Food Studies Commons^™

Food Miles: Environmental Protection Or Veiled Protectionism?, Meredith Kolsky Lewis, Andrew D. Mitchell

Journal Articles

This article examines the international trade, environmental, and development implications of campaigns to convince consumers to make food purchases based on food miles. Buying food from nearby sources has become a popular objective. One of the unmistakable messages of the “locavore” movement is that importing food – particularly food that comes from far away – causes environmental harm. The theory is that transporting food long distances results in the release of high levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere and is thus a dangerous contributor to climate change. Proponents of this view therefore argue that “food miles” – the …

The Rates Of Overweight And Obesity Across Racial/Ethnic Group: Focus On Latinos And Latino Subgroups, Sou Hyung Jang

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors of racial/ethnic groups in the United States – particularly the obesity rate of Latinos.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Americans on average are increasingly becoming more overweight and the problems associated with higher levels of obesity are growing. In the U.S. the Latino population has higher rates of overweight and obesity compared to …

Julie Guthman: Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, And The Limits Of Capitalism, Amy K. Coplen

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

A review of Julie Guthman's Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2011, 227 pp, ISBN 978-0-520-26625-4.

No. 18: The State Of Food Insecurity In Blantyre City, Malawi, Peter Mvula, Asiyati Chiweza

African Food Security Urban Network

Chronic food insecurity is considered to be one of the most important challenges facing the people and government of Malawi. Most attention tends to be given to the rural areas where the majority of the population live and where the prevalence of food insecurity is highest. However, Malawi is urbanizing at a rapid rate and those who move to the cities do not automatically become food secure. Urban food insecurity is likely to increase and therefore it is important for policy-makers to begin to think about this issue. AFSUN’s study of food insecurity in the city of Blantyre, Malawi’s industrial …

No. 19: The State Of Food Insecurity In Lusaka, Zambia, Chileshe Mulenga

African Food Security Urban Network

The Lusaka urban food security survey done by AFSUN as part of its baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities found that up to 93% of the households in the informal settlements, which house three-quarters of the Zambian capital’s population, were food insecure. A paltry 8% were food secure. Worse still, most of the households in the informal urban settlements of Lusaka did not only have poor access to food, they also consumed foods from a very narrow range of food groups. Their diets were dominated by cereals and therefore likely to be deficient in essential vitamins, minerals and proteins. …

Activating Health Goals Reduces (Increases) Hedonic Evaluation Of Food Brands For People Who Harbor Highly Positive (Negative) Affect Toward Them, Lauren F. Mayor, Paul M. Connell

Faculty of Marketing & International Business Publications

Associations of pleasure and fun with junk foods have the potential to create considerable challenges for efforts to improve diets. The aim of this research was to determine whether activating health goals had the potential to exploit mixed motivations (i.e., health and pleasure) that people have related to food, and subsequently strip junk foods of the expected pleasure derived from them. In study 1, 98 participants evaluated a soft drink brand after being primed (not primed) for health. In study 2, 93 participants evaluated a presweetened breakfast cereal brand after being primed (not primed) for health. In both studies, participants …

Public-Private Regime Interactions In Global Food Safety Governance, Ching-Fu Lin

Transnational Business Governance Interactions Working Papers

In response to an apparent decline in global food safety, numerous public and private regulatory initiatives have emerged to restore public confidence. This trend has been particularly marked by the growing influence of private regulators such as multinational food companies, supermarket chains and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who employ private standards, certification protocols, third-party auditing, and transnational contracting practices. This paper explores how the structure and processes of private food safety governance interact with traditional public governance regimes, focusing on Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) as a primary example of the former. Due to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public regulation …

Transformations In Body And Cuisine In Rural Yucatan, Mexico, Lauren Wynne

Anthropology and Sociology Faculty Publications

Many twentieth-century ethnographic accounts of the rural Yucatec Maya analyze the accruement of culinary knowledge as a crucial part of the process of socialization, by which children become adults (e.g., Gaskins 2003; Greene 2002). Indeed, in the rural town of Juubche, fairly predictable culinary milestones continue to mark the lives of girls and women. Some young women, however, are using their access to new foods and related knowledge to challenge both local hierarchies of expertise and ideologies of racial difference. For many young women in Juubche, there is a link between consuming new foods and identifying oneself with larger Yucatecan …

Food For The Soul: Feasting And Fasting In The Spanish Middle Ages, Martha Daas

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

This article examines the concept of "Christian" eating that can be found in a variety of texts from the 13th and 14th centuries. “Christian” eating can be defined as consumption that follows the precepts of the Christian calendar and also the recommendations of the Church. As both fasting and feasting are integral elements of the medieval calendar, this article looks at the depiction of food, its consumption, and its role in religious ritual in texts as varied as the Milagros de Nuestra Señora, the Vidas of Santa Maria Egipciaca and Santa Marta, and the more doctrinally liberal Libro de buen …

No. 20: The State Of Food Insecurity In Maputo, Mozambique, Ines Raimundo, Jonathan Crush, Wade Pendleton

African Food Security Urban Network

Food insecurity is a fact of life for the vast majority of households across Maputo’s poverty belt. The Maputo urban food security survey done by AFSUN as part of its baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities found that households exist in a constant state of food insecurity manifested in a lack of access to sufficient affordable food, poor dietary quality and undernutrition. Income is meagre and only those households with access to wage income have any chance of holding food insecurity at bay. With a vibrant informal food economy, Maputo’s poor are surrounded by fresh and processed food. Food …

The State Of Food Insecurity In Maputo, Mozambique, Inês Raimundo, Jonathan Crush, Wade Pendleton

Hungry Cities Partnership

Food insecurity is a fact of life for the vast majority of households across Maputo’s poverty belt. The Maputo urban food security survey done by AFSUN as part of its baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities found that households exist in a constant state of food insecurity manifested in a lack of access to sufficient affordable food, poor dietary quality and undernutrition. Income is meagre and only those households with access to wage income have any chance of holding food insecurity at bay. With a vibrant informal food economy, Maputo’s poor are surrounded by fresh and processed food. Food …

No. 17: The State Of Food Insecurity In Gaborone, Botswana, Ben Acquah, Stephen Kapunda, Alexander Legwegoh, Thando Gwebu, Tirelo Modie-Moroka, Kesitegile Gobotswang, Aloysius Mosha

African Food Security Urban Network

The results of AFSUN’s study of the food security situation of the poor in Gaborone show that not everyone is benefitting from Botswana’s strong and growing economy and that many of the urban poor experience extremely high levels of food insecurity. The study, which formed part of AFSUN’s baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities, collected data on a broad range of issues that affect household food insecurity and found that four out of five households in the surveyed areas in Gaborone reported severe or moderate food insecurity. Only 18% were either food secure or mildly food insecure. Income level …

Introduction To Risk Management: Understanding Agricultural Risks, Production, Marketing, Financial, Legal, Human, Laurence Crane, Gene Gantz, Steve Isaacs, Doug Jose, Rod Sharp

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This handbook is designed to improve the risk management skills of American farmers and ranchers. There is a broad array of established risk management tools ready to be used and new tools are always being developed. By learning about and using these tools, crop and livestock producers can build the confidence needed to deal with risk and exciting opportunities of the future.

Contents

Overview of risk management planning

Steps in risk management planning

Manging production risk

Managing marketing risk

Managing financial risk

Managaing legal rtisk

Managing human risk

Use Of Sweet Potato To Develop A Medium For Cultivation Of Lactic Acid Bacteria, Saeed A. Hayek

Dissertations

This study investigated the use of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) as a basic component to develop a medium for cultivation of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Extract from baked sweet potatoes was used to form a sweet potato medium (SPM). SPM was supplemented with 4 g/L of each nitrogen source (beef extract, yeast extract, and proteose peptone #3). Lactobacilli MRS was used as a control medium. Ten LAB strains were used to determine the suitability of SPM serving the growth of LAB. Our results showed no significant (p < 0.05) differences in the optical density, maximum specific growth rates, and bacterial populations between MRS and SPM. SPM also maintained higher pH values throughout the incubation period compared to that in MRS. The cost of SPM was 47% less than the cost of MRS. Further step was taken to determine the suitability of SPM serving LAB enzymatic activity. LAB strains growing in SPM showed relatively higher β-glucosidases, acid phosphatase, and phytase activities and lower a-glucosidase compared to that in MRS. Strains of L. reuteri showed the …

Herbicide-Resistant Soybeans In Arkansas: Lessons Learned And Future Direction, Amy May West, Raven Bough, Hayley Jernigan, Mike Norton, Katie Beth Thomas, Curt R. Rom, Michael E. Vayda

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

In Arkansas Delta soybean production, glyphosate resistant (GR) Palmer amaranth has significantly impacted weed management. The incidence of herbicide resistant (HR) weeds has far-reaching crop science, economic, and communications implications, which have been explored by the corresponding expertise of our research team members to form a comprehensive literature review. The review was used to develop policy recommendations to address current and future HR genetically modified (GM) crop use and the associated issues. The review of crop science research indicated an overall increase in herbicide application, as well as an increase in weed management programs focused around glyphosate rather than the …

Textural And Sensory Qualities Of Muffins Prepared With Fermented Rice Bran, Breeanna Williams, Navam Hettiarachchy, Srinivas J. Rayaprolu

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Rice is one of the most popular cereal grains in the world. Rice bran, a by-product of the rice milling process, contains an abundance of nutrients including protein, fiber, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, and other nutraceuticals. However, rice bran is underutilized in the food industry. In this project muffins were prepared with varying concentrations (2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5%, 10.0%, 15.0%, 20.0%, and 25.0%) of 60 mesh (250 µm) fermented rice bran (60 mFRB) and 80 mesh (180 µm) fermented rice bran (80 mFRB). A cappuccino muffin formulation was used as flavor for all the samples. The control sample was prepared …

Relationship Between Nut Consumption And Memory Domains Of Cognitive Function Among Elderly Seventh-Day Adventists, Angeline B. David

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Objective. To determine the relationship between consumption of all types of nuts, tree nuts, and peanut and peanut butter and specific memory domains of cognitive function in a community-dwelling elderly population.

Design. Cross-sectional analysis using clinic data from the Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study and dietary intake data from the Adventist Health Study-2.

Subjects/Methods. Adults aged 50 and older were administered the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT) Short Form and provided self-report frequency and portion sizes of nut consumption, anthropometric measures, and other demographic, lifestyle, and clinic data. CVLT scores were age- and gender-strata specific z-scores normed to a …

Global Food Security: In Our National Interest, David P. Lambert

Journal of Food Law & Policy

All Americans have a direct stake in the problem of global hunger, which has many dimensions. For most of us it is a profound moral issue, and we are guided by our faith to respond.

Visualizing Fair Trade Coffee, Daniel Jaffee, Philip Howard

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The fair trade certification world has entered a period of major change. The recent departure of Fair Trade USA from the international certification system led by Fair Trade International (formerly FLO), and its decision to develop separate U.S. standards that permit certification of plantation-produced coffee, cocoa, and other crops, has thrown the meaning of the U.S. fair trade label into question. The recent appearance of a new certification—The Institute for Marketecology (IMO) “Fair For Life” label—has made the panorama even more complex. These developments follow a decade of struggles within the fair trade movement over the nature of its relationship …

No. 10: Gender And Food Insecurity In Southern African Cities, Belinda Dodson, Asiyati Chiweza, Liam Riley

African Food Security Urban Network

This gender analysis of the findings of AFSUN’s baseline survey of poor urban households in eleven cities in Southern Africa in 2008 and 2009 has implications for urban, national and regional policy interventions aimed at reducing urban food insecurity. By comparing female-centred and other households, light is shed both on the determinants of urban food insecurity – which relate fundamentally to income, employment and education – and on the manifest gender inequalities in access to the largely income-based entitlements to food in the city. These insights can be used to design and implement practical and strategic interventions that could simultaneously …