Farmers Markets and The Emergency Food System in West Virginia: An analysis of intersection to improve community food security

Food insecurity associated with adverse physical and psychological health conditions is an issue faced by 12.5 percent of Canadian households. Current methods of food production and distribution serve to propagate rather than ameliorate these problems. A growing emphasis on the promotion of community food security aims to address not only the challenges of food security but also the underlying inequities and quality of life issues. Community food assessments are being employed in efforts to gain an understanding of the food system and its impacts. Conducted in conjunction with the Saskatoon Regional Food Assessment (SRFA), this study explores structures that contribute value and promote engagement among participants. While implementation is guided by best practices, currently the assessment process lacks theoretical grounding to allow a deeper understanding of the process. SRFA steering committee members were invited to participate in a two-stage interview examining their experience and perceptions of the process. Existing ideological perspectives of committee members played a significant role in their perceptions of the current food system and the effectiveness of implementing community food security approaches. Systemic change for enhanced community quality of life will require a highly structured collaboration and a strong central vision for participants to find common ground for mutual benefit.

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Food Literacy: Definition and Framework for Action

Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research ◽

10.3148/cjdpr-2015-010 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 76 (3) ◽

pp. 140-145 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Author(s):

Tracy Cullen ◽

Janelle Hatch ◽

Wanda Martin ◽

Joan Wharf Higgins ◽

Rosanna Sheppard

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Social Context ◽

Conceptual Analysis ◽

Positive Relationship ◽

Food System ◽

Community Food Security ◽

Separate Spheres ◽

Food Literacy ◽

Definition Of ◽

New Research

The term food literacy is emergent, and as a result the literature reflects a great variety of definitions. Simultaneously, new research and food literacy programming is being developed without an agreed upon definition of what food literacy is and how food skills, food security, and health literacy may fit with the definition. We undertook a scoping review and conceptual analysis to identify how the term is understood and to determine shared components of definitions. We found that although most definitions included a nutrition and food skills component, there was great variation in how the ability to access, process, and enjoy food was affected by our complex food system. We propose a definition of food literacy that includes the positive relationship built through social, cultural, and environmental experiences with food enabling people to make decisions that support health. We offer a framework that situates food literacy at the intersection between community food security and food skills, and we assert that behaviours and skills cannot be separated from their environmental or social context. The proposed definition and framework are intended to be guiding templates for academics and practitioners to position their work in education and advocacy, bringing together separate spheres for collective action.

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Growing ‘good food’: urban gardens, culturally acceptable produce and food security

Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems ◽

10.1017/s1742170518000388 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 169-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Lucy O. Diekmann ◽

Leslie C. Gray ◽

Gregory A. Baker

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Low Income ◽

Food Production ◽

Food System ◽

Organic Production ◽

Community Food Security ◽

Urban Gardens ◽

Santa Clara County ◽

Low Income Families ◽

Organically Grown

AbstractWith food security increasingly seen as an urban concern, urban agriculture (UA) has emerged as one strategy for improving access to healthy, affordable food within cities in the Global North. This research evaluates the contributions of three types of urban gardens in Santa Clara County, California, to food security. Survey, interview and harvest data were collected from home gardeners, community gardeners and gardeners participating in community food security (CFS) programs, which provide low-income families with the materials and training to grow their own vegetables. To assess food security we use a multi-dimensional framework that encompasses food availability, accessibility, nutritional adequacy and cultural acceptability as well as agency within the food system. Over the summer of 2015, median garden production ranged from 26 kg for participants in CFS programs to 56 kg for home gardeners. All garden types produced enough produce for at least one adult to consume the number of cups of vegetables recommended by federal nutritional guidelines. Gardening also increased some low-income gardeners’ access to healthy food, allowing them to have the diet they wanted—one high in organically grown vegetables—but could not otherwise afford to purchase. Interviews showed that gardeners do not think of cultural acceptability strictly in terms of the presence of certain types of cultural crops; they also articulated a broader set of values concerning the environmental and social conditions of food production. At all income levels, gardeners frequently described a set of food values related to knowledge, control, trust, freshness, flavor, organic production methods and sharing, which they were able to enact through gardening. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the nutritional contributions that urban gardens make but also highlight the importance that low-income gardeners place on having food that aligns with their cultural and ethical values and being able to exercise greater autonomy in making food choices. In conclusion, we suggest that more robust, holistic assessments of UA's contributions to food security will include the subjective aspects of food as well as quantitative measures related to food production.

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Nimíciwinán, nipimátisiwinán – “Our food is our way of life”: On-Reserve First Nation perspectives on community food security and sovereignty through oral history in Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba

Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation ◽

10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.218 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 73-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shailesh Shukla ◽

Jazmin Alfaro ◽

Carol Cochrane ◽

Cindy Garson ◽

Gerald Mason ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Oral History ◽

Cultural Values ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Community Food Security ◽

Consumption Practices ◽

Indigenous Foods ◽

Oral History Interviews

Food insecurity in Indigenous communities in Canada continue to gain increasing attention among scholars, community practitioners, and policy makers. Meanwhile, the role and importance of Indigenous foods, associated knowledges, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014) that highlight community voices in food security still remain under-represented and under-studied in this discourse. University of Winnipeg (UW) researchers and Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN) representatives began an action research partnership to explore Indigenous knowledges associated with food cultivation, production, and consumption practices within the community since 2012. The participatory, place-based, and collaborative case study involved 17 oral history interviews with knowledge keepers of FRCN. The goal was to understand their perspectives of and challenges to community food security, and to explore the potential role of Indigenous food knowledges in meeting community food security needs. In particular, the role of land-based Indigenous foods in meeting community food security through restoration of health, cultural values, identity, and self-determination were emphasized by the knowledge keepers—a vision that supports Indigenous food sovereignty. The restorative potential of Indigenous food sovereignty in empowering individuals and communities is well-acknowledged. It can nurture sacred relationships and actions to renew and strengthen relationships to the community’s own Indigenous land-based foods, previously weakened by colonialism, globalization, and neoliberal policies.

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The Economic, Social, and Environmental Impacts of Farmers Markets: Recent Evidence from the US

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13063423 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 3423

Author(s):

Phillip Warsaw ◽

Steven Archambault ◽

Arden He ◽

Stacy Miller

Keyword(s):

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Agricultural Practices ◽

The United States ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Farmers Markets ◽

Future Research ◽

Regional Food ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Fresh Food

Farmers markets are regular, recurring gatherings at a common facility or area where farmers and ranchers directly sell a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and other locally grown farm products to consumers. Markets rebuild and maintain local and regional food systems, leading to an outsized impact on the food system relative to their share of produce sales. Previous research has demonstrated the multifaceted impacts that farmers markets have on the communities, particularly economically. Recent scholarship in the United States has expanded inquiry into social impacts that markets have on communities, including improving access to fresh food products and increasing awareness of the sustainable agricultural practices adopted by producers, as well developing tools for producers and market stakeholders to measure their impact on both producers and communities. This paper reviews the recent scholarship on farmers markets to identify recent trends and synthesizes the current evidence describing the ways in which farmers markets contribute to the wellbeing of their communities, as well as identifying areas for additional future research.

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Enhancing the Glopan Food Systems Framework by Integrating Gender: Relevance for Women in African Agriculture

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13158564 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 8564

Author(s):

Elizabeth Mkandawire ◽

Melody Mentz-Coetzee ◽

Margaret Najjingo Mangheni ◽

Eleonora Barusi

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Social Systems ◽

Gender Inequalities ◽

Gender Barriers ◽

Nutrition Security ◽

African Agriculture ◽

Agriculture And Food ◽

Systems Framework

Globally, gender inequalities constrain food security, with women often disproportionately affected. Women play a fundamental role in household food and nutrition security. The multiple roles women play in various areas of the food system are not always recognised. This oversight emerges from an overemphasis on one aspect of the food system, without considering how this area might affect or be affected by another aspect. This study aimed to draw on international commitments and treaties using content analysis to enhance the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Security food systems framework by integrating a gender perspective. The study found that generally, there is a consensus on specific actions that can be taken to advance gender equality at specific stages of the food system. However, governance and social systems constraints that are not necessarily part of the food system, but have a significant bearing on men and women’s capacity to effectively participate in the food system, need to be addressed. While the proposed conceptual framework has some limitations, it offers a foundation on which researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders can begin conceptualising the interconnectedness of gender barriers in the food system.

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Markets in Municipal Code: The Case of Michigan Cities

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084263 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4263

Author(s):

Amanda Maria Edmonds ◽

Gerrit J. Carsjens

Keyword(s):

Food System ◽

Food Policy ◽

Health Planning ◽

Policy Instruments ◽

Farmers Markets ◽

Food Markets ◽

Dominant Form ◽

Municipal Governments ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Food Needs

Food’s place on the urban, municipal agenda has become an increasing focus in the emergent fields of food policy and food planning, whose leaders argue that food needs to be more explicitly added to the urban agenda. Yet, public food markets are a food system activity that municipal governments have been long engaged in. Reports from leading health, planning, and food organizations assert that farmers markets—the dominant form of public retail food markets in the US today—should be explicitly included in zoning and other municipal codes to ensure that they can be created and sustained. Despite their popularity as a local sustainable food system and healthy food access strategy, it is unclear whether markets have been codified through municipalities’ planning and policy instruments, and research has largely not addressed this topic. This study aims to elicit whether markets have been codified into law, focusing on US municipal charters, codes and zoning ordinances, using Michigan, an upper Midwest state, as a case. After analyzing municipal documents to determine whether and where markets have been codified into law in ninety Michigan cities, this study concludes that markets are highly underrepresented in municipal policy, rarely defined in code, and mostly absent from zoning ordinances, even among those cities with currently operating markets. Market presence in code is, however, associated with the presence of historically operated markets. These findings raise questions about why markets are missing from codified food policy and what risks this poses to the future of markets. They also highlight the need to better document the market sector and underline the importance of including historic perspectives when examining the efficacy of current food policy efforts.

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O2 Impact of an Online Service-Learning Course on Students’ Understanding of Community Food Security

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior ◽

10.1016/j.jneb.2021.04.011 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 53 (7) ◽

pp. S1

Author(s):

Lauren D. Nolley ◽

Hailey T. Bramley ◽

L. Suzanne Goodell ◽

Natalie K. Cooke

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Service Learning ◽

Community Food Security ◽

Online Service

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Aligning Programs and Policies to Support Food Security and Public Health Goals in the United States

Annual Review of Public Health ◽

10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-044132 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 319-337 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Hilary K. Seligman ◽

Seth A. Berkowitz

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Diet Quality ◽

Food System ◽

The United States ◽

Household Level ◽

Health Goals ◽

Food Insecure Households ◽

The Life Course ◽

Access To Food

Food insecurity affects 1 in 8 US households and has clear implications for population health disparities. We present a person-centered, multilevel framework for understanding how individuals living in food-insecure households cope with inadequate access to food themselves and within their households, communities, and broader food system. Many of these coping strategies can have an adverse impact on health, particularly when the coping strategies are sustained over time; others may be salutary for health. There exist multiple opportunities for aligning programs and policies so that they simultaneously support food security and improved diet quality in the interest of supporting improved health outcomes. Improved access to these programs and policies may reduce the need to rely on individual- and household-level strategies that may have negative implications for health across the life course.

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