulapaka, Patricia Risica, Simone Sala, Chase Sova, Karen Washingon, Tom Weis, Center For Complexity

Future of Food

In collaboration with PopTech, the Center for Complexity (CfC) hosted a two day convening in March 2019 to discuss the future of food, conducted in-the-round. Conversations-in-the-round offer an experimental and collaborative forum where a variety of perspectives collide to reimagine how we should approach navigating complex challenges.

30 professionals, community leaders, ag-tech startups, policymakers, local activists, global aid administrators, and many other important voices in the food industry were in attendance. We did not set out to create solutions, rather we devoted our time to exploration — a process that allowed us to assess, discover, reality-check, and strategically plan the …

Food Deserts In Poor, Urban Areas, Isha Naik

Petersheim Academic Exposition

No abstract provided.

Agricultural Technology Adoption And Contract Participation As A Mechanism For Enhancing School Lunch Programs: The Case Of Women Farmers In Ghana, Georgette Owusu-Amankwah

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

The dissertation consists of three studies that seek to identify school caterer and women farmer constraints that have hindered the buy-local policy mandate of the Ghana School Lunch program, and to explore gendered agricultural technology adoption and contract participation strategies that could facilitate the policy mandate.

The first study documents the constraints that have minimized caterer purchases of school food items from local farmers. The study presents an overview of the Ghana School Lunch Program and the buy-local policy mandate issued to school caterers. Survey data and descriptive analysis are employed to document and discuss the constraints that prevent school …

Through The Eyes Of Locals: A Changing Climate In Bolivia, Jacob D. Rex

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Deforestation and Agricultural Land-Use Change in Bolivia as a Function of Socio-Economic Realities.

This research combines semi-structured interviews of key informants and local participants, as well as field observations, which were conducted between January and April of 2019 in the Departments of Santa Cruz & Chuquisaca.

Constraints And Opportunities In Community-Led Food Justice Models, Teya Cuellar

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Non-profits that do community-led food justice work with lower income communities face particular constraints and opportunities. This study examined those constraints and opportunities through participant observation of one such organization and interviews with four other organizations. Findings include the diversity of definitions for “community-led,” assets that can help or constrain the organization, and diversity in defining “scaling up” their organization models and missions. The organizations that heavily focused on lower income consumers noted tensions with the board of the non- profit and lack of engagement of consumers. I conclude by critiquing using language such as “models,” “scaling up,” or “replicating” …

The Role Of Place In Community Cooperative Food Markets In Lexington, Kentucky, Emily Rodes Spencer

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Food justice movements focus on providing communities with local, sustainable, culturally appropriate, healthy food while empowering local economic systems that allow for autonomy of both producers and consumers (Caruso, C., 2014; Cadieux, K., 2015; Hayes, C. & Carbone, E., 2015). However, current food justice movements often price out and leave behind large portions of the population. Research has shown that engagement with local food systems contribute to feelings of place attachment and a sense of place (Solin, J., 2017; Alkon, A., 2011). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between volunteers at two alternative, cooperative community food …