Food Systems Summit 2024

Follow

• 

  The Importance of the Lived Experienced Voice in Promoting Food Justice in Communities of Color

  Angela Odoms-Young

  Most population strategies to improve dietary behavior have used a “one size fits all’ public health framework, which fails to account for nutrition and dietary inequities experienced by different communities, specifically communities of color. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities are more likely to experience food insecurity, higher rates of child and multigenerational poverty, higher unemployment, and lower wages, which can lead to poor health outcomes and shorter lifespans. In this presentation, Dr. Odoms-Young presented her research on the disproportionate impacts of food insecurity on low-income communities of color in the US and the importance of listening to the lived experiences of these communities to drive research and policy making. She stressed how highlighting the lived experiences of BIPOC communities can inform and improve systems, research, policies, practices, and programs, and discussed changes companies can work to employ including collaborative leadership, intentional changes in hiring patterns, and broadening sources of information. Her presentation also explored various examples of direct, structural, and cultural violence to illustrate the long-lasting impacts of racism on communities of color. Social initiatives and collaborative research that actively work to decenter whiteness and acknowledge intersectionality within food systems are the root of lasting policy and structural changes that promote health equity, food justice, and community resilience.

• 

  Can Zoning and Compartmentalization Curb Outbreaks?

  Johnbosco Osuagwu

  Disease outbreaks, whether human or animal, are happening more frequently in our world. Though imports and exports of commodities could help offset product supply imbalances that result from outbreaks, they have further increased the risk of the spread of infectious diseases from the points of production and processing to near and faraway destinations. Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) are diseases of significant economic, trade, and food security importance for many countries. This is because they easily spread to other countries and reach epidemic proportions. Therefore, the control/management, and exclusion of TADs require cooperation between several countries. To control TADs, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) have collaborated to develop a legal framework to ensure safe animal and public health during international trade. Two notable strategies are zoning/regionalization and compartmentalization. Zoning/regionalization is a procedure a country may implement to ensure animal populations or subpopulations within a distinct geographical region within its territory remain disease-free. However, where geographical containment is not feasible because of factors like the mechanical transmission of the TAD, for instance by migratory birds, compartmentalization may be a better strategy to adopt. Compartmentalization is the procedure of using strict biosecurity measures to separate animal sub-populations that present different health statuses from each other. Regionalization and compartmentalization strategies are met with foreseeable challenges. Animal stakeholders may only adopt control strategies with benefits that outweigh the corresponding costs to them. Also, investments would have to be made to educate the public and animal stakeholders on adopting these disease control strategies. Regardless of whether regionalization or compartmentalization strategies are adopted, the decision to trade will ultimately be determined by the importing country’s assessment of whether its acceptable level of risk can be met during the intended trade.

• 

  Vermont Everyone Eats Program, Resilience within Covid-19

  Robert Patane

  Food systems connect and represent interconnected subsystems. Often times when any one subsystem experiences a challenge, others will be impacted. The COVID-19 pandemic created multiple interconnected challenges for people in Vermont, including heightened food insecurity, economic struggles, and supply chain vulnerabilities. It is important to reflect on the ways in which Vermont’s food systems responded to these hardships, so we can plan and respond to future unknown, yet inevitable crises. Resilience is not an outcome or stable state to be accomplished; rather it is a continuous, social process of making sense of, responding to, and bouncing forward from hardship. While resilience is represented in grand formal policies at the systems-level, it can also be seen as informal processes occurring through small, informal actions and everyday interactions (Buzzanell, 2010; Matsen, 2001). While resilience is a process that occurs across societal, community, and individual levels, these literatures do not often borrow from one another. This study merges theoretical concepts from two resilience literatures in the social sciences (1) Buzzanell’s (2010) Communication Theory of Resilience and (2) Matsen’s (2001) theory of Ordinary Magic. To highlight the ways in which these theories complement each other, this research poster uses a case study model to explore how Vermont Everyone Eats cultivated a strong state-wide feeding program to address food insecurity at the community-level. Specifically, this study looks at how VEE contributed to community resilience during the pandemic in Vermont. And, if, and how, resilience was accomplished as ordinary magic in the VEE emergency food insecurity response program. Theoretical and practical implications will be examined.

• 

  Understanding interactions across food system indicators and their implications to bring about transformative change

  Kate Schneider

  Food systems transformation is urgent and is expected to meet nearly all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030, as well as targets set forth by the Global Biodiversity Framework, Paris Climate Agreement, and World Health Assembly. The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit focused global attention on food systems and helped catalyze food system transformation pathways across the globe, but no universal monitoring system was agreed upon and the current SDG framework is insufficient in guiding food system actions. The Food Systems Countdown Initiative (FSCI) is an interdisciplinary, multi-institution scientific partnership formed to fill in this gap. It aims to provide actionable evidence to track progress and guide decisions for transformation, complement other monitoring and tracking initiatives, and contribute to advancing the science of food systems and their transformation. In this presentation, Dr. Schneider explores the policies and economics of food and nutrition across the globe, and discusses the current timeline, methods, and priorities of the FSCI. Dr. Schnider draws on her interdisciplinary research and leverages multiple data sets to help attendees better understand food security and nutritional outcomes of different food systems.

• 

  Mealworms in Modern Diets

  Patrick Shafer

  Early adopters of edible insects are likely young, progressive, flexitarian eaters who are environment- and health-conscious; and interested in reducing their consumption of meat. University students in New England match this profile and increasingly demand diverse options for sustainable protein. This research used focus group sessions to investigate students’ protein consumption motivations, opinions on novel alternative proteins, and sensory perceptions of insect-based foods. Undergraduate students (43) participated in 9 paid focus groups, during which they sampled 5 mealworm-based foods – falafel, granola, hard pretzels, and two types of cookies. Students preferred falafel and granola not only for flavor, but also for their potential as the main protein components in meals. The cookies and pretzel were well-liked but were viewed either as snacks or as a vehicle to help consumers overcome aversion. However, students expressed a strong interest in the mealworm flour used in these baked goods. In comparison to other alternative proteins like imitation meat, many students saw insects as less processed and more natural or transparent. Vegan and vegetarian students revealed that many of their ethical motivations against eating meat - such as animal welfare and environmental sustainability - also motivate them to eat insects. The findings suggest that this audience is amenable to entomophagy, and acceptance can be further encouraged by contextualizing insects to align with diet motivations.

• 

  Harvesting Potential: Developing Leaders for a Sustainable Food System

  Allison Spain, Lindsey Lunsford, Brandy Phipps, and Sarra Talib

  This double session convened mentors and young leaders in food systems research, community engagement and policy implementation. Three different graduate student programs shared their experiences developing food systems leaders. Both mentors and current/former students presented.

• 

  Harvesting Potential: Developing Leaders for a Sustainable Food System

  Allison Spain, Lindsey Lunsford, Brandy Phipps, and Kareem Usher

  This double session convened mentors and young leaders in food systems research, community engagement and policy implementation. Three different graduate student programs shared their experiences developing food systems leaders. Both mentors and current/former students presented.

• 

  Fatty acid content and composition of plant-based yogurt alternatives: comparable to cow’s milk yogurts

  Victoria Taormina

  As consumers have incorporated more aspects of planetary health in their dietary choices, the market for yogurt and plant-based yogurt alternatives has expanded. However, the extent to which these foods may be substituted, specifically in relation to their fatty acid content and composition, remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to analyze and compare the fatty acid content and composition per one cup (245 g) serving of yogurt and yogurt alternatives available on the market in Chittenden County, Vermont. A total of 67 yogurt and yogurt alternatives were purchased, including cow’s milk yogurts as well as soy-based, almond-based, and coconut-based yogurts. For each yogurt, total lipids were extracted, trans esterified, and analyzed via gas-liquid chromatography. Based on total fat content, cow’s milk yogurts and soy-based yogurts contained less total fat per serving than coconut-based yogurts, while almond-based yogurts did not differ from the other yogurt types. Saturated fatty acids were the major fatty acid class present in coconut-based and cow’s milk yogurts, but coconut-based yogurts contained approximately twice the saturated fatty acid content of cow’s milk yogurts. Almond- and soy-based yogurts contained predominantly unsaturated fatty acids; the content of monounsaturated fatty acids of almond-based yogurts was more than twice that of the other yogurt types, while the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids of almond- and soy-based yogurts was comparable. Further, the n-6 to n-3 ratio present in almond-based yogurts was substantially greater than soy -based and cow’s milk yogurts. Coconut-based yogurts contain negligible n-3 fatty acid contents. Based on these differences, plant-based yogurt alternatives are not direct substitutes for cow’s milk yogurts and substitutions should be made with attention to the differences in fatty acid content and composition.

• 

  Food system vitality rooted in the land: Lessons from policies nationwide and in the Northeast to support land access for young, beginning, and BIPOC farmers

  Julia Vallient, Marie O'Neill, Gaby Pereyra, and Ornella Matta-Figueroa

  Land is the basis for a thriving food system, but land, and the policies that drive it, present many of their own barriers to food system innovations. Farmland is consolidating, converting out of agriculture, becoming more expensive, and moving out of reach of those who dream of raising food. In contrast, what a nourishing food system needs is productive land close to markets, abundant opportunities to enter into farming and to mentor new entrants, and widespread access to wealth-building agricultural land ownership. With these food system challenges as a backdrop, this session showcased and facilitated a discussion around the policy tools governments are piloting to intervene. Land access policies aim to bring young, beginning, and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers onto the land, and to incentivize landowners to rent or sell to them. States are accelerating in launching such policy innovations, and two states on the emerging cutting edge are Vermont and Connecticut. In this session, leaders of the USDA-AFRI-funded Land Access Policy Incentives Integrated Research and Extension Project explored various approaches land access policy tools are taking, what their effects are, the farmers and farms they are reaching, and sustainable metrics to determine their reach and long term effectiveness. Panelists also discussed farmers and farms who deserve to be better served by land access policies, and how these first forays into incentivizing land access through public policy can improve, to pursue more food systems priorities at once. Stemming from the team’s community-engaged research with over 1,300 farmers and landowners and the leaders of nine states’ land access programs, presenters drew on the national land access education networks they lead. Following the presentation, presenters facilitated a discussion with session attendees about policy interventions, both existing and needed, to catalyze food systems’ transformations from their roots in the land.

• 

  Food Systems Futures Part 2: Hosting your own scenario workshop + Using the Recipe for a scenario method

  Chelsea Wentworth and Amararachi Wachuka

  Building on activities from Part 1, this session discussed the practicalities of running a scenario workshop, detailed the scenario building process, and explored the rationale for the component parts. The session opened with a recap of the scenario workshop, which is defined as a place where the community and researchers work together to co-create scenarios for the future. Wentworth discussed how to develop a feasible vision, obtain relevant participants, and outlined how to structure the workshop. The vision should be built on some existing work or research co-generated with community partners. Workshop coordinators should aim to find a diverse group of participants that are representative of stakeholders within the specific food system at play, and how to advertise and invite participants, as well as logistics like feeding participants and finding a space that will comfortably fit them. Wentworth emphasized the role of co-facilitators, obtaining IRB approval and participant consent, developing community norms for interacting in space, creating a timeline for the workshop day. Participants were led through an exercise in short- and long-term priorities to brainstorm feasible outcomes participants would need to see over a period of 0-10 years and 10-20 years to work toward their goal. The session closed by giving participants the opportunity to network with each other and make plans for continued collaboration.

• 

  Food Systems Futures Part 1: Approaches to participatory scenario creation + Visioning/Values Exercise

  Chelsea Wentworth and Amararachi Wachuku

  A scenario workshop is a place where the community and researchers work together to co-create scenarios for the future. Scenarios are plausible and desirable descriptions of the future of a system with associated steps to achieving that desirable future. They are co-created with stakeholders and draw on evidence-based research and previously defined values. This two-part session led participants through creating their own scenario workshops, in which they would work with attendees to co-create actionable pathways toward a sustainable and resilient future for the food system in their community. In Part 1 of this session, participants were introduced to the scenario creation process. This session used the Flint, Michigan water crisis as a framework for brainstorming scenarios, walking participants through the process of the Flint Leverage Points Project, which identifies four key areas of necessary system changes in the aftermath of the Flint water crisis: economic investment, emergency response, resident food empowerment, and community collaborative action. Participants were then guided through a visioning and values workshop to help stimulate creativity. The session concluded by addressing limitations and challenges of scenario workshops, and summarizing lessons learned from the Flint Leverage Points Project.

• 

  Community Engaged Research for more Just and Sustainable Food Systems

  Alexis Yamashita, Dan Tobin, Ernesto Menendez, and Colin Anderson

  This interactive session brought together case studies of community-based research partnerships working on food systems sustainability issues. Workshop attendees were invited to participate in a process that explored the reality of community engaged research. By the conclusion of the workshop, attendees gained insights into principles and practices that can fortify strong and equitable relationships while learning from the issues and challenges in current projects to inform future practice.