Food Security最新文献

The literature on food security and nutrition -FSN among refugees found high rates of food insecurity- FI among refugees in both, low- and middle-income - LMIC countries and high-income countries- HIC. Despite high rates of FI among refugees in HIC, little is known about FSN status of refugees and asylum-seekers living in refugee camps in the European Union- EU. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by reviewing issues related to the Food Security and Nutrition-FSN of refugees in the EU and worldwide and provides three main contributions to the existing knowledge. Firstly, it identifies the main drivers of FSN in a refugee context and offer a causal framework describing the main causes and effects of FNI in refugee camps. The immediate causes of FNI are poor Shelter and Settlement, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene and Healthcare. Moreover, secondary causes of FNI are the lack of adaptation to a new environment; Lack of culturally adapted food; Inadequate FSN interventions; Poor livelihood strategies. Secondly, it demonstrates that FNI exists in European refugee camps underscoring that EU member states have been unable to deliver sustainable solutions towards the realization of FSN in the E.U. Finally, the paper calls for a multisectoral and non-discriminatory European common policy targeting refugees’ FSN.

Nutritious foods are unaffordable to the majority of households in lower-income countries. Hence, starchy staples tend to be the main source of diets for men, women, and children, implying poor diet quality and deficiency in key nutrients that are crucial for child’s physical growth and cognitive development. Much of existing studies on child linear growth or stunting examined the impact of current dietary consumption on physical growth even though the effect of diets and nutrition would only be observed with time lag. This study examined the associations between sustained consumption of animal sourced foods (ASFs) and adequate nutrient intakes (measured by the mean nutrient adequacy (MPA)) and linear growth differences among children in rural and small towns in Ethiopia. Using nationally representative longitudinal data, results of fixed effects estimations suggested that a standard deviation increase in the household MPA was associated with a 10–11% increase in the height-for-age z-score; and a 10% increase in the household MPA was associated with a 3.2 – 5.6% reduction in stunting rate in children 6–59 months of age. Results also indicated some associations between past ASFs consumption and current linear growth outcomes in younger children. The gap in the household MPA was over 41%, indicating the need for nutrient-dense ASFs in the household diets despite the sustainability concerns around ASFs. Key implication is that policies and interventions aimed at improving linear growth outcomes of children in rural and small towns in Ethiopia should improve household’s access to ASFs and nutrient acquisition capacity.

Abstract

Large-scale agricultural investments (LSAIs) and their impacts on local communities in host countries have been controversially discussed in recent years. As scholars increasingly call for more structured and comprehensive analyses, we develop a mixed-method approach using an expanded version of the “Right to Food” (RtF) framework to systematically investigate the local food security impacts of a recently established tomato-producing LSAI in Central Benin, West Africa. We find that the LSAI keeps natural resources as accessible as possible for the local community and provides employment opportunities, leading to higher dietary diversity of employees and multiplier effects in the local economy. At the same time, we find inequalities regarding the compensation of former land users as well as high job insecurity for temporary laborers who face high transportation costs to reach the LSAI. We argue that fair and inclusive compensation, improved access to markets and machinery, access to natural resources for often overlooked groups (pastoralists, hunters, fishermen) and social infrastructure are crucial factors in promoting positive outcomes of LSAIs on communities and that strong local institutions play a key role for achieving this. We conclude that the specific characteristics of our case (relatively small size, labor-intensive crop, focus on regional markets) provide favorable conditions for positive impacts on local food security. We encourage further, structured mixed-method studies, ideally including longitudinal and comparative research designs, to investigate the multidimensional effects related to the establishment of LSAIs. The extended RtF framework can thereby serve as a structural lens to systematically analyze the findings.

Despite the importance of crop diversification in enhancing household income and food security, significant knowledge gaps remain in terms of the precursors and actual impacts of diversified food-cash crop systems. Thus, we assessed the determinants of food-cash crop diversification, and its impacts on the income and food security of farmers using survey data from 408 randomly-selected households in the Forest-Savannah Transition Zone of Ghana. The study employs the multinomial logistic model (MNL) to examine farm households’ decision to practice food-cash crop diversification, while the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) was performed to determine the impact of the diversification on food security and household income. Diversification of cash and food crops impacted positively on household annual crop income and on food security, and these positive impacts further increased as the diversity of tree cash cropping increased, with the addition of cocoa and/or cashew. Our findings emphasise the importance of income from tree cash crops, and complementarities between cash crops and food crop production in explaining the food security merits of diversified food-cash crop systems. Overall, a food-crop-farmers’ decision to diversify into cocoa and cashew in Ghana was significantly predicted by farming experience of the household head, and farm characteristics of the household (fallow land availability, land ownership and livestock ownership), as well as economic (annual crop income and access to off-farm income) and institutional (access to extension) factors. These results imply that enhancing farmers’ access to financial and technical support services and promoting livestock farming could encourage the adoption of diversified cropping systems. However, since land ownership rights in sub-Saharan Africa are oftentimes unclear, contested or poorly enforced, pro-poor and equitable land tenure reforms would be indispensable in promoting diversification into tree cash crops by subsistence farm households.

During the past five years, the e-grocery sector in China has experienced double-digit growth which accelerated at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of this hypergrowth was fueled by changing consumption patterns and pandemic-induced demand for contactless food delivery. However, this study highlights two other important but understudied drivers of the e-grocery boom -the rising financial investment and the deepening engagement of dot-com companies in the food retail sector. This study characterizes the recent financial investments in China’s e-grocery sector and analyzes the food security implications, which contributes to the scholarly literature on financialization, corporate power, and digitization in the food system in novel ways. This study advances three research findings: a) the e-grocery sector has become a new site of financialization in the food sector; b) this new site was developed partly through pandemic-induced demand for food delivery and partly as a by-product of the expansion of China’s dot-com economy; c) by the last quarter of 2021 and in 2022, many investors fled China’s e-grocery sector after an anti-trust crackdown was launched and as most e-grocery businesses struggled to make a profit. Overall, the boom and bust of the e-grocery bubble in China posed multiple challenges to food security, such as causing cash flow crises for grocery suppliers and compromising fair competition in the grocery market. Furthermore, the twin processes of financialization and digitization have forged a mutually reinforcing relationship that has far-reaching implications for China’s food system as a whole.

Africa is the poorest continent, with the fastest population growth, the most acute food shortages, and overfishing. Meeting rising food demand while preserving sustainable production is challenging. We evaluated the full fishery supply chain over the previous 70 years in search of sustainable growth paths, from fish resource status and fishery production to trade and human consumption. Our data show that Africa had the lowest per capita fish consumption of any continent in 2017, with international imports accounting for 35% of this low fish consumption. Meanwhile, foreign vessels fish legally or illegally in African waters, landing 3.1 million tonnes of fish outside of Africa each year. Current fishing practises have resulted in 40% of fish populations being overexploited, causing a loss of 2 million tonnes of fish production per year. Improved management can reduce non-trade fish outflows from foreign vessels fishing and restore overfished stocks to maximum sustainable levels, increasing Africa's fish consumption by 42% and the commercial value of marine fisheries by 53%. Aside from food supply and economic benefits, there are also various social and environmental benefits including job opportunities, support for local livelihoods, and environmental health. These findings can help inform policy and the development of long-term sustainable solutions to challenges in Africa such as overfishing, low fish consumption, hunger, and poverty.

High reliance on food imports, unbalanced diets, limited cultivable land, scarce fresh water resources and remoteness are typical food security constraints for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Calls for evidence-based food policy interventions are, therefore, justified. Yet, SIDS studies on food security are often outdated, focus on one country and use exclusive data and dedicated methodologies that cannot be applied elsewhere. This study standardized its methodology to assess availability of food groups and micronutrients at a SIDS-wide level. We use the latest release from FAO’s harmonized Food Balance Sheets and improve actual intake by correcting for food waste and lower micronutrient thresholds for under-fives. We make results interpretable with geo-visualization techniques and infographics that map food group and micronutrient availability per country against required needs. A great share of countries (94%) fails to meet food group requirements; 43% does not meet the requirement of five or more of the eight food groups. None of the SIDS meet the required doses for micronutrients and only 14% meets requirements of 13 or 14 of the 15 micronutrients, yet, 31% of the SIDS misses 6 to 8 micronutrients. Overweight prevalence is closely correlated to food group availability while stunting can be largely explained by income level. The findings prioritize policy actions by identifying absence of dietary diversity. The approach is adequate and cost-efficient based on existing databases that are regularly updated. Timeliness and country coverage of SIDS in some international databases need serious improvement.

Milk is highly perishable and can be a conduit for the transmission of zoonotic foodborne pathogens. This cross-sectional survey involving 159 farming households and 18 participant observations in participating farms was undertaken in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas in Oromia, Ethiopia to assess the adoption of food safety measures in smallholder farms. Adoption of food safety measures at the farm level influences milk quality and safety across the entire milk value chain, from “grass to glass”. This study considered the adoption of 36 different food safety measures (FSM) including animal health, milking hygiene, hygienic milk storage, and hygienic milking premises. A weighted food safety index (FSI, ranging from 0 to 100) was calculated for each household based on FSM adopted. Ordinary Least Squares linear regression was used to quantify the factors of FSM adoption by smallholder farmers. The overall food safety index ranged between 59.97—60.75. A majority of farmers may be classified as moderate adopters of FSM (index ranging between 30–70%). Farm and farmers’ characteristics such as herd size, farmer’s education level, farmer’s expertise in dairying, and participation of the farm in the formal milk value- chain, were shown to positively influence the level of adoption of FSM. Low farm-level adoption of FSM has food safety and public health implications as it can lead to milk contamination and, therefore, expose consumers to foodborne diseases. There is an imperative for policymakers to design and implement policies and intervention strategies that lead to increased farmer training related to livestock production and awareness of the important role that FSM adoption can play in improving food safety and public health.

The current diet structure of Chinese residents poses significant challenges to both health and the environment. Accordingly, in this study, a diet structure optimization model was developed to simulate the diet structure of urban and rural residents in four regions of China, taking into account nutritional needs and environmental sustainability for optimization. The results showed that by optimization based on nutrition alone, nutrient adequacy ratios could increase by 2.8% on average, narrowing regional disparities. Incorporating environmental sustainability slightly reduced nutritional improvements but significantly lowered carbon emissions, water usage, and ecological footprints by 2.9%, 6.9%, and 2.4%, respectively. By simulating the optimization of diet structure, the Qinghai-Tibet region showed potential for nutrient enhancement, whereas the southern and northern regions had opportunities for environmental impact mitigation. This study highlights the significance of transitioning towards a sustainable diet structure that enhances nutritional levels while prioritizing individual and environmental well-being and emphasizes the urgent need for change. It also offers targeted recommendations for diet structures in different regions of China, thereby providing invaluable references for policymakers and other countries striving to establish sustainable and balanced diets.