296 research outputs found
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Sustainability- considering the pillars of sustainability as a theoretical paradigm
The need for a common theoretical framework and underpinning with regards to the use of the term âsustainabilityâ in connection with food is important. Its current use covers a number of different meanings, ranging through economics and food supply systems to agri-food systems. This paper explores the issue of sustainability using a model developed for WHO. Using this as a tool, the impacts of food security and the global food system can be analysed and audited. Key to this are a critique of the global food system and its emphasis on free trade and consumers, the argument is put forward that global trade needs to be regulated to ensure human and environmental health.
Conclusions are drawn for home economic teachers in terms of the role they play in food advocacy. This moves beyond teaching about the food system âas-it-isâ, to education concerning the background to the food system and how we, as both consumers and citizens, can act and exercise power. The model can be used to both inform teaching practice about sustainability and to frame a response at a school/community level to wider influences in the food system. Education on its own is judged not to be sufficient
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Food projects in London: Lessons for policy and practice - A hidden sector and the need for 'more unhealthy puddings ... sometimes'
Background and Objective: Successive governments have promoted local action to address food components of public health. This article presents findings from research commissioned by the (then) London NHS Office, scoping the range of food projects in the London area, and the potential challenges to public health practice.
Methods: Research followed four overlapping phases with a London focus: (1) a systemized review of the literature, (2) analysis of health authority Health Improvement Plans (HImPs) and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) local implementation plans and Health Action Zone reports, (3) a scoping exercise of`food projects' and community-based participatory projects with a food focus using food databases and directories, and (4) 29 in-depth interviews with individuals responsible for commissioning and running projects.
Results: There were, in 2001/2, a variety of food projects in the London area, ranging from small-scale social enterprises to those whose turnover marked them out as small businesses. There was a significant human resource cost in maintaining and setting up such projects both from NHS staff and in terms of volunteer and paid labour. The lack of an overall or area-based approach to food policy development in London was apparent, and little thought seemed to have been given to creating a supportive policy environment. Food projects often existed as isolated entities in a borough or health authority area, with short-term funding and little systemic long-term support. The majority employed what might best be called health education approaches. This is now partially addressed by the draft London Food Strategy.
Conclusions: Food projects run by local professionals and/or volunteers operated within an isolated policy and suffered from a lack of support both from financial and human resources perspectives. The potential for long-term delivery of improved health was unrealized, as was their potential contribution to a London-wide food economy and to London food policy
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A survey of food projects in the English NHS regions and Health Action Zones in 2001
Background and Objective: This article sets out the findings from an analysis of food projects, with a particular emphasis on fruit and vegetables, from the 26 Health Action Zones (HAZs) in England and those taking place within the former NHS regional areas in 2001. The objective was to gather information on the existing practice to inform future work.
Methods: A series of interviews with key informants in the London area and a review of all the London Health Improvement Programmes and Coronary Heart Disease Local Implementation Plans were used to inform the development of an interview schedule and questionnaire. A second phase consisted of interviews with leads in the NHS Regional Offices. The third phase involved distribution of a questionnaire to the 26 Health Action Zones (HAZs).
Results: Comprehensive data on food projects was not routinely available. The large number of initiatives related to food led some respondents to feel unsure as to under which policy to locate their food and fruit and vegetable work. Projects tended to be based on the development of skills (for example, cooking classes) or on a settings approach such as activities in schools or workplaces. A strategic focus was reported as being more common at a local level. Evaluation of food projects was at an early stage in many areas.
Conclusions: The future sustainability of food and fruit and vegetable projects was identified as a Key issue. Future policy development of food projects need to be clearly guided by a coherent policy focus and an integrated approach which clearly tackles the root causes of food access and poverty
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The normalisation of Food Aid: What happened to feeding people well?
In the UK, food poverty has increased in the last 15 years and the food aid supply chain that has emerged to tackle it is now roughly 10 years old. In this time, we have seen the food aid supply chain grow at a rate that has astounded many.  Recently that growth has been aided by a grant of £20m from a large supermarket chain. It appears institutionalisation is just around the corner, if not already here. It also appears that there is far greater emphasis on dealing with the symptoms as opposed to solving the root causes of the problem. As an opinion piece, this paper reflects on some of the prevalent issues, and suggests some ways forward
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The imperative for consultation and involvement in child nutrition research: Adding perspectives from qualitative research
This chapter highlights the need for an understanding of the views of children and the way they view food and nutrition knowledge and behaviour. We argue that this is necessary to help understand behaviour, to inform practice and to devise realistic research and evaluation strategies. Many existing approaches to research adopt a positivist approach and tend to exclude qualitative work because of the lack of control groups and validated measures.
We set out how, by using qualitative research techniques and examples from our own work, the views of young people can be used to inform underlying behaviour. What we know about the behaviour of a community or group of individuals is often added to by qualitative data and this is not always so in experimental studies. For example attempts to change the behaviour of young people in eating in fast food restaurants is tempered by the fact that the reasons they do this are influenced by issues other than knowledge about the food on offer; or in the case of fruit and vegetable schemes it is necessary to understand the mindset of children to consuming fruit and vegetables. These raise the classic contradiction between knowledge and behaviour and the translation of research findings into practice and shaping what works. Determining audience needs, wants and perceptions is one of the key principles of good quality public health nutrition prevention work and is in-keeping with the need to create supportive environments for health and strengthening community action for health. We set out the need for understanding the mindset of young people, along with the links between research and action. We explore the use of existing evidence and gaps in the evidence base which includes an argument for research to have utility and be linked to programme interventions; indicating a shift from traditional evidence-based practice and a plea for evaluation and research on the use of evidence in practice. Such an approach will enable health practitioners to gain a better understanding of how to implement strategies associated with childhood nutrition and healthy eating in their working environment
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Joined-up food policy? The trials of governance, public policy and the food system
To address the policy malfunctions of the recent past and present, UK food policy needs to link policy areas that in the past have been dealt with in a disparate manner, and to draw on a new ecological public health approach. This will need a shift within the dominant trade liberalizationânational economic competitiveness paradigm that currently informs UK food policy, and the international levels of the EU and the WTO trade rules, and grants the large corporate players in the food system a favoured place at the policyâmaking tables. The contradictions of the food system have wrought crises that have engendered widespread institutional change at all levels of governance. Recent institutional reforms to UK food policy, such as the FSA and DEFRA, reflect a bounded approach to policy integration. Initiatives seeking a more integrated approach to food policy problems, such as the Social Exclusion Unitâs access to shops report, and the Policy Commission on the Future of Food and Farming, can end up confined to a particular policy sector framed by particular interestsâa process of âpolicy confinementâ. However, the UK can learn from the experience of Norway and Finland who have found their own routes to a more joinedâup approach to public health and a sustainable food supply by, for example, introducing a national food policy council to provide integrated policy advice. Also, at the local and community levels in the UK, policy alternatives are being advanced in an ad hoc fashion by local food initiatives. More structuralâlevel interventions at the regional and local governance levels are also needed to address the social dimensions of a sustainable food suppl
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