Food Security最新文献

Fruit and vegetable consumption is below the WHO recommendations, globally, in Southeast Asia, and in West Africa. Affordability, accessibility, and acceptability are the main drivers of consumption. Nutrition-sensitive food system interventions that address these drivers may be effective in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. This study evaluates the effect of an integrated nutrition-sensitive program that aimed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in low-income urban adults in Hanoi, Vietnam (n = 582), and Ibadan, Nigeria (n = 626), through the simultaneous implementation of three interventions at the market and consumer levels. Fruit and vegetable intake data were collected after eight months of exposure to the program with repeated quantitative 24-hour recalls and exposure effect was estimated with inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment, adjusting for potential confounders. The impact size on total fruits and vegetables (144 g/d, 95%CI 93, 196), fruits (137 g/d, 95%CI 93, 183) and vegetables (6 g/d, 95%CI -12, 24) showed that intake was higher in the exposed Nigerian population than the control group. In Vietnam, intakes of fruits and vegetables in the exposed group did not statistically differ from the control group when controlling for differences between groups with propensity scores. Participants exposed to all three interventions reported slightly higher intakes compared to those who were exposed to fewer interventions, but these differences were not statistically significant. Integrated approaches of nutrition-sensitive food system interventions need to be implemented to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Co-creation of interventions provides the possibility to address the different drivers and barriers of healthy diets specific of the context.

The present study aimed to determine the risk levels affecting food safety and security in foods distributed to earthquake victims by organizations. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in food distribution organizations in Kahramanmaraş and Hatay between 20–24 February 2023 (N = 40). The data were collected face-to-face by using the Descriptive Data Form and Food Safety and Security Observation Form (FSSOF) developed by the researchers. According to FSSOF, organizations had a 41.6% risk concerning food safety and security. According to the multiple linear regression analysis, organizations that did not control the foods were found to be associated with an increased total score of FSSOF (β: -0.527, p = 0.010). No relationships could be found between the type of organization, the population served, having a food technologist and/or dietitian, the distance between the organization and waste, and the total scores of FSSOF (p > 0.05). The organizations that did not control the food were found to be associated with Organization-specific conditions (β: -0.623, p = 0.002), Food distribution conditions (β: -0.531, p = 0.015), Personnel hygiene (β: -0.608, p = 0.005), Food security (β: -0.480, p = 0.036) and Environmental conditions (β: -0.537, p = 0.018) were found to be associated with an increased level of risks. Also, not having an engineer and/or dietitian was associated with an increased risk of Food storage practices (β: -0.469, p = 0.005), and increased the number of staff was associated with an increased risk of Organization-specific conditions (β: 0.348, p = 0.007). The level of risk of the organizations concerning food safety and security was found to be relatively high. Control of the food provided was the most important determinant of food safety and security.

Climate change is drastically affecting agriculture, markets, and infrastructure, putting global food security at risk. Mexico faces major challenges, with a significant portion of its population experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity. This study presents a novel methodology for assessing food security in Mexico that incorporates the impacts of climate change. The methodology combines a thorough analysis of four dimensions: availability, access, use, and stability. It includes 48 variables at the municipality level and establishes a baseline scenario with data from 2020. It projects variables to two future scenarios: one that follows the observed trend of the last 20 years and another that includes climate change. Principal component analysis and Dalenius and Hodges stratification are used to classify municipalities into very high, high, medium, and low food security categories. Low food security indicates municipalities with poor conditions on most dimensions, while very high food security indicates those with optimal conditions on all variables. Food security problems are defined as municipalities with medium or low food security. Results indicate that, in the baseline scenario, 45% of municipalities face food security problems, including issues such as insufficient agricultural productivity and limited access to food due to economic and/or infrastructural constraints, as well as health-related problems and lack of basic services. Among municipalities, 15% were classified as having low food security. Future projections suggest an increase in food insecurity by 6% and 7% in the trend and climate change scenarios, respectively, reaching 51% and 52% of municipalities. The greatest impact of food insecurity is in the southern and mountainous central-northern regions, with 12 areas identified as most vulnerable. These areas should be prioritized for mitigating climate change impacts on food security. The recommended indicators can help in monitoring climate-related risks and guide effective policy responses.

To achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 on food and nutrition security by 2030, greater attention to effective food policies that reduce food insecurity and improve health is warranted. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the impact of different types of government food policies (financial aid, food aid, technical support, capacity building, and land tenure management/food production) on food insecurity and health in numerous countries, and moderators involving study design, cultural context, and country economic advancement. Based on 148 studies and 273 effect sizes, we found that land tenure management/food production and a combination of policies were most effective in reducing food insecurity and in improving health. Study design moderated effects of food policies on food insecurity. Cultural contexts and country economic advancement moderated the effects of different types of food policies on food insecurity and health. This study has important implications for informing effective food policies in improving food insecurity and health by identifying the most effective types of food policies and the cultural and country economic contexts in which different types of food policies are most effective.

Forests support food security and nutrition worldwide, especially so for highly forest-dependent communities who collect a variety of food products from nearby forests. While the importance of forest cover to the diets of forest-dependent communities has been well-researched, little is known regarding the role of more specific forest characteristics – information that would be valuable for better identifying the landscapes that support a nutritious and diverse diet. To address this research gap, we linked child dietary data to remotely-sensed geospatial indicators of surrounding forest characteristics – using more nuance than is typically undertaken – by examining forest age, tree density, and forest fragmentation in Kenya’s East African Montane Forests. Interestingly, dietary diversity of children demonstrated no or relatively weak associations with forest characteristics. However, by parsing out individual food groups, we exposed the nuance and complexities associated with the forest-diet relationship. Vegetable/fruit consumption was positively associated with open and moderately dense forest cover, but negatively associated with fragmented forest cover. The consumption of meat and vitamin A-rich fruit was positively associated with younger forest cover, and negatively associated with dense forest cover. Older forest cover was positively associated with green leafy vegetable consumption, but negatively associated with other vegetable/fruit consumption. Our findings provide suggestive evidence that there is no single ‘ideal’ type of forest for supporting food security and nutrition – rather, different types of forests are associated with different dietary benefits. Taken together, these results indicate the need for more in-depth research that accounts for factors beyond the proximity and amount of generic forest cover.

This study used six dimensions of food security (availability, access, utilization, stability, agency and sustainability) to calculate a state-level food security index for states in India. The index was bifurcated into six components, which were further sub-divided into a total of 15 sub-indices. Employing data from several sources, this study examined food security at the state and household level to see if it has an impact on nutrition status among older adults in India. Although the general status of food security in states might be known, our study provides a nuanced and comprehensive assessment by utilizing all six dimensions of food security. This multi-dimensional approach allows for a more detailed understanding of the factors contributing to food security. Our findings suggest that the Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were the most food secure states. These states also performed well across several sub-indices of food security, the most important being per capita food grain availability, per hectare yield of grains, cropping intensity and storage capacity. Jharkhand, Odisha and Chattisgarh were the least food secure states, with their poor performance being attributable mostly to high rates of inflation and low per capita net state domestic product. Insights from this study are helpful for policymakers to identify targeted interventions. Nevertheless, results from our study explained only a small proportion of variation in both underweight and overweight among older adults at the state and household levels, meaning that an index of food security informs little about nutritional security among older adults in states in India. Instead, the maximum variation in both overweight and underweight was explained by individual level factors, such as age, gender and marital status and also household food security. Therefore, addressing nutritional inadequacies in India requires interventions not only in the food system, but also in other sectors such as health, sanitation, education and the economy.

Sri Lanka Government’s ambitious decision to ban synthetic agrochemicals, including chemical fertilizers (and pesticides), in April 2021 made it the first nation in the world to embark on a full-scale transition to – as the Government called it—organic farming, and address concerns about human health and the environment. Previous policies had envisioned a gradual shift, but the sudden ban caught agriculture off guard. Declining foreign exchange reserves to import chemical fertilizers and coinciding peak fertilizer prices appeared to support the timing of the move. However, the ensuing rush for organic fertilizers failed to meet the national demand, resulting in severe losses in rice and export-oriented plantation crops. Facing decreasing yields and food insecurity, the government lifted the ban in November 2021. The events raised critical questions about the necessity and feasibility of such a drastic transition and alternative ways. To explore the general feasibility of transitioning toward organic fertilizers, this study considered the actual and potential availability of biomass to “replace” chemical fertilizers at the national scale as was envisioned by the Government. The analysis focused on the four main national crops and showed that in none of the selected scenarios, Sri Lanka’s actual and potentially available organic fertilizer could supply rice- and plantation-based agrosystems with sufficient nitrogen, not to mention other crops or nutrients. The Government will in every scenario, including one that assumes a stepwise transition, remain compelled to spend significantly on importing organic fertilizer to maintain the required crop yields, which would cost the Government more foreign currency than purchasing chemical fertilizer. Even more costly is purchasing rice to close the national production gap, as Sri Lanka eventually did at the end of its nationwide experiment, which resulted in major food security concerns.

Though improper food trader hygiene and handling practices can cause food contamination, few studies have examined both the drivers of their adoption and their impact on the safety of food. Thus, this study examined the hygiene and handling practices of adult vegetable traders in southwest Nigeria by analyzing microbial contamination in vegetable samples and survey data from 166 traders collected over multiple seasons. Our findings show that just half of the traders routinely changed the washing water (every four hours), putting consumers at risk of severe E. coli infection. Almost no traders have received formal training on food safety. High toilet-use fees and a limited number of toilets are also significantly associated with practice gaps among traders. The study findings reveal the need for increased awareness about hygiene and food safety among food traders, e.g. through training programs. In addition, improving market infrastructure such as more toilets and hand washing stations and reducing the associated costs of using these services could facilitate better adoption and adherence to good hygiene practices which has a direct impact on food safety. Addressing food safety requires a multifaceted approach that includes education, infrastructure improvement, and policy interventions aimed at promoting and sustaining good food handling practices among food traders in Nigeria and similar contexts.

The upland agriculture in Southwest China is undergoing a transformation from subsistence to industrial agriculture, which is accompanied by differentiation among farmers. The industrialisation of farming is best understood as an ongoing process rather than an achieved structure, and the industrial and subsistence forms of production are combined in complex ways during transformation. The unit of analysis shifts downwards to the production unit, namely, the ‘form of production’, which is observed at the household level. This study aims to describe the dynamics of the transformation from subsistence to industrial agriculture in Southwest China and the hybridized forms of production that lie between the two extremes. Empirical observations on the transformation of farming in Southwest China, specifically the circumstances of smallholder farmers and local farming systems in the process of industrialisation and farmers’ reasons for their resistance and persistence in traditional farming, are documented and analysed. Using data collected for 2008 and 2019, this study considers the form of production observed from production methods and dynamic farming structures to explore how farmers’ motivations and structural forces clash and interact at the farm level in the commoditization of production and to understand farmers’ autonomy within relational contexts. The study measures the resilience of farmers’ decision-making in production through their space for manoeuvring, which depends on their ability and the conditions to obtain alternative solutions at various stages of production, reflecting varying degrees of autonomy from the dominant development trajectory. The study also reveals that the rapid reduction in the cultivated area of cereals is closely related to the acceleration of agricultural industrialisation. Farmers who join the industry are systematically pressured to compete with no economic cushion when vertically organized commodity chains have shaped local production. Their forms of production are interlocked through adjacent land and crops, and the widespread domino effect has reduced farmers’ room to manoeuvre, limited farmers’ choices in production, and brought vulnerability to local farming systems. Moreover, the transformation towards sustainability has been fragmented and inconsistent.

The rapid expansion of global food trade over the last decades has intensified the debate about its environmental impacts and the role of trade policies in resource conservation. This paper examines whether trade restrictions can effectively address environmental pressures by analyzing the complex linkages between international trade and natural resource exploitation. Through a critical review of the existing evidence, the paper shows that while trade-induced specialization does not always lead to a more efficient and sustainable use of resources, trade restrictions alone often represent a second-best solution. Because they do not address the market failures that shape resource exploitation in the first place, such restrictions risk being not only ineffective but potentially counterproductive. Successful environmental protection requires integrated policy approaches that recognize the intricate relationships between trade liberalization, resource management, and food security.