Working towards the Common Table: How Vermont Addresses Social Justice and Food Access with Local Food and Why it Matters

Hunger and food insecurity are growing concerns in the United States and around the world. Consequently, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) designated Global Food Security as one of the five focal areas for the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. Recently, the USDA released a report indicating that 13.6% of Vermonters are food insecure (up from 9.6% in 2004-2006) and 6.2% are hungry (“very low food security”) compared to the national averages of 13.5% food insecure and 5.2% hungry (Nord, Coleman-Jensen, Andrews, & Carlson, 2010). At the same time, farmers in Vermont are struggling. The average net income of Vermont farms according to the USDA’s 2007 Agriculture Census was $22,816/ year. This indicates the financial risk associated with agriculture and the challenges that Vermont farmers face in achieving business viability. Unconnected strategies that either enhance food access or build economic success for agriculture may work at each other’s expense. Hence there is a growing need for efforts that simultaneously support access to high quality, local food for low-income Vermonters while ensuring fair return to Vermont farmers. Approaches driven by this dual-goal have great potential to strengthen communities and further social equity, both important tenets of sustainable agriculture

Economic Opportunity in Local Food Systems: Baselines and Targets

Numerous studies have measured the economic impact of increased consumption of locally grown foods. As many advocates have set goals for increasing consumption of locally grown foods to a specific percentage, the missing piece of information is, what is the current percentage of locally grown food being consumed in a given city, state or region. To date, no credible set of methods has been used to measure the percentage of food consumption that is locally grown. In this paper, we apply previously developed methods to measure how much food is currently eaten and would be eaten if USDA Dietary Guidelines were followed. We also propose a set of methods to measure how much of current food consumption currently comes from Vermont. The methods include a set of interviews and surveys of major food buyers and distributors, triangulated with USDA data to scale up results to statewide levels. The methods will be vetted by a team of national experts and be tested in a Vermont pilot study, refined, and finally made available to scholars nationwide for replication. Results will inform changes to current systems which will facilitate future efforts to track local food consumption

Farm-to-School: Implications for Child Nutrition

Farm-to-School (F2S) programs are gaining attention for many reasons, one of which is the recognition that they could positively influence the trend of increasing prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity. Of the F2S programs that have been evaluated, most have demonstrated increased selection or intake of fruits and vegetables by students following the incorporation of farm produce into school salad bars, meal selections, or class-based education. With that said, the wide range of activities that are part of typical F2S programs makes it difficult to pinpoint which components have the greatest potential to improve student’s health behaviors. Within the field of nutrition education, theory-based interventions that target what we know to be the key underlying factors influencing health behavior are considered to offer the most promise. Therefore, this paper explores how components of Vermont F2S programs address key constructs of the Social Cognitive Theory. The types of activities that are part of F2S are found to touch upon many of the theoretical constructs in the Social Cognitive Theory, leading to the conclusion that F2S programs have great potential to facilitate movement towards desired dietary changes. However, in the current approach, the likelihood is low that a set of activities in any one F2S program addresses multiple constructs of the theory in a systematic manner. Hence, a more intentional inclusion of diverse activities would likely be beneficial. More research is needed to test these assertions

Farmers\u27 Engagement with Community Food Insecurity: Approaches, Perspectives, and Implications for Extension

Hunger is an issue of growing concern nationwide, and farmers can play a critical role in helping individuals and families gain access to healthy, fresh, locally produced food. In 2011, we conducted interviews with 12 Vermont farmers who provide local food to low-income Vermonters through a wide array of activities including sale, donation, or other means. By better understanding how and why farmers work to address hunger in communities, Extension professionals can better support them to achieve the dual goals of food security and farm viability

Measuring current consumption of locally grown foods in Vermont: Methods for baselines and targets

Numerous studies have measured the economic impact of increased consumption of locally grown foods, and many advocates have set goals for increasing consumption of locally grown foods to a given percentage. In this paper, we first apply previously developed methods to the state of Vermont, to measure the quantity and value of food that would be consumed if the USDA Dietary Guidelines were followed. We also assess the potential of locally grown foods to meet these guidelines, finding that meeting dietary guidelines with a local, seasonal diet would bring economic benefit, in this case, US$148 million in income for Vermont farmers. A missing piece of information has been: what is the current percentage of locally grown food being consumed in a given city, state, or region? The Farm to Plate Strategic Plan, a 10- year plan for strengthening Vermont’s food system, attempted to answer this question. To date, we know of no credible set of methods to precisely measure the percentage of food consumed that is locally grown. We collect data from a variety of sources to estimate current local consumption of food. We were able to measure and account for about US$52 million in local food expenditures, equal to about 2.5% of all food expenditures in Vermont. We then discuss limitations and suggestions for improving measurement methods moving forward

Public acceptability of financial incentives to reward pregnant smokers who quit smoking: a United Kingdom-France comparison

A substantial amount of research has been conducted on financial incentives to increase abstinence from smoking among pregnant smokers. If demonstrated to be effective, financial incentives could be proposed as part of health care interventions to help pregnant smokers quit. Public acceptability is important; as such interventions could be publicly funded. Concerns remain about the acceptability of these interventions in the general population. We aimed to assess the acceptability of financial incentives to reward pregnant smokers who stop smoking using a survey conducted in the UK and then subsequently in France, two developed countries with different cultural and social backgrounds. More French than British respondents agreed with financial incentives for rewarding quitting smoking during pregnancy, not smoking after delivery, keeping a smoke-free household, health service payment for meeting target and the maximum amount of the reward. However, fully adjusted models showed significant differences only for the two latter items. More British than French respondents were neutral toward financial incentives. Differences between the representative samples of French and British individuals demonstrate that implementation of financial incentive policies may not be transferable from one country to another

Cognitive performance in healthy women during induced hypogonadism and ovarian steroid addback

Background—Gynecology clinic-based studies have consistently demonstrated that induced hypogonadism is accompanied by a decline in cognitive test performance. However, a recent study in healthy asymptomatic controls observed that neither induced hypogonadism nor estradiol replacement influenced cognitive performance. Thus the effects of induced hypogonadism on cognition might not be uniformly experienced across individual women. Moreover, discrepancies in the effects of hypogonadism on cognition also could suggest the existence of specific risk phenotypes that predict a woman’s symptomatic experience during the menopause. In this study, we examined the effects of induced hypogonadism and ovarian steroid replacement on cognitive performance in healthy premenopausal women. Methods—Ovarian suppression was induced with a GnRH agonist (Lupron) and then physiologic levels of estradiol and progesterone were re-introduced in 23 women. Cognitive tests were administered during each hormone condition. To evaluate possible practice effects arising during repeated testing, an identical battery of tests was administered at the same time intervals in 11 untreated women. Results—With the exception of an improved performance on mental rotation during estradiol, we observed no significant effects of estradiol or progesterone on measures of attention, concentration, or memory compared with hypogonadism. Conclusions—In contrast to studies in which a decline in cognitive performance was observed in women receiving ovarian suppression therapy for an underlying gynecologic condition, we confirm a prior report demonstrating that short term changes in gonadal steroids have a limited effect on cognition in young, healthy, women. Differences in the clinical characteristics of the women receiving GnRH agonists could predict a risk for ovarian steroid-related changes in cognitive performance during induced, and possibly, natural menopause

Pemanfaatan Tumbuhan Sebagai Bahan Pewarna Alami Oleh Suku Dayak Bidayuh Di Desa Kenaman Kecamatan Sekayam Kabupaten Sanggau

Dayak Bidayuh in Kenaman village Sekayam district Sanggau regency consumes much of forest products for their daily needs, one of them is natural dye plants which is used for coloring clothes, yarn, food, crafts, and cosmetics. This research aims to find out the kinds of natural dye plants, the parts used, and the preparation process. This research was conducted February to April 2017. The respondents were chosen through snowball method. Dayak chieftain as the community leader waws taken as the primary respondents. The interview was done in semi-structured technique. The results show that there are 23 species of natural dye plants which include in 20 families, namely Achantaceae, Amaranthaceae, Arecaceae, Asteraceae, Balsaminaceae, Bixaciae, Bonnetiaceae, Combretaceae, Crotonoideae, Cactaceae, Liliaceae, Malvaceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae, Musaceae, Pandanaceae, Rubiaceae, Sterculiaceae, Verbanaceae, Zingiberaceae. Of these 20 families, some of the plants are processed by pounding, boiling, bruising, burning, and then be used

New England Food Vision: Healthy Food for All, Sustainable Farming and Fishing, Thriving Communities

A New England Food Vision proposes changes in food production, distribution, and consumption reaching from the most rural areas to the densest cities—across the entire food system. The New England Food Vision Writing Team has been working since 2011 to produce a bold vision that calls for our region to build the capacity to produce at least 50% of clean, fair, accessible and just food for New Englanders by 2060. The Vision includes a set of guiding assumptions and calculations that sketch a future in which diverse local and state food systems are supported by and in turn support a regional sustainable food system. The roles of the writing team include production of a New England Food Vision document, including input from regional stakeholders at the annual New England Food Summits, discussions at various meetings, presentations, and via an online survey