abstract: Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption continues to lag far behind US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommendations. Interventions targeting individuals' dietary behaviors address only a small fraction of dietary influences. Changing the food environment by increasing availability of and excitement for FV through local food production has shown promise as a method for enhancing intake. However, the extent to which local production is sufficient to meet recommended FV intakes, or actual intakes, of specific populations remains largely unconsidered. This study was the first of its kind to evaluate the capacity to support FV intake of Arizona's population with statewide production of FV. We created a model to evaluate what percentage of Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommendations, as well as actual consumption, state-level FV production could meet in a given year. Intake and production figures were amended to include estimates of only fresh, non-tropical FV. Production was then estimated by month and season to illustrate fluctuations in availability of FV. Based on our algorithm, Arizona production met 184.5% of aggregate fresh vegetable recommendations, as well as 351.9% of estimated intakes of Arizonans, but met only 29.7% of recommended and 47.8% of estimated intake of fresh, non-tropical fruit. Much of the excess vegetable production can be attributed to the dark-green vegetable sub-group category, which could meet 3204.6% and 3160% of Arizonans' aggregated recommendations and estimated intakes, respectively. Only minimal seasonal variations in the total fruit and total vegetable categories were found, but production of the five vegetable sub-groups varied between the warm and cool seasons by 19-98%. For example, in the starchy vegetable group, cool season (October to March) production met only 3.6% of recommendations, but warm season (April to November) production supplied 196.5% of recommendations. Results indicate that Arizona agricultural production has the capacity to meet a large proportion of the population's FV needs throughout much of the year, while at the same time remaining a major producer of dark-green vegetables for out-of-state markets. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Nutrition 2013

Interest in local food security has increased in the last decade, stemming from concerns surrounding environmental sustainability, agriculture, and community food security. Promotions for consumption of locally produced foods have come from activists, non-governmental organizations, as well as some academic and government research and policy. The goal of this thesis is to develop, map, and model an index of self-sufficiency in the province of British Columbia. To meet this goal, I develop estimates for food production at the local scale by integrating federally gathered agricultural land use and yield data from the Agricultural Census and various surveys. Second, I construct population-level food consumption estimates based on provincial nutrition survey and regional demographics. Third, I construct a self-sufficiency index for each Local Health Area in the province, and develop a predictive model in a Bayesian autoregressive framework. I find that local scale comparable estimates of food production and food consumption can be constructed through data integration, and both datasets exhibit considerable spatial variability throughout the province. The predictive model allows for estimation of regional scale self-sufficiency without reliance on land use or nutrition data and stabilizes mapping of our raw index through neighborhood-based spatial smoothing. The methods developed will be a useful tool for researchers and government officials interested in agriculture, nutrition, and food security, as well as a first step towards more advanced modeling of current local food self-sufficiency and future potential. / Graduate

No description available.

Small and medium-sized farms are an important demographic of the agricultural sector in the Shenandoah Valley and Chesapeake Bay watershed. Having sufficient food system infrastructure available and accessible to these farm operations is essential to help them add value to their farm products; diversify their operations and differentiate their farm and food products in an increasingly competitive and commodity-based food system. Despite its importance, however, local food systems (LFS) frequently have incorrect types or insufficient amounts of the equipment and facilities needed to support these systems. Through the use of two case studies, this study investigates current circumstances, future needs, and offers recommendations for two important components of LFS infrastructure in the Shenandoah Valley. The first study inventories and assesses existing infrastructure capacity available in the region. Using data collected from farmers, LFS organizations, and institutional foodservice organizations, a needs assessment is then completed to determine the specific amounts and types of equipment and facilities which would be needed to meet current LFS infrastructure needs. The second study explores current and potential benefits, and future challenges of a produce auction to impact Mennonite communities in the Shenandoah Valley. This analysis of the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction (SVPA) was conducted using data obtained from both interviews and surveys. Results indicate that producers, existing infrastructure, and institutional buyers in the region would like to own, use, or rent food system infrastructure. There is unmet LFS infrastructure demand in due to the current lack of enough food cleaning, processing, packaging, and storing equipment in this area. For the SVPA, most of participants were satisfied with the auction. Buyers, however, reported that their procurement from the SVPA is limited by fluctuating prices, demand outpacing supply of produce, insufficient delivery services. Overall, food system infrastructure in general, and the SVPA in particular, were reported to have an important role in the region in supporting market access for local small and medium sized farmers, improve viability of local food system and the regional economy, and facilitating connections between consumers and their local food system. Several recommendations to strengthen the region's LFS are derived from these results. / Master of Science

Local food systems (LFS) connect producers and consumers in a geographically restricted food supply chain. Local food advocates argue that limiting the spatial scope of food systems can help to address the sustainability challenges present in the global food system. LFS are argued to eliminate intermediaries, enable clear product provenance, encourage community interactions, and involve few food miles. LFS are growing in Sweden, where the government launched a National Food Strategy in 2016, which among other aims promotes the proliferation of local food. This study aims to understand why several farmers from Uppland, central Sweden engage in local selling and whether concerns about sustainability influence the choice of selling channels among them. Using on-farm, semi-structured interviews with the farmers, this research explores three research questions concerning: (1) farmer motives for engaging in local selling channels, (2) factors constraining farmer involvement in LFS, and (3) farmer perceptions on the future of local selling channels. The overall purpose of this research is to provide a critical perspective on local selling as a sustainable food system solution. The study reveals a wide range of motives, including economic advantages from responding to consumer demand and cutting out middlemen, price premiums, more customer interactions, job satisfaction, and proximity to markets. Various economic and personal constraints limit the farmers’ use of local selling channels. Such constraints include seasonality of produce, performing time-consuming middlemen tasks, limited access to essential infrastructure, low transport load utilisation, and individual reasons for not wanting to up-scale local production. The results indicate that better access to on-farm or nearby infrastructure, improved small-scale efficiency, increasing food prices for consumers, changing consumer preferences, more diverse farm products, and better congruency between government objectives and import policies could all help to support LFS in the future. This research exposes a number of underlying contradictions and tensions associated with local food in the literature and among the interviewed farmers. The study finds that sustainability concerns are not a critical motive for the farmers’ involvement in local selling. Some of the farmers even question the sustainability of such channels and challenge the idea that LFS are inherently more sustainable than food systems on other scales. Furthermore, almost all the farmers are involved in both local and global food systems. The farmers do not find it conflicting to be part of both food systems, and are in fact consciously using both systems to their economic advantage. Thus the clear distinction between local and global food systems made in the LFS literature is not reflected in the practical experiences of the farmers involved in this study.

An unprecedented situation composed by worldwide land degradation, the post pandemic era, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is unfolding, reminding us of the impendent risks that phenomena such as these have for food security. Considering that this context presents new unforeseen challenges, and that there is a lack of knowledge production connecting food security to countries of the global north, such as is the case of Sweden, this thesis seeks to foster discussions on food security through the lens of Uppsala County, integrating notions of Local food systems. During the research process, I take on the role of practitioner of Soft Systems Methodology to address the problematic situation affecting Food Security in Uppsala County in a twofold target, which is first to understand the problem and then devise adequate steps for improving the situation, giving essential importance to stakeholders. For achieving this, I performed a quantitative review of statistical data, as well as, qualitative semi-structured interviews to consumers and producers. These were the first steps to comprehend the problem and its possible manifestations. Then for devising plausible actions, I engaged in participatory activities, which complemented the previous results. The findings reveal key vulnerabilities that are interlinked and required further scrutiny by future researchers. At the same time, local food systems, and localizing food production presents in stakeholder’s perspective and important road to explore in order to strengthen food security

Home availability of both healthful and unhealthful foods may influence consumption among rural adolescent populations. In conjunction, the availability of food in an individual’s local food environment has the potential to significantly impact what is procured for the home and eaten away from the home. The purpose of this study was to determine how in-store food availability and parental purchases influences home availability and, ultimately, dietary intake among adolescents. This study measured perceived home availability, using the University of Minnesota Project EAT Survey, and dietary intake, using the NHANES Dietary Screener Questionnaire, of (n=28) adolescent participants in two Kentucky counties during 2013. Availability of food in local stores was measured using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEM-S). The results of multiple linear regression analysis suggest that overall store availability does not significantly impact parental purchases. However, in-store availability of specific unhealthy food categories, such as snacks, junk food, candy, and pop, was associated with increased parental purchases of similar unwholesome items and a greater predicted intake of sugar. Therefore, it may be beneficial to develop interventions aimed at decreasing the availability of unhealthy food items in stores in order to improve diet quality among rural adolescents.

Food Hubs are in a unique yet precarious position to help the local food movement reform unsustainable aspects of the conventional food system but they themselves face challenges in strategic planning and managing growth. Due to the lack of consensus on what local food’s values are, the construction of meaning and the local food movement itself is at risk of being coopted by the very systems it seeks to reform. This research aims to explain the role of key stakeholders and their impact on the local food movement through a sequential explanatory design which seeks to answer the questions of who and what really counts among Food Hub stakeholders. Relying on stakeholder theory, stakeholder salience and social movement frameworks, the research has shown that Food Hubs consider their internal and customer stakeholders as highly important to strategic planning, yet could work more effectively at engaging regulatory and community stakeholders to construct and advance their own objectives as well as those of the local food movement.

As urbanisation increases choices in how to use green areas within cities growin importance, determining how several urban sustainability issues will play out. In urban environment the role for forest, both inside and at the city borders, is most important for the well-being of city inhabitants from several species, as well as provider of numerous ecosystem services necessary for anthropogenic development. Despite this,urban green areas are often given a lower priority in city developing processes compared to new structures, meaning them being transformed into built environments. This makes a higher awareness of what urban forests provides, and can provide, evident. Thus, this bachelor thesis presents the idea of urban agroforestry. The focus is towards agroforestry systems as they can be adapted and applied in a Swedish context. Firstly, literature review is used for investigating the concepts of urban forest, ecosystem services and agroforestry, defining and connecting them. Some of the critique towards the ecosystem services concept is lifted, as well as some specific ecosystem services directly connected to urban forest. Also, recent Swedish development in the agroforestry field is mapped and briefly described. Further, knowledge from this is adapted to the settings in Östersund, developing suggestions for construction of actual urban agroforestry systems. This part describes the local possibilities for urban agroforestry, as well as suitable urban forest areas, species and things to take into consideration in terms of risk assessment. Finally, the thesis also presents some suggestions for how to account for the change in ecosystem services in a more mathematical way. This is followed by discussion of both general findings and the local agroforestry potential, as well as some suggestions for focus points in further studies. This study shows that despite the cold climate in Sweden, urban agroforestry provides an interesting potential for preservation of ecosystem services as well as reconstruction of historical landscapes. It further suggests that urban agroforestry systems within Östersund should be focused on cultural services rather than high yields, by this aiming to connect to numerous local interests seen as defining for the region.

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