The importance of stories in understanding people’s relationship to food: narrative inquiry methodology has much to offer the public health nutrition researcher and practitioner

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle O’Kane ◽  
Barbara Pamphilon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Food System ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Important Place

AbstractObjectiveDespite the usefulness of quantitative research, qualitative research methodologies are equally needed to allow researchers to better understand the important social and environmental factors affecting food choice and eating habits. The present paper contributes insights from narrative inquiry, a well-established qualitative methodology, to a food-related doctoral research study. The connections between food shoppers and the producer, family, friends and others in the food system, between eaters and the earth, and how these connections affect people’s meaning-making of food and pathways to food citizenship, were explored in the research.DesignThe research used narrative inquiry methodology and focus groups for data collection.SettingFive different food-ways in the Canberra region of Australia were selected for the present research; that is, community gardens, community-supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, fresh food markets and supermarkets.SubjectsFifty-two people voluntarily attended eight focus groups with four to nine participants in each.ResultsFrom a practical perspective, the present paper offers a guide to the way in which narrative inquiry has been applied to one research project. The paper describes the application of narrative inquiry methodology, revealing the important place of narratives in generating new knowledge. The paper further outlines how phased narrative analysis can lead to a defensible and rigorous interpretive framework grounded in the data generated from people’s stories and meaning-making.ConclusionsWe argue that individual, social and system change will not be possible without further rigorous qualitative studies to inform and complement the empirical basis of public health nutrition practice.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of urban farming program in providing multiple benefits to the urban community in Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazanin Nafisi ◽  
Osman Mohd Tahir ◽  
Sara Nafisi ◽  
Nazri Ishak
Keyword(s):  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Urban Farming ◽  
Urban Regions ◽  
Food Imports

Residents have chosen to be living in urban regions in recent years largely due to the accessibility of job opportunities and public services. These led to a fast increase in the amount of people live in urban regions and cities. As a result, a large amount of the property used for agricultural activities was transformed into factories, housing units, and highways. This also resulted in a decrease in food production, growth in food prices and food import bills as the country now relies on food imports especially rice, fruits and vegetables, that can prevent the fostering of urban farming activities and then provide beneficial information essential to form it into a more consumer friendly program. Moreover, studies on urban farming are somewhat few in Malaysia and this study can become helpful for future research. The study focused on small-scale agriculture projects, such as community gardens, and community-level programs such as community supported agriculture and farmers markets. The study found that how urban agriculture enhances community resilience and wellbeing. This is the necessity for the Malaysian urban authorities to give more appropriate identification and support to city dwellers and promote them to develop the practice of urban farming.

scholarly journals Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 2333-2340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Lawrence ◽  
Sharon Friel ◽  
Kate Wingrove ◽  
Sarah W James ◽  
Seona Candy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Political Realities

AbstractObjectiveTo develop a policy formulation tool for strategically informing food and nutrition policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets (HSD).DesignA policy formulation tool consisting of two complementary components was developed. First, a conceptual framework of the environment–public health nutrition relationship was constructed to characterise and conceptualise the food system problem. Second, an ‘Orders of Food Systems Change’ schema drawing on systems dynamics thinking was developed to identify, assess and propose policy options to redesign food systems.SettingFood and nutrition policy activities to promote HSD have been politicised, fragmented and lacking a coherent conceptual and strategic focus to tackle complex food system challenges.ResultsThe tool’s conceptual framework component comprises three integrated dimensions: (i) a structure built around the environment and public health nutrition relationship that is mediated via the food system; (ii) internal mechanisms that operate through system dynamics; and (iii) external interactions that frame its nature and a scope within ecological parameters. The accompanying schema is structured around three orders of change distinguished by contrasting ideological perspectives on the type and extent of change needed to ‘solve’ the HSD problem.ConclusionsThe conceptual framework’s systems analysis of the environment–public health nutrition relationship sets out the food system challenges for HSD. The schema helps account for political realities in policy making and is a key link to operationalise the framework’s concepts to actions aimed at redesigning food systems. In combination they provide a policy formulation tool to strategically inform policy activities to redesign food systems and promote HSD.

scholarly journals Public health nutrition and food policy

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 591-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Caraher ◽  
John Coveney
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Choice ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Food Market ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Global Food

AbstractFood in its many manifestations allows us to explore the global control of health and to examine the ways in which food choice is moulded by many interests. The global food market is controlled by a small number of companies who operate a system that delivers ‘cheap’ food to the countries of the developed world. This ‘cheap’ food comes at a price, which externalises costs to the nation state in terms of health consequences (diabetes, coronary heart disease and other food-related diseases) and to the environment in terms of pollution and the associated clean-up strategies. Food policy has not to any great extent dealt with these issues, opting instead for an approach based on nutrition, food choice and biomedical health. Ignoring wider elements of the food system including issues of ecology and sustainability constrains a broader understanding within public health nutrition. Here we argue that public health nutrition, through the medium of health promotion, needs to address these wider issues of who controls the food supply, and thus the influences on the food chain and the food choices of the individual and communities. Such an upstream approach to food policy (one that has been learned from work on tobacco) is necessary if we are seriously to influence food choice.

scholarly journals Balancing the benefits and risks of public–private partnerships to address the global double burden of malnutrition

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivica I Kraak ◽  
Paige B Harrigan ◽  
Mark Lawrence ◽  
Paul J Harrison ◽  
Michaela A Jackson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Food System ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Double Burden ◽  
Double Burden Of Malnutrition

AbstractObjectiveTransnational food, beverage and restaurant companies, and their corporate foundations, may be potential collaborators to help address complex public health nutrition challenges. While UN system guidelines are available for private-sector engagement, non-governmental organizations (NGO) have limited guidelines to navigate diverse opportunities and challenges presented by partnering with these companies through public–private partnerships (PPP) to address the global double burden of malnutrition.DesignWe conducted a search of electronic databases, UN system websites and grey literature to identify resources about partnerships used to address the global double burden of malnutrition. A narrative summary provides a synthesis of the interdisciplinary literature identified.ResultsWe describe partnership opportunities, benefits and challenges; and tools and approaches to help NGO engage with the private sector to address global public health nutrition challenges. PPP benefits include: raising the visibility of nutrition and health on policy agendas; mobilizing funds and advocating for research; strengthening food-system processes and delivery systems; facilitating technology transfer; and expanding access to medications, vaccines, healthy food and beverage products, and nutrition assistance during humanitarian crises. PPP challenges include: balancing private commercial interests with public health interests; managing conflicts of interest; ensuring that co-branded activities support healthy products and healthy eating environments; complying with ethical codes of conduct; assessing partnership compatibility; and evaluating partnership outcomes.ConclusionsNGO should adopt a systematic and transparent approach using available tools and processes to maximize benefits and minimize risks of partnering with transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies to effectively target the global double burden of malnutrition.

scholarly journals The Nature and Quality of Australian Supermarkets’ Policies that can Impact Public Health Nutrition, and Evidence of their Practical Application: A Cross-Sectional Study

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pulker ◽  
Trapp ◽  
Scott ◽  
Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Health Benefit ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Practical Applications

Improving population diets is a public health priority, and calls have been made for corporations such as supermarkets to contribute. Supermarkets hold a powerful position within the food system, and one source of power is supermarket own brand foods (SOBFs). Many of the world’s largest supermarkets have corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies that can impact public health, but little is known about their quality or practical application. This study examines the nature and quality of Australian supermarkets’ CSR policies that can impact public health nutrition, and provides evidence of practical applications for SOBFs. A content analysis of CSR policies was conducted. Evidence of supermarkets putting CSR policies into practice was derived from observational audits of 3940 SOBFs in three large exemplar supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths, IGA) in Perth, Western Australia (WA). All supermarkets had some CSR policies that could impact public health nutrition; however, over half related to sustainability, and many lacked specificity. All supermarkets sold some nutritious SOBFs, using marketing techniques that made them visible. Findings suggest Australian supermarket CSR policies are not likely to adequately contribute to improving population diets or sustainability of food systems. Setting robust and meaningful targets, and improving transparency and specificity of CSR policies, would improve the nature and quality of supermarket CSR policies and increase the likelihood of a public health benefit.

Don’t Mono-crop the Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. R. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Community Gardens ◽  
Cultural Ecology ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Food Hubs ◽  
Past Generation ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Spatial Configurations ◽  
Good Food

Over the past generation, advocates for healthier food and agriculture have drawn on the farm-to-fork trope to define spatial arrangements in the foodshed. Consider farmers' markets, food hubs, community supported agriculture (CSA), co-ops, rooftop, community, and schoolyard gardens, 100-Mile Diets, and urban farms: the architecture of reform is endless, but every part seeks to reduce the distance between food producers (farms) and consumers (forks). For all the intuitive appeal of the farm-to-fork trope, however, there are other ways to think about the local food movement's spatial configurations that could be more inclusive, multidimensional, and politically potent. This article argues that instead of a distance versus proximity orientation, good-food advocates might envision a kind of cultural ecology of various efforts toward healthier food and agriculture. This perspective shows the various organizational efforts of a region interacting like species in a healthy ecosystem. Where farmers' markets might be gentrified, for example, community gardens and urban farms might not; where urban farms might be labor intensive, food hubs might not and could offer healthier food in urban spaces; where food hubs might not be convenient enough, virtual marketplaces might. The downsides of one part are carried by the advantages of another; the limitations of the first are helped by the strengths of the next. What matters here are not just the particular individual innovations—farmers' markets, CSAs, food hubs, etc.—but the ways in which they overlap to build an interdependent whole. No longer one-dimensional, this cultural ecology adds political and organizational integrity to the physical integrity of food.

Designing for Food and Agriculture: Recent Explorations at Ryerson University

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
June Komisar ◽  
Joe Nasr ◽  
Mark Gorgolewski
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
System Thinking ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Design Challenges

Strategies to enable alternative urban food systems cannot be developed alone by those involved with the production and distribution aspects of food systems. It is important for architects, landscape designers and planners to be part of the process of conceiving and implementing innovative food-system thinking. Environmentally focused building standards and models for sustainable communities can easily incorporate farmers' markets, greenhouses, edible landscapes, permeable paving, green roofs, community gardens, and permaculture and other food-related strategies that complement energy generation and conservation, green roofs, living walls, and other approaches that have been more commonly part of sustainable built-environment initiatives. Recently, architecture faculty and students at Ryerson University in Toronto and at a number of other universities have been exploring the intersection of these disciplines and interests. This paper will show how Ryerson tackled agricultural and food issues as design challenges in projects that included first-year community investigations, student-run design competitions, third-year studio projects and complex final-year thesis projects. These projects that dealt with food issues proved to be excellent entry points for addressing a range of design challenges including social inclusion, cultural context, community design and sustainable building practices.

scholarly journals At the crossroads: new paradigms of food security, public health nutrition and school food

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1020-1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah M Ashe ◽  
Roberta Sonnino
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
School Food ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
New Research

AbstractPublic health nutrition sits at the nexus of a global crisis in food, environmental and health systems that has generated – along with numerous other problems – an urgent and changing problem of food insecurity. The ‘new’ food insecurity, however, is different from the old: it is bimodal, encompassing issues of both under- and over-consumption, hunger and obesity, quantity and quality; it has assumed a decidedly urban dimension; and it implicates rich and poor countries alike. The complexity of the expressions of this challenge requires new approaches to public health nutrition and food policy that privilege systemic, structural and environmental factors over individual and mechanistic ones. In this context, the current paper argues that school food systems rise with buoyant potential as promising intervention sites: they are poised to address both modes of the food security crisis; integrate systemic, structural and environmental with behavioural approaches; and comprise far-reaching, system-wide efforts that influence the wider functioning of the food system. Based on a discussion of Bogotá and other pioneering policies that explicitly aim to create a broader food system with long-term foundations for good public health and food security, the paper suggests a new research and action agenda that gives special attention to school food in urban contexts.

Eating NAFTA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyshia Gálvez
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Food System ◽  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
The World

In the two decades since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, Mexico has seen an epidemic of diet-related illness. While globalization has been associated with an increase in chronic disease around the world, in Mexico, the speed and scope of the rise has been called a public health emergency. The shift in Mexican foodways is happening at a moment when the country’s ancestral cuisine is now more popular and appreciated around the world than ever. What does it mean for their health and well-being when many Mexicans eat fewer tortillas and more instant noodles, while global elites demand tacos made with handmade corn tortillas? This book examines the transformation of the Mexican food system since NAFTA and how it has made it harder for people to eat as they once did. The book contextualizes NAFTA within Mexico’s approach to economic development since the Revolution, noticing the role envisioned for rural and low-income people in the path to modernization. Examination of anti-poverty and public health policies in Mexico reveal how it has become easier for people to consume processed foods and beverages, even when to do so can be harmful to health. The book critiques Mexico’s strategy for addressing the public health crisis generated by rising rates of chronic disease for blaming the dietary habits of those whose lives have been upended by the economic and political shifts of NAFTA.

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