Food Studies Commons^™

How Do Consumers’ Beliefs About Product Price, Taste, And Health Affect Attention To Health-Differentiated Product-Sets?, Henriette Gitungwa, Christopher R. Gustafson

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Consumers facemyriad food products in supermarkets, obviating consideration of all options. Consumers are likely to direct scarce attention to products they believe will provide them the best outcome. However, consumers may hold inaccurate beliefs— particularly about health attributes which can lead them to omit items from consideration that they would have optimally considered We examine how consumers’ beliefs about the relative price, taste, and healthiness of food product sets affect the healthiness of the set of products they consider.

Conclusions: Believes about relative differences in nutritional quality of foods importantly influence consideration of products, potentially perpetuating misconceptions about relative …

Simulated Dataset Of Corn Response To Nitrogen Over Thousands Of Fields And Multiple Years In Illinois, German Mandrini, Sotirios V. Archontoulis, Cameron M. Pittelkow, Taro Mieno, Nicolas F. Martin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer recommendations for corn (Zea mays L.) in the US Midwest have been a puzzle for several decades, without agreement among stakeholders for which methodology is the best to balance environmental and economic outcomes. Part of the reason is the lack of long-term data of crop responses to N over multiple fields since trial data is often limited in the number of soils and years it can explore. To overcome this limitation, we designed an analytical platform based on crop simulations run over millions of farming scenarios over extensive geographies. The database was calibrated and validated using data …

Causes And Consequences Of Fake Transparency/Excess Information In Food Claims, Susweta Ray, Konstantinos Giannakas

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study develops novel multi-stage game-theoretic models of heterogeneous firms and consumers in vertically differentiated food product markets with asymmetric information to analyze the economic causes and market and welfare consequences of excess information/ fake transparency in food labeling. Analytical results indicate that the firms’ incentives to adopt the excess information strategy, the Nash equilibrium configuration of firms adopting the strategy, and the market and welfare impacts of excess information are case-specific and dependent on the consumer reaction to excess information, the quality of the firms’ products, the degree of product differentiation between the brand producing firms, and whether the …

Never Satisfied, Sara Medeiros

The Graduate Review

A written work that pushes against the stigmas of weight loss journeys, non-fiction "Never Satisfied" shows the real struggles and mental toll that weight and appearance can have on any person, especially a woman. It includes common difficulties that not only occurred before weight loss, but after it as well, making it different from the typical success stories that are told. Written by an obsessive-compulsive twenty-two year old female student, it is extremely relatable to college students and young adults.

Bringing Swipe Out Hunger To Vcu: Identifying Best Practices And Analyzing Administrative Policies For Future Reform, Jackie Stephens, Anjali Ta

UROP Posters

At first glance, a college campus might look like a place of equal opportunity– communal dorms, shared dining halls, and similar course loads. However, arriving on campus is not where the college access conversation ends if students’ basic needs are not met. Food insecure students are at elevated risk of poor academic performance and delayed degree completion, with first-generation students being particularly vulnerable. Swipe Out Hunger is an organization that partners with colleges to reduce food insecurity among students by allowing those with extra dining hall meal swipes to donate them to food insecure peers. If implemented at VCU, Swipe …

Let’S Get Crafty: The Evolution And Challenges Of Beer In The Southeast, Kennedy Weathers

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

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 …

Bean To Buck: Examining The Effects Of The Global Coffee Commodity Market On Smallholders In Colombia, Alexander Ozols

Honors Theses

Utilizing global coffee commodity prices as an exogenous variable on households' consumption, I examine how global coffee commodity price fluctuations affect the well-being of households in the third-largest coffee-producing nation, Colombia. The results show that rural regions and regions designated as part of the "Coffee Axis" are most affected by fluctuations in prices. While results on other regional distinctions are not significant, the size of a household's farming operation dictates how increases in consumption are affected. Lastly, I show that changes in coffee prices, do not have any effect on whether a small or large farm will switch to growing …

St. George’S Food Access Initiatives: Navigating Food Inequalities, Forging A Way To Food Choice Freedom, And Transgressing Culinary Borderlands In Lake County, Colorado, Mannon R. Frykholm

Honors Theses

As guided by ethnographic fieldwork and the interdisciplinary discipline of Global Studies, this thesis works to trace food access inequalities in Lake County, Colorado and how they are felt and confronted both at the individual and communal level. Amidst the failures of global food systems and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural communities, such as the field site of Lake County, Colorado, face additional challenges in accessing food that is culturally relevant, craved, and truly wanted. This thesis traces the dominant food inequalities in Lake County. In the face of these inequalities, I centralize the community food initiatives …

Consumer Measures Of Local Food System Performance And Shopping Behavior Across Covid, Azita Varziri

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays: In the first essay, we utilize a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to measure the residents’ perceptions of the local food system performance. Local food system (LFS) components are classified into related measures that may help explain the overall performance scores provided. LFS performance measures are explored across 15 different communities in the U.S. South. The second essay explores the awareness and performance differences toward farmers markets, including the markets themselves and the corresponding local food product quality, product diversity, and markets infrastructure across different age-range groups and community sizes in Southern states. Finally, in …

Examining Motivations And Barriers For Online Grocery Shopping Among Urban And Rural Populations Of Kentucky, North Carolina, And Maryland, J.B. Pitts

Theses and Dissertations--Nutrition and Food Systems

The online grocery industry grew exponentially alongside the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. With the implications of this growth still unclear, this study aimed to identify key influences and barriers towards the adoption of online grocery shopping, and to understand how online grocery shopping may affect food security and dietary intake. Across seven counties in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Maryland, 183 participants were surveyed about their usage of online grocery shopping before and after COVID-19, their opinions about online grocery shopping, their dietary intake, and food security. Survey answers were stratified between SNAP and non-SNAP recipients and urban and rural …

The Pet’S ‘Perfect Bowl’: Environmental And Welfare Discourse In Alternative Pet Food Movements, Carly Baker

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Marketing ‘sustainable and humane’ super-premium dog kibble has emerged alongside alternative food movements (AFM). Unfortunately, super-premium pet-food comprised of ‘high-quality’ protein is at odds with sustainability and affect for particular animals. This study analyzed social and geographical (mis)representations of nonhumans in the pet-food commodity chain by tracing how knowledge and value is produced, and mapping the geography of Open Farm dog food. I assess these geographies and discourses and I identify the following: (1) sustainability claims focus on transportation and packaging, ignoring the significant environmental and social impacts of animal agriculture. (2) Images of farmed animals on packaging often do …

The Economics Of A “Portion Size Reduction” Policy, Hanin Hosni, Konstantinos Giannakas

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study develops novel models of heterogeneous consumer preferences for different dining options and imperfect competition among food suppliers to analyze the market and welfare effects of portion size reduction (PSR) for food away from home. Different scenarios on the nature of differentiation of the dining options, the information available to consumers, and their response to links between portion size and obesity, food waste, and climate change are considered within this framework. The market and welfare effects of the policy are quantified using a simulation analysis. The analysis shows that the market and welfare effects of the policy are case-specific …

Walking In Both Worlds: Learning About Youth Priorities And Indigenous Food Sovereignty With DéLįNę’S Youth Council, Neala Macleod Farley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Indigenous food sovereignty is vital to the protection and restoration of Indigenous food systems and to many Indigenous peoples’ health, culture, and traditions. Working towards Indigenous food sovereignty can also help to enable the protection and continued development of Indigenous knowledge and worldviews, which are becoming increasingly recognized for their potential to help transform unsustainable food systems and combat climate change. In Délįnę, Northwest Territories (NWT), re-establishing intergenerational knowledge transfer to today’s youth is an essential aspect of food sovereignty and the continuation of Dene worldviews. However, this is challenging for many youth as they face conflicting pressures from Western …

Smoke Filled Back Hollars: The Impact Of Traditional Barbecue On Modern Political Campaigns Within Western Virginia, Monica Thomas Fury

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The first political barbecue took place in Virginia during the Colonial period. Since then, barbecue has remained an essential part of American civic life. Western Virginia, defined for the purposes of this thesis as the political borders of the sixth and ninth Congressional Districts in Virginia as drawn in 2021, is largely a rural area, considered by most political consultants to be heavily Republican and not winnable seats for Democratic candidates. The state Democratic Party of Virginia has rarely earmarked funds or support for candidates within those districts for the past two decades. Ironically, the Democratic party controlled this same …

The Effect On Incorporating Fresh Fruits And Vegetables Into An Emergency Food Box Program In Rural Appalachia Kentucky, Zixuan Li

Theses and Dissertations--Nutrition and Food Systems

About 1 in 8 Kentuckians experiencing food insecurity. Low-income Appalachian Kentuckians often utilize food assistance programs and community resources to obtain food and they have lack regular access to fresh food, especially fruits and vegetables. Of concern is nutrition quality and the ability to use food items. The study aimed to explore if and how low-income Appalachian Kentuckians living in a food desert utilized their standard food pantry box as well as a supplemental box of free fresh produce. The study was done through distribution of supplemental fruit and vegetable boxes along with their emergency food box seven different times …

Identifying Effective Interventions To Promote Consumption Of Protein-Rich Foods From Lower Ecological Footprint Sources: A Systematic Literature Review, Rimante Ronto, Golsa Saberi, Gianna Maxi Leila Robbers, Stephanie Godrich, Mark Lawrence, Shawn Somerset, Jessica Fanzo, Josephine Chau

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Addressing overconsumption of protein-rich foods from high ecological footprint sources can have positive impacts on health such as reduction of non-communicable disease risk and protecting the natural environment. With the increased attention towards development of ecologically sustainable diets, this systematic review aimed to critically review literature on effectiveness of those interventions aiming to promote protein-rich foods from lower ecological footprint sources. Five electronic databases (Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase and Global Health) were searched for articles published up to January 2021. Quantitative studies were eligible for inclusion if they reported on actual or intended consumption of protein-rich animal-derived and/or …

The Tree Of Life: Observations From The Olive Grove, Kendall Lowery

Scripps Senior Theses

Scripps College is famous for its olive trees and the award-winning olive oil that they produce. However, despite the considerable age of the trees, the campus community has only harvested the annual crop of olives for the past decade. In this thesis, I set out to learn why the trees were planted on the campus in the first place. To this end, I immerse myself in the history, culture, and commerce of the olive oil industry, and ultimately use the fruit as a lens through which we can explore the colonial history of Scripps College and Southern California. In order …

Impact Of Dry, Particle-Size Fractionation On Protein And Amino Acid Content Of Three Seaweed Species, Laura Healy, Xianglu Zhu, Milica Pojic, Mahesa Poojary, James Curtin, Uma Tiwari, Carl Sullivan, Brijesh K. Tiwari

Articles

Market demand for “clean and green” food products is increasing, and so there is growing opportunity for the seaweed aquaculture industry to take a position as a key food producer in this area. In this study, in order to investigate the impact of dry fractionation on seaweed protein qualities, dried and milled seaweed powder from three seaweed species was sieved into 6 fractions (F1 to F6) of different particle size from >710 μm toμm. True protein, total protein and amino acid profiles were analyzed to evaluate the protein content and quality of three brown seaweed species commercially harvested in Ireland; …

Cook Like A Boss Online: An Adapted Intervention During The Covid-19 Pandemic That Effectively Improved Children’S Perceived Cooking Competence, Movement Competence And Wellbeing, Lynsey Hollywood, Johann Issartel, David Gaul, Amanda Mccloat, Elaine Mooney, Clare Elizabeth Collins, Fiona Lavelle

Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated physical inactivity, poor dietary intake and reduced mental wellbeing, contributing factors to non-communicable diseases in children. Cooking interventions are proposed as having a positive influence on children’s diet quality. Motor skills have been highlighted as essential for performance of cooking skills, and this movement may contribute to wellbeing. Additionally, perceived competence is a motivator for behaviour performance and thus important for understanding intervention effectiveness. Therefore, this research aimed to assess the effectiveness of an adapted virtual theory-based cooking intervention on perceived cooking competence, perceived movement competence and wellbeing.