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The first part of this dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of food assistance by gathering evidence from developing countries and the United States. The first essay applies a multi-market model to three developing countries and simulate recent spikes in staple prices and food aid impacts. Results indicate that higher food prices would result in reduction in household real income and deterioration of household welfare. Food aid in the form of cash transfers targeted at low-income groups could improve household real income of the target group after world price shocks and, partially or completely, offset the negative impacts of higher food prices. The impact of cash transfer on untargeted groups is ambiguous. It is likely to be positive for households that are net producers of the commodities that have increased production and prices under cash transfer and the production surplus is sufficiently large. The second essay focuses on the Food Stamp Program (FSP), a cornerstone of food assistance safety net efforts in the U.S. to reduce household food insecurity, particularly among children. The essay examines the dynamic relationship between FSP participation and child food security using monthly measures. Empirical estimates using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics demonstrate that child food security declines in the months immediately prior to FSP entrance, but then partially recovers following program entrance. These dynamic FSP effects are masked when annual measures are employed. The third paper of this dissertation studies the potential impacts of patient's widespread use of online health information. In particular, the essay employs a principal agent model and focuses on the quality of online health information. The model shows that when the quality of health information improves, since medical consultations become more efficient and less costly, a higher effort will be induced or contracted from the physician. Diagnosis becomes more accurate, because physicians will try exert more effort in diagnosing patients and patients will suffer less loss from their illnesses. / Ph. D.

Water is an integral part of agricultural practices, with agriculture being the largest user of surface water in the United States. Agriculture's reliance on surface water is strengthening as climate change and growing populations are stressing irrigated croplands. This surface water is primarily stored by a complex network of dams, but despite our reliance on surface water for irrigation, we lack a spatially detailed record of irrigation dam command areas. Therefore, we assigned irrigation command areas to the approximately 1,100 large irrigation dams in the continental United States by combining a tiered assignment strategy with field level infrastructure and agricultural data. We showed that these large irrigation dam command areas are responsible for 10.7 million acres of cropland. This translates to approximately 13.3 billion dollars of crops annually that depend on these large irrigation dams for water. The high-resolution, crop specific assignment of these command areas allows for water scarcity assessments that can be used for better water management decisions to address the changing environmental conditions and public demand pressuring the nation's agriculture and water infrastructure. / Master of Science / Agriculture depends heavily on surface water stored by large dams, especially in the face of climate change and population growth. However, the spatial distribution of croplands that rely on these dams is poorly known. We mapped the irrigation command areas of around 1,100 large dams in the continental US using a combination of field-level data and a tiered assignment method. We then traced the agricultural products from these areas to their domestic and international markets. We found that large dams support 10.7 million ares of cropland and 13.3 billion dollars of crop value annually in the US. Our high-resolution mapping of irrigation command areas enables more accurate assessments of water scarcity and reveals the local and distant connections between water infrastructure and its users.

The purpose of this research is to examine the barriers to food security for single adults with mental illness and/or problematic substance use living in supported housing on Vancouver Island. The objectives are: (a) to examine the difference in the level of food security for tenants of supported housing neighbourhoods located in urban versus a rural community; (b) to examine the barriers to food access experienced by the tenants; and (c) to examine which barriers have the greatest effect on the tenants. Using an explanatory case study design, I employ a community-based research method with a social justice perspective as the framework. I have used an explanatory matrix to illustrate the tenant identified barriers to food security and the social structures that affect these barriers. As well, I have made recommendations for integrating food security services and programs into supported housing projects. I have argued that food security is a matter of public health and an integrative approach is needed. I am suggesting a shift on a larger policy scale, to promote the health and well-being of tenants in supported housing. An adequate holistic perspective with an integrated, long-term strategy linking all the determinants of health would result in health-in-all policies. This strategy could reduce the existing health inequities that the tenants in supported housing experience. / Graduate / judy@nahs.ca

The food justice movement has taken off in recent years. Despite its call for justice in the food system, it has been critiqued as being inaccessible to people who need food the most. The food system marginalizes women, minorities, and low-income people, making these groups the most at risk for food insecurity. Solutions to food insecurity come from both government and non-governmental avenues. This thesis calls for a merger of solutions to food insecurity and food justice in food security justice, and assesses the ability of solutions to food insecurity to confront issues of injustice. Community-based solutions currently have the potential to address issues of justice, as well as providing added benefits of promoting community cohesion and creating new economic spaces. Through a simulation of the SNAP budget and an exploration of the narrative between gang violence and food insecurity in Los Angeles, the necessity for solutions to food insecurity to address justice is established.

Garden Hill is a remote fly-in First Nation community in Northern Manitoba with a very high incidence of food insecurity. This study examined food security and food sovereignty of the Garden Hill community by reinvigorating an environmental stewardship-driven food system. This research used community-based participatory research approach, and both qualitative and quantitative research tools to generate data and information. Findings reveal that only 3% households are food secure, 66% households are moderately food insecure, and 31% households are severely food insecure. Once self-sufficient with foods gathered from the local, natural foodshed, the community experienced a radical shift in food habits with a greater dependency on processed market foods. Such transformation in food habit and dietary balance, coupled with limited economic opportunities, made the inhabitants increasingly food insecure and vulnerable to multiple health complications. This research demonstrated the community has potentials for local food production. A pilot agricultural farm collaboratively established with a local social enterprise Meechim Inc. grew local food to help address the food insecurity situation. / February 2017

Food justice movements focus on providing communities with local, sustainable, culturally appropriate, healthy food while empowering local economic systems that allow for autonomy of both producers and consumers (Caruso, C., 2014; Cadieux, K., 2015; Hayes, C. & Carbone, E., 2015). However, current food justice movements often price out and leave behind large portions of the population. Research has shown that engagement with local food systems contribute to feelings of place attachment and a sense of place (Solin, J., 2017; Alkon, A., 2011). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between volunteers at two alternative, cooperative community food markets in Lexington, Kentucky and their sense of place. Using an amalgamation of black feminist thought and ecofeminism, this qualitative study sought to better understand volunteer participation in the markets and, as a result, illuminate potential barriers to participation in the future. Interviews were conducted with market volunteers. Results indicate that place was significant in their decisions to participate in the markets, though participants did not conceive “place” as a geographical location, but rather a social and cultural atmosphere. In other words, volunteers presented a social construction of place. Other factors contributing to participation came about as a result of the study, including resistance and empowerment and geographies of care and responsibility. In relation to volunteer participation in alternative agro-food movements, the findings of this study indicate that more attention needs to be paid to the ways in which the social construction of place affect volunteer retention.