Subject Archives - Page 3 of 7

Public food procurement for sustainable food systems and healthy diets

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets.

This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination, and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes. In this Volume 2, researchers, policymakers, and development partners can find extensive evidence of the instruments, enablers, and barriers for PFP implementation. It also provides case studies with local, regional, and national experiences from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America.

Which schools receive state-level support for local food purchases? Evidence from reimbursement incentive programs in Michigan and Oregon

State-level reimbursement programs are increasingly being used to incentivize procurement of local foods by US K-12 school food authorities (SFAs), which are schools or school districts that administer a food service program. However, few studies have explored the characteristics of SFAs that are associated with applying for and receiving reimbursement incentives. We consider reimbursement incentive programs in two states, Oregon and Michigan.

Promoting the Consumption of Beans and Other Pulses for Public Health

Beans and other pulses (i.e., the dry, edible seeds of non-oilseed legumes like chickpeas, cowpeas, dry beans, dry peas, and lentils) are linked to a myriad of positive impacts on human and environmental health, including promotion of gut health and healthy weight management, reduction of chronic disease risk, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in soil health, conservation of water resources, and more. Moreover, pulses are highly nutrient-dense, have a long shelf-life, demonstrate wide culinary versatility, and are relatively affordable compared to other foods. Accordingly, pulses offer the chance to consume a healthful diet based on sustainable food choices, all at an economical price point.

Navigating community engagement in participatory modeling of food systems

This paper describes the participatory modeling experiences of five discrete teams across the U.S. working to develop models of food systems to identify leverage points and policies to induce food system transformation. Collaboration between academic and community partners within these individual modeling processes enables teams to address food systems complexity, integrate scientific evidence and local knowledge into models, while improving a model’s credibility and accessibility for policymaking. While tools for facilitating participatory modeling are becoming more available, there is scant discussion on the practicalities of community engagement processes, including how teams respond to the needs of partners, navigate challenges that arise during projects, and communicate results. Synthesizing results from five independent teams in Albany, New York; Austin, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Flint, Michigan, this paper provides an overview of each team’s approach to community engagement for participatory modeling of food systems. Analysis of engagement strategies across these five teams revealed four essential components to successful participatory modeling projects: 1) building research in collaboration with partners from the onset, 2) developing awareness of the challenges of community-researcher partnerships, 3) supporting transparent communication, and 4) promoting justice and trust through accessible dissemination processes. We emphasize that there is no single best approach to participatory modeling with community partners, rather that researchers need to understand and respond to various stakeholder needs. While each team faced challenges to the engagement process, including responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, our findings reveal important considerations for research in participatory modeling for food system policy.

Considering tradeoffs in “local” food policies: examples from school feeding programmes

City, national, and multinational governments are increasingly leveraging nutrition programme spending, specifically pursuing policies that require or incentive “local” procurement, to meet a myriad of goals. However, these policies involve tradeoffs that are often not fully considered by government officials, planners, and advocates. This perspective article provides some examples of those tradeoffs from the peer-reviewed literature, which, we argue, are useful to consider in setting school feeding programme policies to achieve sustainability goals.

Factors influencing consumer purchase intent for meat and meat substitutes

The availability of new plant-based burgers, designed to address the environmental, health, and ethical issues associated with animal husbandry, represents a significant transition toward the alternative protein market. These meat substitutes aim at providing climate and health-conscious consumers with valuable options while maintaining the typical taste and feel of animal products. This study explores the appeal of alternative meat burgers as an option for reducing individual and collective meat consumption. We analyzed 169 U.S. burger consumers who tasted and reported their purchase intent for four types of burgers: a traditional beef burger, a mushroom/beef blended burger, a plant-based burger made with pea protein, and a plant-based burger made with animal-like protein (this refers to Impossible™ products that use a heme protein as an ingredient to closely replicate the mouthfeel and experience of eating a beef burger). We found that information about the product composition plays a critical role in predicting purchase intent. Moreover, product information increased purchase intent for all the burgers, except for the pea-protein one, and the provided information had the highest impact on the beef burger. Purchase intent could also be predicted by certain consumer socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, political affiliation, and income) as well as behavioral attitudes toward beef, blended, and plant-based products. Our results can help identify effective strategies in promoting meat alternatives, particularly in efforts to substitute traditional beef burgers with plant-based substitutes.

Economic and environmental performance of controlled-environment supply chains for leaf lettuce

We assess landed costs and selected environmental metrics for field-based and controlled-environment agriculture greenhouse (GH) supply chains for leaf lettuce delivered to New York City. Landed costs for a GH are 46 to 174 per cent higher than field production, with the lower value for an automated GH located in the peri-urban area. Energy use and global warming potential per kg lettuce delivered were larger for the GH, particularly if located in a peri-urban area. Water use was much higher for the field-based supply chain. Controlled-environment GH technologies will require further development to meet goals for lower costs and environmental impact.

A Tale of Two Strawberries: Conventional and Organic Open-Field Production in California

Conventional and Organic Open-Field Production in California

Transforming food supply chains for sustainability

Modern food supply chains—infused with scientific and engineering innovations—have made food increasingly more affordable and accessible. Yet there is growing concern about the long-term sustainability of our food system. Over time, the inputs (e.g., water, fertile soil, fossil fuels, and chemicals) and working resources (e.g., land and labor) required for industrial food production and its associated supply chain structure have become more scarce and hence more expensive. At the same time, the by-products of these farming and supply chain activities (e.g., farm runoff and greenhouse gas emissions) have often created negative externalities on the environment and human health. To improve the sustainability of food production, research from the life sciences recommends adoption of transformative farming methods that incorporate ecological principles in a sustainable approach to farming. Operationally, this approach leverages economies of scope. In order to maintain strategic alignment, changing food production methods should be complemented with appropriate changes in the rest of the supply chain, including consumption habits. We propose a research agenda informed by findings from the life sciences, which integrates approaches from supply chain management as well as food and agricultural economics, to align all food supply chain partners with sustainable food production.

Regenerative Grazing, Carbon, and Climate

Can regenerative agriculture mitigate climate change? Does regenerative grazing sequester more carbon? Arguments abound as to the role of regenerative agriculture—and grazing specifically—as a natural climate solution, each with their own supporting and dissenting evidence. Understanding the way that carbon is introduced to the atmosphere, captured by soils, and stored by soils is critical to defining a position on this topic.

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