Redefining the food desert: combining GIS with direct observation to measure food access

As public and private resources are increasingly being directed towards the elimination of food deserts in urban areas, proper measurement of food access is essential. Amelioration has been approached through the use of farmers markets, virtual grocery stores, and corner store programs, but properly situating these assets in neighborhoods in need requires localized data on both the location and content of food outlets and the populations served. This paper examines the reliability of current techniques for identifying food deserts, and identifies some of the flaws in those approaches. Information derived from geographic information systems (GIS) mapping is the predominant means of determining food availability. In this study, food access in Bridgeport, CT, is examined utilizing both computer-based GIS mapping and on-the-ground observations. While the GIS output indicates generalized food accessibility issues, supplementation by survey data reduces the geographic extent of the food desert problem. Still, nearly 60,000 people (40 % of the population) reside in neighborhoods served only by small retailers who provide few healthy food options, and those at inflated prices. The high opportunity cost of travelling by bus to a major grocery store may outweigh the direct cost savings, and residents choose to consume locally available but unhealthy foods.     

Rights-based food systems and the goals of food systems reform

Food security, health, decent livelihoods, gender equity, safe working conditions, cultural identity and participation in cultural life are basic human rights that can be achieved at least in part through the food system. But current trends in the US prevent full realization of these economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) for residents, farmers, and wageworkers in the food system. Supply chains that strive to meet the goals of social justice, economic equity, and environmental quality better than the dominant globalized food value networks are gaining popularity in the US. However, achieving important human rights has become conflated with other goals of food system reform over the past decade, such as being “community-based,” local, and sustainable. This conflation confuses means, ends, and complementary goals; and it may lead activists trying to help communities to regain control of their food system choices into less productive strategies. This paper introduces a new concept, rights-based food systems (RBFS), and explores its connection with localization and sustainability. The core criteria of RBFS are democratic participation in food system choices affecting more than one sector; fair, transparent access by producers to all necessary resources for food production and marketing; multiple independent buyers; absence of human exploitation; absence of resource exploitation; and no impingement on the ability of people in other locales to meet this set of criteria. Localization and a community base can help achieve RBFS by facilitating food democracy and reducing environmental exploitation, primarily by lowering environmental costs due to long-distance transportation. Sustainability per se is an empty goal for food system reform, unless what will be sustained and for whom are specified. The RBFS concept helps to clarify what is worth sustaining and who is most susceptible to neglect in attempts to reform food systems. Localization can be a means toward sustainability if local food systems are also RBFS.

Stalking the wily multinational: Power and control in the US food system

The ten largest food and beveragecorporations control over half of the food sales inthe United States and their share may be increasing.Using data from a range of secondary sources, weexamine these corporations and their boards ofdirectors. Social and demographic characteristics ofboard members gleaned from corporate reports, thebusiness press, and elsewhere are presented.Information on interlocking corporate directorates andother common ties among members of the boards ofdirectors show that US based food and beveragecorporations are tied together through a web ofindirect interlocks.     

Retail relations: an interlocking directorate analysis of food retailing corporations in the United States

The US food retailing industry continues to concentrate and consolidate. Power in the agriculture, food, and nutrition system has shifted from producers to processors, and is now shifting to retailers. Currently, only eight food-retailing corporations control the majority of food sales in the United States. Expanding on previous research by Lyson and Raymer (2000, Agriculture and Human Values 17: 199–208), this paper examines the characteristics of the boards of directors of the leading food retailing corporations and the indirect interlocks that bind the food retailers into a corporate community. Rachel Schwartz is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University. Her research interests are focused on the relationship between food retailers and food consumers in the United States, especially in regards to the construction of the concept of “choice.” Thomas Lyson was Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University. His interests included the relationship of agriculture and food systems on community economic development and population health. His most recent book, Civic Agriculture, developed a problem-solving model for food and agriculture issues. Dr. Lyson passed away in December 2006.     

The development of guidelines for implementing information technology to promote food security

Food insecurity, and its extreme form, hunger, occur whenever the accessibility to an adequate supply of nutritional and safe foods becomes restricted or unpredictable. They are recurring problems in certain regions of the US, as well as in many parts of the world. According to nation-wide surveys conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, between 1996 and 1998 an estimated 9.7% of US households were classified as food insecure (6.2% being food insecure without evidence of hunger, and 3.5% being food insecure with moderate to severe hunger). This means that approximately 10 million households each year did not always have access to enough food to meet basic needs. A potential tool in the fight against food insecurity and hunger is information technology (IT), since its use and range of application continue to grow at astonishing rates. The study presented here examined the question of how information technology, particularly the Internet, can be used to promote food security. The study used an action science research approach, and a case study strategy, with the food security system of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi selected as the case for study. The research design was a two-phase process. Phase one consisted of a needs assessment among food assistance organizations in Oktibbeha County, and included interviews of key food assistance personnel. Phase one also included a survey of IT subject matter experts to seek their opinions about the current state of Web-based information technology. Phase two involved an analysis of various IT implementation issues, as well as the development of a Web-based food security information system prototype tool. The needs assessment results indicated that (a) certain food security system and information needs existed among the food assistance organizations in Oktibbeha County, and (b) appropriate information technologies existed that could be applied to these needs. The food security needs related to better communication and coordination of information, such as program information, food site inventory information, client history information, food donation information, and nutrition education information. In regard to technology development, a variety of scenarios were examined. These included client-side approaches, server-side approaches, simple e-mail-based systems, Java-based systems, systems based on the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), and commercial database systems. In applying the needs assessment and survey results, the researcher developed a prototype Web site (including a series of online database tools) that could be used to promote food security in counties such as Oktibbeha County. The results of this research show that appropriate, Internet-based, IT holds promise for the reduction of certain social problems, such as food insecurity and hunger.     

The private governance of food: equitable exchange or bizarre bazaar?

In recent years, we have witnessed three parallel and intertwined trends: First, food retail and processing firms have embraced private standards, usually with some form of third party certification employed to verify adherence to those standards. Second, firms have increasingly aligned themselves with, as opposed to fighting off, environmental, fair trade, and other NGOs. Third, firms have embraced supply chain management as a strategy for increasing profits and market share. Together, these trends are part and parcel of the neoliberal blurring of the older liberal distinction between state and civil society. In this paper I ask what the implications of these changes are from the vantage point of the three major approaches to ethics: consequentialism, virtue theory, and rights theory. What are the consequences of these changes for food safety, for suppliers, for consumers? What virtues (e.g., trust, fairness) are these changes likely to embrace and what vices may accompany them? Whose rights will be furthered or curtailed by these changes?     

The first European congress on agricultural and food ethics and follow-up workshop on ethics and food biotechnology: A US perspective

The first European Congress on Agriculturaland Food Ethics was held at Wageningen University andResearch Center (WUR), Wageningen, The Netherlands, March 4–6, 1999. This was the inaugural conference forthe newly forming European Society for Agricultural andFood Ethics – EUR-SAFE – and around two hundredpeople from across Europe (and a handful of NorthAmericans) participated. Following theCongress/conference, a small (16 people), two-dayworkshop funded in part by the US National ScienceFoundation focused on similarities and differencesbetween the US and the EU regarding publicdiscourse/debate on food biotechnology. A briefoverview of the Congress and the follow-up workshopsuggests what lessons AFHVS and ASFS might learn fromEuropean experience of agricultural and food ethics.     

天然生物活性物质及其功能食品的研究进展

功能食品的关键因子是天然生物活性物质。文章介绍了天然生物活性物质及功能食品的概况,阐述了天然生物活性物质在功能食品中的应用现状,指出产品创新与多元化发展、多学科集成研发、规范化管理是功能食品的发展趋势,并结合功能食品的发展趋势提出新资源挖掘、提取分离工艺优化、功能性评价等天然生物活性物质的研发方向,以期为发展独具中国特色的功能食品产业提供理论参考。     

Framing transformation: the counter-hegemonic potential of food sovereignty in the US context

Originally created by the international peasant movement La Vía Campesina, the concept of ??food sovereignty?? is being used with increasing frequency by agrifood activists and others in the Global North. Using the analytical lens of framing, I explore the effects of this diffusion on the transformative potential of food sovereignty. US agrifood initiatives have recently been the subject of criticism for their lack of transformative potential, whether because they offer market-based solutions rather than demanding political ones or because they fail to adequately address existing social injustice. In this paper, I consider how food sovereignty measures up to this critique both as it was originally framed by Vía Campesina and as it is being reframed for the US context. First I briefly compare food sovereignty to community food security (CFS), which was developed more explicitly for the North American context and has been criticized for its lack of transformative potential. I then explore how the potential of food sovereignty has been affected as it is reframed to resonate with US audiences through an examination of its use on the web sites of US-based organizations. I find that, while some reframing of the concept to highlight consumer choice does seem to be occurring, it remains a primarily political concept. It may not, however, be fulfilling its potential for addressing social injustice in the US agrifood system because it tends to be used either in reference to international issues or, when applied to the US context, treated as a rough synonym for local control. I conclude that, if advocates can successfully guide the reframing process, food sovereignty could serve as a valuable counter-hegemonic vision to complement the more pragmatic and locally-grounded work of CFS advocates.     

The complexities of globalization: The UK as a case study of tensions within the food system and the challenge to food policy

This article proposes a number of arguments about the contemporary food system. Using the UK as a case study, it argues that the food system is marked by tensions and conflicts. The paper explores different strands of public policy as applied to the food system over the last two centuries. It differentiates between various uses of the term globalization and proposes that the real features and dynamics of the new world food order are complex and neither as benign nor as homogeneous as some of its proponents allow. Opposition to the new era of globalization is emerging in the food system. This is already having some impact, questioning not just the products of the food system but the nature of its production and distribution.     

Standards and corporate reconstruction in the Michigan dry bean industry

Since the turn of the lastcentury, Michigan farmers, elevators, and stategovernment have used production and processstandards to shape the dry bean industry totheir interests and set a worldwide standardfor quality dry beans. Over the last 20 years,however, multinational agro/food firms haveintroduced their market criteria into standardssetting, and recent changes in Michigan beanstandards largely accommodate the interests ofthese firms. A review of the changes in thesestandards over time allows us to explore howconcepts of accountability and control improveour understanding of changes in the structureand operation of food production and marketing.What is the measure of state governmentaccountability to corporate capital and to thestate's bean farmers? In what ways can farmersuse standards to re-assert their priorities andgain a greater measure of influence overmarketing? What challenges do changing qualitystandards pose for public research as well asfor the institutions representing Michiganfarmers and elevators?     

Right to food; right to feed; right to be fed. The intersection of women's rights and the right to food

This paper explores conceptual and practical linkages between women and food, and argues that food security cannot be realized until women are centrally included in policy discussions about food. Women's special relationship with food is culturally constructed and not a natural division of labor. Women's identity and sense of self is often based on their ability to feed their families and others; food insecurity denies them this right. Thus the interpretation of food as a human right requires that food issues be analyzed from a gender perspective. For example, the paper asks how the rights to food intersect with the rights of women and other human rights; what the policy implications of these intersecting rights are; and how their integration will contribute to the effort to view all human rights as mutually reinforcing, universal, and indivisible. The second half of the paper speculates on the significance of distinctions between the right to be fed, the right to food, and the right to feed for understanding the relation between gender and food.     

Communicating food safety: Ethical issues in risk communication

This paper discusses two paradigms of risk communication that guide strategies for communicating food safety issues. Built on the principles of social utility and paternalism, the first paradigm heavily relies on science and technical experts to determine food safety regulations and policies. Risk communication, in this context, is a unidirectional process by which experts from the industry or government regulatory agencies inform or alert potentially affected publics about the hazards they face and the protective actions they can take. However, public trust and confidence in government and industry have considerably declined. Experts are being questioned about the objectivity of their assessments of risks. Policy makers are being challenged on such risk management decisions as tolerance guidelines, food labeling laws, and emergency warning systems. Concomitantly, some segments of the public, especially consumer advocates and environmental groups, are demanding increased input into the decision making process as they call for the recognition of lay perceptions and interpretations of risk as a legitimate counterpart to technically-assessed risk. Hence, instead of the linear, persuasion-oriented communication process, there are evolving efforts to shape risk communication into a more dialogical, interactive, and democratic exchange of information among different stakeholders (i.e., technical experts, government policy makers, industry, interest groups, and the general public). Reflecting a more Jeffersonian approach, this second paradigm argues that decisions about food safety are so complex and multi-dimensional that they must not be left to experts alone. However, both paradigms present ethical dilemmas. Determining the risks and relative safety of foods is not a totally objective and concise process. Since it involves social, economic, political, and personal values, how can the public not be involved in the exchange of ideas and information concerning food risks and safety? On the other hand, can we afford to let public opinion govern decisions pertaining to food risks and safety without consideration for the merits of scientific risk assessment? This paper raises questions regarding some assumptions of these two risk communication paradigms, and explores and discusses some of the salient ethical questions inherent in each framework.     

Biotechnology in food production and processing

The food processing industry is the oldest and largest industry using biotechnological processes. Further development of food products and processes based on biotechnology depends upon the improvement of existing processes, such as fermentation, immobilized biocatalyst technology, and production of additives and processing aids, as well as the development of new opportunities for food biotechnology. Improvements are needed in the characterization, safety, and quality control of food materials, in processing methods, in waste conversion and utilization processes, and in currently used food microorganism and tissue culture systems. Also needed are fundamental studies of the structure-function relationship of food materials and of the cell physiology and biochemistry of raw materials.     

School food environments and the obesity issue: content,structural determinants,and agency in Canadian high schools

To understand the phenomenon of the rapidly increasing prevalence of overweight and obese children and youth, it is especially important to examine the school food environment, the role of structural factors in shaping this environment, and the resulting nutrition and health outcomes. The paper examines research on school food environments in the US and Canada. It notes evidence of widespread availability of poor nutrition products in both environments and delineates reasons for the situation, and examines initiatives presently being undertaken in a number of jurisdictions in both countries to encourage healthy eating in schools. Empirical data are presented from a pilot study of high schools in the Canadian province of Ontario. The study documents the extent of student purchasing of nutrient-poor foods and beverages, and the structural factors internal and external to the school that appear responsible for the availability of such products in food environments in this critical institutional sphere. The paper also examines positive local initiatives in high schools that seek to encourage healthy eating in schools.

Fruit and vegetable access in four low-income food deserts communities in Minnesota

Access to fruits and vegetables by low-income residents living in selected urban and rural Minnesotan communities was investigated. Communities were selected based on higher than state average poverty rates, limited access to grocery stores, and urban influence codes (USDA ERS codes). Four communities, two urban and two rural, were selected. Data were gathered from focus group discussions (n = 41), responses to a consumer survey (n = 396 in urban neighborhoods and n = 400 in rural communities), and an inventory of foodstuffs available at stores located in all the communities and at large grocery stores in neighborhoods adjacent to the urban communities. In the two urban neighborhoods, a significant number of foods (26% and 52%) were significantly more expensive than the Thrifty Food Plan’s (TFP) market basket price (MBP). Additionally, a significant number of foods in the two rural communities were more expensive (11% and 26%). In focus groups, participants identified major barriers to shopping in their community to be cost, quality of food, and food choice limitations. Results of the food inventory show that foods within the communities were costly, of fair or poor quality, and limited in number and type available, supporting complaints verbalized by focus group participants. Through focus groups and surveys, participants expressed concern that healthy food choices were not affordable within their communities and believed that people in their community suffered from food insecurity. The absence of quality, affordable food for low-income residents in these four Minnesota communities prevents or diminishes their ability to choose foods that help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Deja Hendrickson is currently a graduate student at the University of California and working towards obtaining her MS in nutrition in order to become a registered dietitian. Chery Smith, PhD, MPH, RD, is an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota with research interests in the dietary behavior of low-income and homeless people, community and international nutrition, and food systems. Nicole Eikenberry is a Registered Dietitian and recently completed her MS in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, with primary research emphasis on food access and food choice for low-income Minnesotan adults.     

Placing the food system on the urban agenda: The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning

Food issues are generally regarded as agricultural and rural issues. The urban food system is less visible than such other systems as transportation, housing, employment, or even the environment. The reasons for its low visibility include the historic process by which issues and policies came to be defined as urban; the spread of processing, refrigeration, and transportation technology together with cheap, abundant energy that rendered invisible the loss of farmland around older cities; and the continuing institutional separation of urban and rural policy. Despite its low visibility, the urban food system nonetheless contributes significantly to community health and welfare; to metropolitan economies; connects to other urban systems such as housing, transportation, land use, and economic development; and impacts the urban environment. We examine existing or potential city institutions that could offer a more comprehensive look at the urban food system. These include the city department of food, the food policy council, and the city-planning department.     

中国水产品的可持续供给

水产品是中国最重要的动物蛋白来源之一，为中国粮食安全和营养供给做出了重要贡献。随着中国经济的快速发展，中国对水产品的需求和消费有望进一步增加。为了降低未来中国水产品供给的风险，本研究系统地分析了中国水产品供给和消费的现状和发展趋势。研究表明，中国的水产品主要由水产养殖和捕捞渔业供给，进口水产品占国内水产品供给和消费的比例仍低于5.00%。目前水产养殖产量已四倍于捕捞渔业产量，且捕捞渔业增长乏力，而水产养殖产量将继续增加。然而，中国水产养殖面积和水产业从业人员数近年开始逐渐降低，增加了中国水产品稳定、可持续供给的风险。由于中国巨大的水产品供给和消费体量，未来中国水产品供给仍需要坚持立足国内生产。需要提高水产养殖产量来满足中国对水产品需求的增量，同时稳定海洋和内陆捕捞产量，并以进口作为水产品供给的适当补充。需要提高水产养殖集约化水平，努力提高水产养殖单位面积产量和劳动生产效率，同时降低水产养殖引起的环境影响，实现“可持续集约化”。本研究还提出了需要加强水产品在粮食安全政策的地位、通过更好的统计数据支撑政策制定、更多和更均衡的资源投入支持水产业发展等建议。     

当前我国部分农村杂货店面临的困境及对策

随着中国经济的高速发展和改革开放的不断深入,农村问题日益显现,理应受到并实际受到了党和国家的高度重视。中国部分农村杂货店的发展面临困境可谓是农村问题的一个重要显现。近两三年来,农村经济快速发展,推动了农村交通的不断改善和转变了村民的传统消费观念,再加上城乡二元经济结构深层次矛盾的进一步显现,传统杂货店遇到了前所未有的挑战。面对困境,杂货店主选择了以传统杂货店为依托,实现多方经营。同时,党和国家出台的相关政策对繁荣农村商品市场,促进杂货店的发展和转变有积极的意义。     

食品产业高质量发展研究——来自江西的实践

食品工业是国民经济的重要支柱产业,食品产业高质量发展不仅事关全民福祉,也有利于培育经济增长新动能和助力经济社会高质量发展。本文以江西省为例,采用质性研究方法,分析当前食品产业的现实基础和存在问题,探索食品产业高质量发展的实施路径和支持政策。研究表明,近年来食品产业的发展规模得到显著提升,食品安全法律法规体系和监管制度在逐渐完善,市场监管力度和技术创新实力在不断加强,绿色产业链条在不断健全。但仍存在食品产业链条不强、食品出口竞争力不强、食品安全监管有待提升等问题。为促进食品产业高质量发展,提出了优化食品产业结构布局、加强食品产业科技创新、提升食品产业品牌价值、推动食品产业的绿色可持续、加强食品产业人才培养与引进的实施路径。同时,需要给予更多政策去引导食品企业明确品牌定位,鼓励开拓国内外市场;完善市场投融资机制,助力食品企业提质发展;完善食品监管体系建设,建立食品安全全过程追溯机制;制定和推行绿色生产标准体系,提高产品市场竞争力和消费者认可度。