European green deal: Experience of food safety for Ukraine

The systematization of European experience in the formation of food safety through research and analysis of European regulations and strategies. The key principles of the European Green Deal on food safety were analyzed, namely the implementation of the principle of sustainability of food systems and policies for adaptation to climate change. The levels of food safety of Ukraine and Poland were compared according to the main components: food availability, access to food, food safety conditions. According to the results of a sociological study, the level of food safety of Ukraine in terms of the introduction of the land market was assessed. A portrait of a landowner was formed, and the presence of a land plot affects the state of food supply. Based on the analysis of the main provisions of the European Green Deal and food safety policy (on the example of Poland), the areas of increasing the level of food safety in Ukraine were identified: completion of land reform and lifting the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land; ensuring the production of value-added products; adaptation to climate change, development, and implementation of a national program for rural development.

Online Pilot Grocery Intervention among Rural and Urban Residents Aimed to Improve Purchasing Habits

Online grocery shopping has the potential to improve access to food, particularly among low-income households located in urban food deserts and rural communities. The primary aim of this pilot intervention was to test whether a three-armed online grocery trial improved fruit and vegetable (F&V) purchases. Rural and urban adults across seven counties in Kentucky, Maryland, and North Carolina were recruited to participate in an 8-week intervention in fall 2021. A total of 184 adults were enrolled into the following groups: (1) brick-and-mortar “BM” (control participants only received reminders to submit weekly grocery shopping receipts); (2) online-only with no support “O” (participants received weekly reminders to grocery shop online and to submit itemized receipts); and (3) online shopping with intervention nudges “O+I” (participants received nudges three times per week to grocery shop online, meal ideas, recipes, Facebook group support, and weekly reminders to shop online and to submit itemized receipts). On average, reported food spending on F/V by the O+I participants was USD 6.84 more compared to the BM arm. Online shopping with behavioral nudges and nutrition information shows great promise for helping customers in diverse locations to navigate the increasing presence of online grocery shopping platforms and to improve F&V purchases.

Unintended socio-economic and health consequences of COVID-19 among slum dwellers in Kampala, Uganda

Background To reduce the spread of COVID-19, several countries in Africa instituted countrywide lockdowns and other public health measures. Whereas lockdowns contributed to the control of the pandemic, there were concerns about the unintended consequences of these measures especially in the most vulnerable populations. We assessed unintended socio-economic and health consequences due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the mitigation measures among slum dwellers in Kampala to inform the on-going and future pandemic response strategies. Methods This was a mixed methods cross-sectional study conducted in Bwaise I and Bwaise III slums of Kawempe division, Kampala Uganda from October to December 2020. We used systematic sampling to randomly select 425 household heads for the face-to-face quantitative interviews. We also conducted six focus group discussions (FGDs) with slum dwellers and used photovoice among eight Community Health Workers (CHWs) to document unintended socio-economic and health consequences. Quantitative data were imported into STATA version 14.0 for analysis, while qualitative data were analysed thematically using NVivo version 12. Modified Poisson regression analysis was conducted to establish factors associated with impact on access to food. Results Most respondents reported limited access to food (71.1%; 302/425); disruption in education (77.1%; 270/350); drop in daily income and wages (86.1%; 329/382) and loss of employment (63.1; 125/198). Twenty five percent of the respondents (25.4%; 86/338) reported domestic violence as one of the challenges. Seven themes emerged from the qualitative findings on the impact of COVID-19 including: limited access to food; negative impact on children’s rights (child labour and teenage pregnancies) and education; poor housing and lack of accommodation; negative social behaviours; negative impact on family and child care; reduced income and employment; and negative impact on health and access to health care services. Conclusion The slum dwellers of Bwaise I and Bwaise III experienced several negative socio-economic and health consequences of COVID-19 and its prevention measures that severely affected their wellbeing. Children experienced severe consequences such as child labour and teenage pregnancies among the girls. Response activities should be contextualised to different settings and protocols to protect the vulnerable groups in the community such as children and women should be developed and mainstreamed in response activities.

COVID-19 and the Homelessness Support Sector

This exploratory study sought to uncover service provider perspectives on the early response to COVID-19 in a small community in an advanced industrialized country - the homelessness support sector of the Central Okanagan, British Columbia. Following a case study approach, snowball sampling was utilized in May and June 2020 to achieve a sample size of 30 through a mix of one-on-one interviews and open-ended surveys. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to uncover commonalities among interview responses. Common themes are discussed in relation to three areas of questioning including challenges, successes, and mitigations/areas for future support. While the community came together to support the response, there were challenges and concerns regarding safety and personal protective equipment supplies, social distancing and knowledge transmission within the homeless community, access to food and water, and lack of space for isolating positive cases. The findings illustrate possible research, practice, public health policy, and emergency planning considerations within smaller communities.

Together in Care: An Enhanced Meals on Wheels Intervention Designed to Reduce Rehospitalizations among Older Adults with Cardiopulmonary Disease—Preliminary Findings

Rehospitalizations in the Medicare population may be influenced by many diverse social factors, such as, but not limited to, access to food, social isolation, and housing safety. Rehospitalizations result in significant cost in this population, with an expected increase as Medicare enrollment grows. We designed a pilot study based upon a partnership between a hospital and a local Meals on Wheels agency to support patients following an incident hospitalization to assess impact on hospital utilization. Patients from an urban medical center who were 60 years or older, had a prior hospitalization in the past 12 months, and had a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were recruited. Meals on Wheels provided interventions over 3 months of the patient’s transition to home: food delivery, home safety inspection, social engagement, and medical supply allocation. Primary outcome was reduction of hospital expenditure. In regard to the results, 84 participants were included in the pilot cohort, with the majority (54) having COPD. Mean age was 74.9 ± 10.5 years; 33 (39.3%) were female; 62 (73.8%) resided in extreme socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Total hospital expenditures while the cohort was enrolled in the transition program were $435,258 ± 113,423, a decrease as compared to $1,445,637 ± 325,433 (p < 0.01) of the cohort’s cost during the three months prior to enrollment. In conclusion, the initiative for patients with advanced chronic diseases resulted in a significant reduction of hospitalization expenditures. Further investigations are necessary to define the impact of this intervention on a larger cohort of patients as well as its generalizability across diverse geographic regions.

FOOD ENVIRONMENT: CONCEPTUALIZATION AND IMPORTANCE IN PERSPECTIVE OF URBAN INDIA

Food environment of an individual is characterized by the ‘availability of food’ and ‘affordability of food’. The latter determines the type of food available that is nutritious or nonnutritious nature of food while former determines the access to food in terms of purchasing power of people. These two components of food environment collectively play a major role in determining the food and nutritional security of any region. Country like India is characterized by the disparity in incomelevels, demography and development. Likewise, India is characterized by regions with varying degree of ‘food security’ and ‘nutritional security’. The present research article discusses the concept of ‘food environment’ in perspective of urban India. Further, the present research study investigates that how the above-mentioned concepts helpful in identifying the regions with food security and nutritional security or both. The study is based on secondary data collected from various governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Depriving mice of sleep also deprives of food

Both sleep-wake behavior and circadian rhythms are tightly coupled to energy metabolism and food intake. Altered feeding times in mice are known to entrain clock-gene rhythms in brain and liver and sleep-deprived humans tend to eat more and gain weight. Previous observations in mice showing that sleep deprivation (SD) changes clock-gene expression might thus relate to altered food intake and not to the loss of sleep per se. Whether SD affects food intake in the mouse and how this might affect clock-gene expression is, however, unknown. We therefore quantified i) the cortical expression of the clock genes Per1, Per2, Dbp, and Cry1 in mice that had access to food or not during a 6h SD, and ii) food intake during baseline, SD, and recovery sleep. We found that food deprivation did not modify the SD-incurred clock-gene changes in the cortex. Moreover, we discovered that although food intake during SD did not differ from baseline, mice lost weight and increased food intake during subsequent recovery. We conclude that SD is associated with food deprivation and that the resulting energy deficit might contribute to the effects of SD that are commonly interpreted as a response to sleep loss.

Provisioning food given by visitors to alpha-male long-tailed macaques at recreation forest, all of them are halal

The long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis Raffles, 1821) is a non-human primate (NHP) species with social status in its group. Macaca fascicularis living in groups and social castes. Alpha males lead their group. Alpha males will have greater access to food than individuals with lower social castes. The content of feed eaten by animals, of course, will affect health. Various biological processes occur, from the food eaten by animals to affect the health of human life. If the food eaten is toxic, it will be hazardous to the animal's metabolism for life. According to a Muslim perspective, how much better food can be eaten is included in Halal products. Including, in this case, food ingredients for feed, if it comes from ingredients that are included in the halal category, this will provide animal welfare. This study seeks to explain how visitors' feed types (provisioning food) to alpha-male Macaca fascicularis at Mbah Agung Karangbanar Recreation Forest, Banyumas, Central Java, Indonesia. This study used behavioral coding to measure the frequency and quantity of eating behavior for ten days based on visitor feeding. The remainder of the provisioning food found is recorded as data on the type of provisioning food. Based on the study results, the alpha-male was noted to eat provisioning food such as peanuts, bananas, sweet potatoes, snacks, and foods mixed with soy sauce given by visitors. All of them are halal because they eat visitors every time they come to a tourist location. Alpha-male was noted to have no interest in the carcasses found, so they did not eat them.

Analysing the Impact of Carbon Emissions and Non-renewable Energy Use on Infant and Under-5 Mortality Rates in Europe: New Evidence Using Panel Quantile Regression

The concentration of greenhouse gas emissions is considered to increase, and this can undermine the access to basic resources that are necessary for leading a healthy life such as access to food, water, health and environment. Environmental health is closely linked to human health and the world is witnessing an exponential increase in the trend of the greenhouse gas emissions which pose significant threat to both the environment and human health. Hence, this study contributes to the health-environment discourse and uses an unbalanced panel data on 46 European countries from 2005 to 2015 to investigate the impact of carbon emissions and non-renewable energy on infant and under-5 mortality rates. Consistent findings from static and dynamic analyses reveal that: (1) carbon emissions exhibit mortality-inducing properties; (2) non-renewable energy show mortality-reducing properties; (3) persistency in mortality rates exist; (4) the exacerbating (reducing) impact of emissions (non-renewable energy) dwindles (increases in absolute values) at higher distributions of mortality rates; and (5) Euro Union countries show lower mortality rates relative to non-Euro Union members. Policy recommendations are discussed.JEL Classification: I00, I10, I15, I18, I19