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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

The impact of shocks and bargaining power on intra-household food and nutrition security in rural Bangladesh : the importance of gender targeting

Gaskin-Peters, Natasha Theresa January 2014 (has links)
This thesis examines the role of gender in the achievement of the food and nutrition security in rural Bangladesh. It does this through the use of anthropometric measures as well intra-household allocation of calories and micronutrients. Quantile regression estimation is used to examine the impact of negative shocks on the calorie and micronutrient intake of individuals and the extent to which gender targeted technology helps these individuals to mitigate the impact of these shocks. Overall, both illness and floods are the two dominant shocks but the magnitude of floods is higher. In fact, I find evidence of women's calorie intake being affected by three negative shocks namely: asset (loss of livestock, crop, productive and consumption assets), illness (loss of income due to the household head being ill and medical expenses due to illness of any person) and flood while that of men is affected only by the latter two. On the other hand, the calorie intake of children in certain quantiles are affected negatively by asset, illness, flood, death (death of the main earner and other earners) and wedding (dowry and other wedding payments). In relation to micro nutrients, I also find strong evidence of both floods and illness along with assets reducing the micronutrient intake of individuals. However, despite the reduction in calorie and micronutrient intake of individuals when negative shocks occur, technology that targets women helps all individuals to mitigate the impact of these shocks except in the event of flooding. In addition, Two-Stage least Squares, Limited Maximum Likelihood and Continuously Updating Estimator models are used to examine the impact of a woman's status on the nutritional status of her child/children because of the presence of weak instruments. I find that a woman's bargaining power - measured using the control of current assets - has a positive a positive and significant impact on the 8MI of her child/children. These findings have significant implications for the achievement of food and nutrition security in poor countries, especially in Asia.
2

Growing a commons food regime : theory and practice

Chang, M. January 2013 (has links)
Existing food regimes theory has a strong analytical power to help us understand the reality of contemporary global food politics and has a political commitment to provoke a new direction in our thinking. Yet, it falls short on how we can actually engage with such a change, especially with the pressing need for strategic alliances among multiple food movements which aim to advance a regime change. By exploring both theory and practice, this research addresses this gap and responds to a call for a new food regime in the 21st century. Firstly, this research proposes the notion of growing a commons food regime. With care as the core, an integrative framework for growing a commons food regime is presented, drawing on reviews of literature on food regimes theory, commons regimes, adaptive governance and critical food studies. This framework aims at building an adaptive capacity to transform the current food system towards sustainability. Secondly, applying the framework as ‘a tool of insight’, the current landscape of community food initiatives was investigated in order to identify implications and opportunities to grow a commons food regime in London. Finally, considering the significant role of universities in helping to form multiple and reciprocal connections with society; and as a catalyst and an experiment in integrating theory and practice in growing a commons food regime, a journey of university-led community food initiatives was carried out at University College London (UCL) as a case study. On reflection, the thesis suggests ways forward in continuing to grow care-based commons food regimes through community food initiatives at UCL. With our growing adaptive capacity, we might enter a new epoch of history.
3

Food aid, power and profit : an historical analysis of the relation between food aid and governance in Sudan

Jaspars, Susanne Sophia Elisabeth January 2015 (has links)
Sudan represents one of the world's most severe protracted crises and the country is one of the world's longest-running and largest recipients of food aid. The recent Darfur conflict led to the World Food Programme's largest operation globally. Yet by 2014 international agencies had only limited access to war-affected populations and had decreased food aid despite ongoing conflict, and the Sudan government had come to control who received food aid. Malnutrition levels remained high. This thesis argues that the 'actually existing development' resulting from long-term food aid has benefited the Sudan government and private sector but abandons populations to become resilient to permanent emergency. Using concepts of governmentality and genealogy, the thesis explores how food aid regimes of practices have co-evolved with local governance. It analyses the links between practices, their underlying concepts and assumptions, the truths they produce, and the actual as well as intended effects. The focus is on their effects on human behaviour, power relations and political economy, and the implications for local livelihoods. Methods included examining policy documents, project reports, and interviews with government officials, aid workers, traders, transporters and beneficiaries in Khartoum and North Darfur. Shifts between regimes of practices were brought about by changes in global politics, food crises, the failures of food aid practices and reactions by the Sudan government, which led to a gradual depoliticisation and neoliberalisation of food security and nutrition. In fifty years, food aid has rarely had the effect of saving lives and supporting livelihoods, but the consequences for Sudan's political economy and its aid system have been enormous. The thesis analyses these political and economic consequences and how long-term food aid has led to the Sudan government's own food aid apparatus. The research contributes to knowledge about the political economy of aid and highlights the need for radical reform of the aid industry.
4

Consumer concerns about animal welfare and its impact on food choice in Ireland

Dunne, Hilary January 2008 (has links)
Evidence of growing consumer concerns about animal welfare demonstrates that it is an important issue for consumers across Europe. Gaps have been identified between high consumer concerns about animal welfare and relatively low market share for animal friendly products. This research examines the nature and extent of consumer concerns about animal welfare using mixed methods, namely; focus groups (n=4), laddering interviews (n=60) and a representative survey (n=500).
5

Salinity intrusion and food security : evidence from three food systems in south-western Bangladesh

Munim, Khandaker Mohammed Ashraful January 2013 (has links)
Bangladesh is susceptible to salinity intrusion into water and soil during the dry season in the country's south-western region. Climate change is expected to exacerbate this situation, allowing salinity to penetrate into further inland. Some scholars have suggested that salinity has deleterious impact on rice production but favours shrimp production. Yet it is unclear what effect this would have on peoples' food security. This research, therefore, assessed food security, encompassing dietary quantity and quality, seasonality and food vulnerability of households, basing their livelihoods on three prevalent food/farming systems - traditional rice, export-oriented shrimp and innovative mixed (rice and shrimp) systems. Five study areas in southwestern Bangladesh were explored, depicting differential salinity exposures: two each from shrimp and rice and one from mixed systems. Five representative villages were chosen and households were selected using simple random sampling. A questionnaire survey of 385 households provided socio-economic and demographic data, and five focus groups revealed seasonal patterns in food security. Results suggest that despite its clear importance, salinity intrusion is not responsible for significantly restricting or enhancing their food security; rather farming system plays the major role. While the extent of food insecurity is lowest in the mixed system, with shorter hungry season, it is considerably high in the shrimp system. Agricultural labourers are the most food insecure and vulnerable class in all systems, their condition being worst in the shrimp system. Results show that high proportion of marginal, small and medium landholders/farmers remain food insecure and vulnerable in the higher-income generating shrimp system. The corresponding proportions are lower in rice system and lowest in mixed system. Intriguingly, food security in the mixed system is not undermined under moderate salinity exposure; rather it offers the best food security and least food vulnerability among the three systems. The results have important policy implications for food security under climate change.
6

The politics of local food : agenda setting, organisational strategies and the emergence of a dominant discourse on short food chains

Mackridge, Ralph January 2007 (has links)
No description available.
7

Understanding nutrition policymaking dynamics in the United States : the case of product reformulation

Scott, C. January 2017 (has links)
Background: Voluntary food and beverage product reformulation is a prominent example of how self-regulation and public-private partnerships have become part of the public health nutrition policy landscape. This thesis aims to understand the emergence of reformulation in the nutrition policy system in order to provide insights into nutrition policymaking dynamics in the US. Methods: The methods of this study were based in applied policy research. It focuses on how stakeholders influence the nutrition policy process, including by shaping the framing of reformulation and nutrition policy. The methods consisted of a literature review and qualitative analysis of documents, including submissions to a government-led consultation on reformulation, in-depth stakeholder interviews, and the media. Results: Reformulation’s rise to prominence as a public health approach was the result of a confluence of factors, three of which were particularly important: (1) the consultation analysis revealed that it is a component of the food and beverage industry’s corporate political strategy to avoid and pre-empt public health regulations, (2) the interviews identified that reformulation has the support of a cross-sector coalition, and (3) the media analysis found that reformulation is a chameleonic idea with multiple frames and meanings. Specifically, the framing of reformulation shifted from 1980-2015 to encompass business, health and political frames, and to embody a range of underlying values and beliefs. Synthesising the media analysis with the consultation analysis and interviews showed that the political emphasis of reformulation became common in the early 2000s, when the food and beverage industry was responding to increasing pressure from governments and public health advocates as part of their political strategy. The interviews also found that non-industry stakeholders were fractured in their support for reformulation because they questioned the belief of ‘working with industry’ and whether nutrition policies should be formulated based on nutrients or foods. These fractions, and the lack of a unified counter policy agenda, also contributed to the industry’s ability to promote a voluntary reformulation approach. Conclusion: Voluntary reformulation initiatives form part of the food and beverage industry’s political strategy by building collaborative relationships and establishing a participative role in policymaking. This research therefore points to the need to study the dynamic interactions of stakeholders within the nutrition policy system, rather than conceptualizing industry involvement as an external influence.
8

The potential of agent-based modeling as a tool to unravel the complexity of household food security : a case study of rural southern Malawi

Dobbie, Samantha Louise January 2016 (has links)
Household food security is shaped by the way in which households acquire and utilise assets, within a context of vulnerability. The multiple interactions between the various factors that affect the livelihoods of households give rise to often complex and non-linear system behaviour. Conventional policies have failed to eradicate food insecurity within developing country contexts. There is a need for new approaches to direct the design and implementation of interventions that address the multi-scalar and dynamic nature of food security. One possible technique is agent-based modelling, which comprises a computerised simulation of agents located within an environment. Behaviour at the system level is an emergent property of the collective behaviour at the local level, resulting from the interactions between agents and the environment through predisposed rules. Within Malawi, the vast majority of the rural population is engaged in subsistence farming. Continued reliance upon rain-fed agriculture renders smallholders vulnerable to climatic shocks, whilst high population densities, small plot size and poor soil quality further compound food insecurity. The overarching aim of this project was to explore the potential of agent-based modelling to unravel the complexity of household food security within rural Southern Malawi. As a starting point, we used cluster analysis of household survey data to construct a typology of rural households. This drove the design of an agent-based model (ABM) that takes into account the availability, access, utilisation and stability components of food security. Techniques from exploratory modelling and analysis were then employed to explore model uncertainty and identify potential pathways to alleviate food insecurity of households within rural Southern Malawi. The ability of agent-based modelling to address the complexity of food security was then evaluated. The model was found to be highly salient. However, future work will need to enhance the credibility and legitimacy of the tool. It is only then that the true potential of ABM's in addressing the complexity of rural food security will be fulfilled.
9

Modelling greenhouse gas emissions for the UK and overseas food production

York, Elizabeth January 2012 (has links)
Despite the large quantity of research undertaken into the sustainability of food production and transportation systems, there is currently little consensus on the total contribution that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions make to the overall GHG budget of food production systems. To date, most research has focused on the miles that food has travelled and the energy put into the production of pesticides and fertilisers associated with crop production. Understanding whether food imported from distant countries has a higher GHG footprint than locally produced food remains a very topical issue. Our fundamental lack of knowledge of this issue is limiting policy development in this area. Due to difficulties in field measurements mathematical models such as DNDC (DeNitrification DeComposititon) are being used to predict GHG emissions from different ecosystems. In this thesis, a combination of field measurements and model simulations were used to evaluate GHG emissions from different agricultural production systems undertaken in different countries (UK, Spain and Kenya). This thesis also considered the accuracy of the model by undertaking a sensitivity analysis and evaluating the outputs from different model versions. In addition, the accuracy of using a QIO value approach to predict organic matter degradation was also evaluated. Overall, the results suggested that different model versions gave varying outputs, suggesting that predictions of GHG emissions obtained with models such as DNDC should be treated with caution. However, the model did predict similar results to those obtained in the field, although the model outputs tended to be higher. For comparison of GHG emissions from vegetable types grown in different geographical regions, no specific region produced lower GHG results when averaged across all crops. However, when individual crops were considered, Spain had the highest GHG emissions. The models showed different degrees of sensitivity to different inputs, with some not showing any variation at all. In the Q10 evaluation experiments the Q10 values varied greatly, though all gave results above the standard Q10 of 2. Further research is needed into the accuracy of climate and farm management models, and whether or not it is necessary to compare large data sets when considering different vegetable types and areas.
10

Estimating the role of scarcity, prices and political fragility in food and fuel riots : a quantitative and agent-based modelling approach

Natalini, Davide January 2016 (has links)
Climate and environmental changes are argued to increase the occurrence of conflict. In particular, two types of conflict seem to be driven by underlying environmental processes: food and fuel riots. Although research focussed on understanding the dynamics that cause food riots exists, the evidence is mixed and a solid quantitative analysis on the factors that cause these type of events is missing. Research on fuel riots is currently non-existent. The aim of this research was hence to identify, quantify and simulate the interconnections between scarcity of natural resources, international prices, political fragility and the occurrence of food and fuel riots. The approach implemented was mainly quantitative, with use of statistics, econometrics and Agent-Based Modelling (ABM). These methods allowed a parameterisation of these relationships and inclusion of the results in three different version of an ABM: Food, Fuel and Food and Fuel ABMs. The findings show that national availability of resources does not significantly impact the occurrence of food and fuel riots, while international prices and national political fragility do. Thresholds above which riots are more likely to happen were identified for both the price of food and fuel. For food, volatility was found to have a bigger impact than absolute prices, while for fuel the evidence was mixed and more research is required. In addition, food and fuel riots increase the likelihood of one another. Although the introduction of these parameters in the ABMs did not add to the predictive power of the underlying statistical models, the ABMs form the basis for further developments, in particular as regards the evolution of shocks to the production of resources and consequences in terms of food and fuel riots. This is evidenced by the scenarios developed and implemented in this thesis.

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