COVID-19 affected the food behavior of different age groups in Chinese households

The COVID-19 pandemic brought profound changes to all corners of society and affected people in every aspect of their lives. This survey-based study investigated how household food related matters such as food sourcing and consumption behaviors of 2,126 Chinese consumers in different age groups changed approximately two months into the COVID-19 quarantine. A new food sourcing mechanism, community-based online group grocery-ordering (CoGGO), was widely adopted by households, particularly among the youngest group studied (18–24 years of age). The same group showed a higher confidence in the food supply system during the quarantine and a greater propensity for weight gain while staying-at-home. The more mature age group (≥35 years of age) showed heightened vigilance and awareness, with fewer grocery-shopping trips, a higher tendency for purchasing extra food, and less tendency to waste food. Survey findings of the new food-sourcing mechanism, attitudes to food, and changes in behavior among different age groups provide valuable insights to guide policies and management interventions to address matters pertaining to food supply and distribution, food access and household food security, and food waste reduction.

The assessment of a smart system in hydroponic vertical farming via fuzzy MCDM methods

By 2050, the global population is estimated to rise to over 9 billion people, and the global food need is expected to ascend 50%. Moreover, by cause of climate change, agricultural production may decrease by 10%. Since cultivable land is constant, multi-layered farms are feasible alternatives to yield extra food from the unit land. Smart systems are logical options to assist production in these factory-like farms. When the amount of food grown per season is assessed, a single indoor hectare of a vertical farm could deliver yield equal to more than 30 hectares of land consuming 70% less water with nearly zero usage of pesticides. In this study, we evaluated technology selection for three vertical farm alternatives via MCDM methods. Even though commercial vertical farms are set up in several countries, area is still fresh and acquiring precise data is difficult. Therefore, we employed fuzzy logic as much as possible to overcome related uncertainties. WEDBA (Weighted Euclidean Distance Based Approximation) and MACBETH (Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique) methods are employed to evaluate alternatives.

IoT Based Leftover Food Notifications

A large portion of us discard extra food from our families in dustbins. Be that as it may, this extra food can in any case be utilized to fulfill yearning of numerous oppressed individuals. This paper presents a product answer for help inform accessible extra food from our families. We will likely foster an Android application to permit willing food givers to tell accessibility of extra food through Google Maps API. In the event that a benefactor means to give leftover food, the application will record his/her pickup area (for example as through GPS). When the pickup areas of givers are recorded in data set, we can plot them on Google Maps API as markers. This stamped guide would then be able to be utilized by different NGOs to gather extra food from their particular objections and afterward circulate it among oppressed individuals.

Nutritional Characteristics, Sites of Origin, and Cost of Foods Consumed during School Hours and Their Relationship to Nutritional Status of Schoolchildren in Mexico City

Access, nutritional characteristics, preferences, and cost can affect food intake at school. A cross-sectional study was performed to determine the nutritional characteristics, sites of origin, and cost of foods consumed during school hours. Three hundred and sixty-nine children from five public elementary schools in Mexico City participated. The children gave information about the foods that they consumed five days out of the week during school hours, including the place of acquisition, cost of the food, and portion size. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight of the children were taken. Caloric consumption and percentage of recommended daily energy intake from food during school hours was determined. Children were 10.9 ± 0.9 years old; 55.6% were girls, 26% were overweight, 23% were obese, and 3.3% were of low height for age. The average calorie intake was 515 kilocalories (kcal) (boys, 535 kcal; girls, 476 kcal, p = 0.051); calorie intake was higher when school meal intakes included foods from home, school, and outside of school. No significant differences were found in calorie intake by children’s nutritional status. The cost in Mexican pesos per 100 kcal consumed showed differences according to the nutritional status of the children; it was 4.0 Mexican pesos for children with normal weight and 4.2 and 3.8 pesos in children who were overweight or obese, respectively. The information obtained in this study should be used to provide nutritional guidance. The food portion size intake during school hours should be reduced, and the food should come from one or at most two sites, because each extra food represents an increase in the total kilocalorie intake.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural production, livelihoods, and food security in India: baseline results of a phone survey

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on agricultural production, livelihoods, food security, and dietary diversity in India. Phone interview surveys were conducted by trained enumerators across 12 states and 200 districts in India from 3 to 15 May 2020. A total of 1437 farmers completed the survey (94% male; 28% 30–39 years old; 38% with secondary schooling). About one in ten farmers (11%) did not harvest in the past month with primary reasons cited being unfavorable weather (37%) and lockdown-related reasons (24%). A total of 63% of farmers harvested in the past month (primarily wheat and vegetables), but only 44% had sold their crop; 12% were still trying to sell their crop, and 39% had stored their crop, with more than half (55%) reporting lockdown-related issues as the reason for storing. Seventy-nine percent of households with wage-workers witnessed a decline in wages in the past month and 49% of households with incomes from livestock witnessed a decline. Landless farmers were about 10 times more likely to skip a meal as compared to large farmers (18% versus 2%), but a majority reported receiving extra food rations from the government. Nearly all farmers reported consuming staple grains daily in the past week (97%), 63% consumed dairy daily, 40% vegetables daily, 26% pulses daily, and 7% fruit daily. These values are much lower than reported previously for farmers in India around this time of year before COVID-19: 94–95% dairy daily, 57–58% pulses daily, 64–65% vegetables daily, and 42–43% fruit daily. In conclusion, we found that the COVID-19 lockdown in India has primarily impacted farmers’ ability to sell their crops and livestock products and decreased daily wages and dietary diversity.

Durability of Class

Class figured prominently in the Blockade, as unequal distribution of resources, and as differing perceptions and practices. Intelligentsia, a professional culture-producing class (artists, writers, professors), saw themselves as gatekeepers of ethics and culture. They used networks to plead for meager extra food, but they were loath to admit doing so. In contrast, intelligenty criticized the rynok in moral terms and tried to avoid using it. Blue-collar workers grounded status and identity in physical labor, socialism, and pragmatism. They chafed at superiors’ privileges, which reinforced class identity. In contrast, they were less reluctant to use the rynok pragmatically (although they could be critical). Managers were instrumentally rational. They enjoyed privileges and were almost silent about using networks for food. They used managerial paternalism to ground authority, including shadow practices to help employees survive. Managers sometimes used the rynok for gain. In sum, class mattered as habits and differential relations to food.

Gibbon strategies in a food competition task

Social primates face conflicts of interest with other partners when their individual and collective interests collide. Despite living in small, primarily bonded, groups compared to other social primates, gibbons are not exempt from these conflicts in their everyday lives. In the current task, we asked whether dyads of gibbons would solve a conflict of interest over food rewards. We presented dyads of gibbons with a situation in which they could decide whether to take an active role and pull a handle to release food rewards at a distance or take a passive role and avoid action. In this situation, the passive partner could take an advantageous position to obtain the rewards over the active partner. Gibbons participated in three conditions: a control condition with no food rewards, a test condition with indirect food rewards and a test condition with direct food rewards. In both test conditions, five rewards were released at a distance from the handle. In addition, the active individual could obtain one extra food reward from the handle in the direct food condition. We found that gibbons acted more often in the two conditions involving food rewards, and waited longer in the indirect compared to the direct food condition, thus suggesting that they understood the task contingencies. Surprisingly, we found that in a majority of dyads, individuals in the active role obtained most of the payoff compared to individuals in the passive role in both food conditions. Furthermore, in some occasions individuals in the active role did not approach the location where the food was released. These results suggest that while gibbons may strategize to maximize benefits in a competitive food task, they often allowed their partners to obtain better rewards. Our results highlight the importance of social tolerance and motivation as drivers promoting cooperation in these species.

Iraq’s converging crises will set back fiscal reform

Significance Promised extra food rations have yet to appear, deepening economic pressure on households. Last year’s twin shocks of the pandemic and oil-price collapse contributed to a fiscal and socioeconomic crisis. The revised 2021 budget, signed into law on April 8, avoids structural economic reforms ahead of parliamentary elections due in October. Impacts The government’s lack of policy credibility will make it difficult to secure a reform-linked long-term bailout package from the IMF. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi will offer limited reconstruction assistance, seeking to counterbalance Iranian influence. Service delivery, especially of electricity, will be critically constrained as the government deprioritises capital expenditure.