Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / Pima County, Arizona has a high rate of overall and childhood food insecurity (15.8% and 26.1% respectively). At the same time attitudes and interests in School Garden Programs have led to an increase in programs throughout the county. This research considers the following question: What role do school gardens play in alleviating food insecurity in Pima County? How can a School Garden Program be designed to best attend to food access, and how can it be applied specifically at Acacia Elementary School? Three school garden programs at three different schools were examined based on academic standing of the school, food security status of students and families, and garden programs related to food access. Observations of school garden programs and discussions with school faculty and teachers showed that there were two potential effects of the programs: Direct or Indirect Effects. Direct effects include produce that is directly donated or sold (affordably) to students and families. Indirect effects of school gardens provide skills, resources, confidence to practice gardening, cooking, or raising chickens at home. Indirect effects proved to be more significant than direct effects. Themes of school garden programs that address food access in this way included (1) Community Partnerships, (2) Extra-Curricular Garden Programs, (3) Cooking Education and Cultural Celebration, and (4) School and District Commitment. The potential of school gardens to alleviate food insecurity was directly applied to the new implementation of a school garden at Acacia Elementary School, a Title 1 school located in a rural food desert. The “ripple effect” food access garden programs cause can create a powerful force in communities living in urban or rural food desert and living with extreme food insecurity.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / The paper revolves around the intersection of food waste and food insecurity within the built environment. A sample of grocery stores were asked to explain their policies regarding food waste, specifically how they divided this waste stream between food recovery and composting. It was determined in the end that the potential to grow composting as a waste management practice is far greater than the potential to expand food recovery, for all the participating grocery stores could not donate more food than they had historically.

Food banks are potent symbols of the prevalence of poverty and food insecurity in affluent countries, yet they have received very little academic attention in New Zealand. Previous food bank research in this country has mainly been instigated by the voluntary welfare sector and has focused on client characteristics and patterns of use. This study expands on these concepts in the local context from a socio-spatial perspective, and examines food banks from both a service provision and service user perspective. This study aims to: document the growth of the food bank industry and determine its role within the broader voluntary welfare sector; determine patterns and trends in usage; examine client characteristics, neighbourhoods and reasons for use; and discuss the implications of food bank use and how dependency on food banks may be reduced. This study examines non-identifiable socio-demographic and address data obtained for food bank clients (n=1695) from a large Christchurch social service agency for 2005. Data from a second large Christchurch social service agency is used to illustrate certain spatial and temporal trends. Additional interviews and questionnaires are conducted with staff and volunteers in the local food bank industry, and with the clients themselves. Results show that food bank use appears not to have decreased in recent years. Maori, sole parents/sole caregivers and beneficiaries are over-represented amongst food bank clients, while there is an apparent under-use of the food bank by other key groups. Poverty and food insecurity appears to be dispersed in Christchurch and is not confined to the most deprived neighbourhoods. A range of factors contributes to food insecurity and food bank use, with the main reasons relating to lack of income, household bills and unaffordable housing. Changes in macro social and economic policy, rather than increased client education, will contribute to a decrease in the need for food banks.

There is a persistent problem of poor agricultural production which leads to household food insecurity problems for farmers in Ghana. Studies show that the adoption of improved agricultural practices and technology may help stabilize production, and lessen food insecurity problems. There, however, is a missing link between food insecurity and adoption of soil improving practices in the literature. The missing link is addressed by investigation whether the food insecurity group differs in adopting the use of soil improving practices. Conversely, the adoption of soil improving practices may influence a household’s food security position. With this in mind, the objectives of study are to determine the 1) likelihood of adopting the soil improving practices of Ghanaian households; and 2) determine if and how food insecure agricultural households differ from food secure agricultural households in terms of agricultural practices, household characteristics, and technologies adopted. A conditional logit model, based on random utility theory, is estimated to determine which factors affect adoption of soil improving practices; whereas, a multinomial logit model is used to examine factors influencing a household’s food insecurity position. Positions considered are chronic, seasonal, vulnerable food insecure groups and a food secure group. The positions are differentiated by the length of time a household went without sufficient food. Characteristics of operating under seasonal lease, being a food secure household, and households farming medium quality soil increase the probability of adopting soil improving practices. Application of chemical fertilizers, commercial seeds, and pesticides, along with operating under a seasonal lease tenure and adoption of improved soil practices are likely to improve the household food security position. Households with medium quality soil have a larger probability of not being a chronic food insecure household. Given the high priority that the government of Ghana has placed on food security, policies that encourage households to adopt soil improving practices may be beneficial to food insecure households. Household characteristics such as income, age, education level, and household size are not significant in determining the likelihood of a household being in one of food insecurity group. The insignificance may be attributed to the homogeneity of the surveyed household characteristics.

FACTORS RELATED TO ACCESS TO NUTRITIOUS FOODS AND THE ASSOCIATION WITH CANCER MORTALITY IN THE SOUTHEAST UNITED STATES (Under the direction of Lee Mobley, PhD) Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality in the United States. However, nutrient rich diets are known protective factors against this disease. Unfortunately, many areas in the United States do not have adequate access to nutritious foods. This study aims to examine cancer mortality rates in these counties in relationship to access to food. The main hypothesis is that greater accessibility to nutritious food sources in counties is associated with lower county cancer mortality rates. Methods: Exploratory spatial cluster analysis was used to determine whether patterns of observed cancer mortality were spatially random or not. Finding spatial structure, spatial regression was used to determine the association between several factors related to nutritional access in relation to cancer mortality rates in counties in the Southeastern US. Results: Results from this study indicated that cancer mortality rates are clustered in the southeast into areas with higher than average and areas with lower than average risk. The patterns are statistically significantly different than would have been observed by chance, using a 5% level of significance. Spatial regression indicated a positive statistically significant relationship between the number of households that live more than one mile away from a grocery store with no vehicle access and increased cancer mortality (p=.00002). Conclusion: Further research should be conducted to determine which factors in counties are contributing to cancer mortality. Results showed that although individuals have access to healthy foods, they may also have equal access to unhealthy food selections. Behaviors should be assessed to find out what factors influence food choices.

Food banks are potent symbols of the prevalence of poverty and food insecurity in affluent countries, yet they have received very little academic attention in New Zealand. Previous food bank research in this country has mainly been instigated by the voluntary welfare sector and has focused on client characteristics and patterns of use. This study expands on these concepts in the local context from a socio-spatial perspective, and examines food banks from both a service provision and service user perspective. This study aims to: document the growth of the food bank industry and determine its role within the broader voluntary welfare sector; determine patterns and trends in usage; examine client characteristics, neighbourhoods and reasons for use; and discuss the implications of food bank use and how dependency on food banks may be reduced. This study examines non-identifiable socio-demographic and address data obtained for food bank clients (n=1695) from a large Christchurch social service agency for 2005. Data from a second large Christchurch social service agency is used to illustrate certain spatial and temporal trends. Additional interviews and questionnaires are conducted with staff and volunteers in the local food bank industry, and with the clients themselves. Results show that food bank use appears not to have decreased in recent years. Maori, sole parents/sole caregivers and beneficiaries are over-represented amongst food bank clients, while there is an apparent under-use of the food bank by other key groups. Poverty and food insecurity appears to be dispersed in Christchurch and is not confined to the most deprived neighbourhoods. A range of factors contributes to food insecurity and food bank use, with the main reasons relating to lack of income, household bills and unaffordable housing. Changes in macro social and economic policy, rather than increased client education, will contribute to a decrease in the need for food banks.

Food security in Africa is a foremost development challenge. Dominant approaches to addressing food security concentrate on availability and increasing production. This 'productionist' focus arguably limits the capacity of government policies to address contemporary food problems. It does so by obscuring both the specific food insecurity dynamics linked to the continent's ongoing urban transitions, as well as the potential for more systemic food strategies. Yet existing research provides an inadequate historical understanding of how a production and supply-oriented bias has emerged and become established in the African context. This undermines the capacity of scholars and policymakers to critique and reform food security thought and practice. The thesis addresses this gap in knowledge by critically and historically examining the emergence of food scarcity as a specific problem of government in a particular African context: colonial Kenya. Understanding how colonial officials and other actors conceived of and responded to food scarcities in Kenya is the primary question addressed. The specific roles and duties of the state in relation to this problem are also investigated. The thesis employs a Foucauldian-inspired approach to the historical analysis of government and problematizations. Primary data were gathered from archives in the United Kingdom. The argument is that food scarcity, as a problem of government, shifted from an uncertain and localized rural issue to a risk encompassing the balance between market supply and demand at a territorial scale. The role of the state shifted from a last-resort provider of relief to a regulator of maize production and demand, with a focus on ensuring adequate supply for territorial self-sufficiency. Accordingly, anti-scarcity techniques became increasingly economic and calculative in nature, and longer term in focus. This mode of conceiving and addressing food scarcity existed in Kenya by the end of the Second World War, and was stabilized in the immediate post-war period. Elements of this system are recognizable in contemporary food security policies in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. The thesis contributes to historical knowledge of African food insecurity and colonial government. It moves beyond previous work by focusing on Kenya, and by examining food scarcity as a distinct problem of colonial government. It enhances knowledge of the conditions under which contemporary modes of food governance have come into existence.

Food insecurity is characterized by the consumption of low quantity or quality foods, worrying about food supply and/or acquiring foods through socially unacceptable means (Alaimo et al., 2001). Food insecurity is associated with poor physical and mental health putting food insecure students at an increased risk of low performance on standardized assessments (Howard, 2011). This mixed methods study aimed at establishing the relationship between food insecurity and EQAO examination performance in Ottawa, and describes the strategies used to mitigate the effects of food insecurity in schools. The results unveiled that while schools use community-based interventions and provide healthful eating education to parents, food insecurity remains associated to lower test scores on the EQAO grade 3 and grade 6 standardized examinations. As such, current interventions being used within schools in Ottawa are not adequately meeting the needs of food insecure students.

Background: When children experience food insecurity, in addition to poverty, their resultant inadequate food intake and disease often leads to the development of proteinenergy malnutrition and ultimately to death. In South Africa, where three out of every four children live in poverty, food insecurity and its multiple negative effects are consequently among the most urgent social issues affecting households and their children. Since household food insecurity is thought to be associated with increased child mortality, it is important to study any such associations amongst South African children to determine additional risk factors for child mortality. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to establish the relationship between household food security and mortality in children under the age of five years in the Agincourt field site, Limpopo Province, in 2004. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study of secondary data obtained from the 2004 census questionnaire and food security module of the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System in rural Limpopo Province was conducted, involving a total of 7,790 black children under the age of five years. Certain exposure variables were selected for use as indicators of food security and these were analysed with respect to child mortality using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Based on the outcome indicators of food consumption, 37% of the study population were found to have experienced household food insecurity in 2004, reporting insufficient food for the entire household in the previous month and year. The limited dietary diversity and insufficient quantities of food experienced by the majority of the population were supplemented by the local growth of food crops and the gathering of food from the bush. Of the 79 children (1%) under the age of five years who died in 2004, the majority (24%) died of HIV-related diseases, in addition to deaths caused by diarrhoea, respiratory infections, and malnutrition. Child mortality was found to be associated with the reporting of “unknown” for several indicators of food security. Additionally, expecting the food availability of the household in the coming year to be less than that of the current year (that is, the prediction of future household food insecurity) was significantly associated with an increased risk of under-five child mortality compared to the expectation of the same amount of food the following year (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.0), and with a greatly increased risk of mortality compared to the prediction of more food (future household food security) (adjusted OR 4.4). The latter association was age-specific to infants under the age of one year (adjusted OR 5.6) and cause-specific to HIV deaths (adjusted OR 5.9). Conclusions: Following a significant trend in this study in the rural north-east of South Africa, future household food security was inversely related to, and hence protective over, childhood mortality in 2004, even after controlling for confounding factors. Further research on the associations between household food security and under-five child mortality, conducted following the development of a standard nation-wide food security measurement tool specific to South African household conditions, would confirm household food insecurity as a significant risk factor for under-five child mortality and, consequently, as a target for future policies in the reduction of child mortality in this country.

The food vs. fuel debate has heated up since the 2008 global food crisis when major crop prices dramatically increased. Heavily subsidized biofuel production was blamed for diverting food crops from food production and diverting resources from food and feed production, triggering a food crisis globally and leading to increases in the world food insecure population. Few studies have quantified the effects of biofuel policies on world food prices and world food insecurity. This study added the Brazil and China's biofuel sectors to an existing global trade CGE model, and applies the measurement of food insecurity as developed by FAO. Alternative scenarios were food insecurity. Results are examined with focus on (1) effects on domestic biofuel productions, (2) change in food commodity productions and trade, (3) change in land use and land rents, and (4) change in regional undernourished populations. Results indicated that biofuel expansion is not cost competitive to traditional fossil fuel. Without any policy incentives, huge expansion of biofuel production is not likely under current technology. The conventional biofuel mandates in U.S., Brazil and China lead to increases in world food insecurity, while the advanced biofuel mandate in U.S. has the opposite effect. Subsidies to biofuels production help to lessen the increase in world food insecurity that is caused by increases in conventional biofuel production. Additionally, the effects from U.S. biofuel policies are smaller but more widespread than the effects from Brazil or China's biofuel policies. Overall, the long term effects of biofuel production expansion on world food insecurity are much smaller than expected.