Foodscapes: bake, grow, share, eat

Foodscapes Exhibition Project Information & Background Idea

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The Dreyfus Affair, which began in 1894. was not only a political clash. It also engulfed the social and cultural worlds of France during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the highest politician to the average French citizen, people from ever}\u27 background were aware of the Dreyfus Affair and its implications for France. This Affair divided the people of France in every way possible and impressed itself upon every walk of French life for over a decade. With the aid of modem mass media, the Affair spread to every corner of France. By causing divisions in its cultural, social, and political spheres, the Dreyfus Affair clearly shaped France as a country. This paper explores the origins of French anti-Semitism, the social divisions in France due to the Affair, the use of propaganda and the press during the Affair, and the Affair\u27s cultural effects. It argues that one must investigate every angle of the Affair in order to understand its legacy. For among other things, the Dreyfus Affair also furthered the efforts to divide religious and stately affairs. As a result of the Affair and the international publicity it generated, France formally recognized a division between religion and the State with the Separation of Church and State Law of 1905. Accordingly, France became one of the most secularized countries in Europe and thus the impact of the Affair continues to this day

Understanding Participation in the USDAs Farm to School Program: Results Integrating Information from the Farm to School Census and the Census of Agriculture

Farm to School programs (FTS) have proliferated since the first FTS pilot projects in 1996-1997 (National FTS Network 2011). Research surrounding FTS programs has focused on quantifying the potential benefits for local economies and students' nutrition, while little research has addressed factors that influence a school's decision to participate in a FTS program. FTS is often narrowly defined as the use of local foods by the school. However, the extent of local food inclusion alters the local economic stimulus generated by the program and may also alter school meal participation by students and support by parents. In this study, we follow the USDA's Farm to School Census approach and define FTS as any promotion of local foods or school gardens including field trips to farms, maintenance of a school garden, taste tests, and other curriculum or promotional components. We also recognize that a school's decision to participate depends heavily on the supply of and types of farms in the area, so we take supply-side factors into account. In addition to simple binary FTS participation, we assess what factors are associated with the intensity of participation, the types of FTS activities implemented, and the challenges faced by participating and non-participating schools. The results provide a nuanced understanding of FTS participation. Our models are estimated using data from the USDA's Farm to School Census(2014), the USDA's Census of Agriculture (2012)and the USDA's database of farmers'markets (2015). We find factors that influence the FTS decision include the supply of local food, school size, percent of students on free or reduced cost meals, federal reimbursements for the cafeteria programs, total school system expenditures, food cost, cafeteria sales, county population, race composition and urbanicity. The results suggest that both school characteristics and local farm production factors may influence FTS participation. The results will be useful in informing policy as well as providing insight into the nature of FTS programs for future studies of FTS benefits

Adherence to Nutrition and Physical Activity Cancer Prevention Guidelines and Development of Colorectal Adenoma.

Adherence to the American Cancer Society's (ACS) Nutrition and Physical Activity Cancer Prevention Guidelines is associated with reductions in overall cancer incidence and mortality, including site-specific cancers such as colorectal cancer. We examined the relationship between baseline adherence to the ACS guidelines and (1) baseline adenoma characteristics and (2) odds of recurrent colorectal adenomas over 3 years of follow-up. Cross-sectional and prospective analyses with a pooled sample of participants from the Wheat Bran Fiber (n = 503) and Ursodeoxycholic Acid (n = 854) trials were performed. A cumulative adherence score was constructed using baseline self-reported data regarding body size, diet, physical activity and alcohol consumption. Multivariable logistic regression demonstrated significantly reduced odds of having three or more adenomas at baseline for moderately adherent (odds ratio [OR] = 0.67, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.46⁻0.99) and highly adherent (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.31⁻0.81) participants compared to low adherers (p-trend = 0.005). Conversely, guideline adherence was not associated with development of recurrent colorectal adenoma (moderate adherence OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 0.85⁻1.59, high adherence OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 0.85⁻1.79)

Transpersonal perspectives of spiritual experiences in epilepsy

Insight into the phenomenology of spiritual experiences of those with epilepsy offers a move away from current reductive explanations. This research will offer a voice for an often ignored and stigmatised group, aiming to understand their attribution of spirituality to experiences of auras. Connections with other altered states of consciousness will explore whether epileptic experiences of spirituality can be placed within a wider context of well-being and the human condition

Shaping Houses: integrating the physical and socio-cultural in the domestic architecture of Ancient Sicily

In this thesis I explore how physical and socio-cultural factors interact to shape domestic architecture by analysing the form, layout, and construction of houses from Sicily dating from the Neolithic to the end of the Hellenistic period. This time range encompasses two primary domestic building traditions: single-spaced round houses that dominate from the Neolithic through to the end of the Late Bronze Age, and large, multiple-spaced rectilinear structures that characterise the Archaic period onwards. As such the domestic architecture of Sicily provides the opportunity to study not only two distinct ways of building, but also the dynamics within them and the changes that occurred as one evolved into the other during the Early Iron Age: a period of transition that is often studied in isolation or only in relation to the earlier or later context, rather than as an integral part of this island’s history. A critical analysis of building techniques and materials in the context of available resources and their material properties alongside local environmental conditions reveals correlations between the choice of materials, construction techniques, and topographical and climatic conditions, as well as the form taken by the building as a whole. Comparative analyses were also carried out of house size, form, and degree of subdivision within and between the building traditions. The picture presented shows an increase in total size and subdivision (despite the relatively stable size range of individual spaces within the houses) from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic period and implies a developing desire for options to separate people and activities. Finally, close diagrammatic studies of the layout and spatial organisation of the houses bring to light the structuring of these domestic spaces: the use of architectural features and artefacts to provide a sense of division in single-spaced buildings; greater layers of access and control of movement incorporated into the larger, rectilinear houses with their multiple spaces; and the arrangement of these to allow for the lighting of interior rooms. Combined with the results above, these reveal patterns in the development of building traditions on Sicily and how they relate to, encompass, and entangle the dynamic socio-cultural and physical parameters that make up the wider landscapes they are a part of: notions of identity and its formation and transmission, social structure and stratification, topography and climate, and material structural properties. Altogether this allows for the development of a deeper and more holistic understanding of the relationship between building and living, of how physical and socio-cultural parameters integrate and influence the construction of houses, and how these all come together in the building traditions that are both shaped by us and shape us.AHRC Doctoral Studentship Awar

A Case Study of the Impact of Bioenergy Development Upon Crop Production, Livestock Feeding, and Water Resource Usage in Kansas

The development of grain-based ethanol production in Kansas has had a marked impact upon the feedgrain and livestock industries of the state. The increased focus on feedgrain production stemming from ethanol development impacts the use and sustainability of Kansas water resources, and has changed the proportional mix of crops grown in the state. The need to handle increased amounts of feedgrains and to transport them to ethanol plants has affected the functional role of local grain elevators as well as the directional flow of grain within the state. The grain trucking industry has been dramatically affected by the increase in demand for moving both feedstock inputs and co-product outputs to and from ethanol plants in the state.Crop Production/Industries, Livestock Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Reframing voices and visions using a spiritual model: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of anomalous experiences in mediumship

Throughout different civilisations and historical epochs, anthropological and religious texts have been replete with accounts of persons who have reported anomalous experiences in the form of visions or voices. In these contexts, such experiences are considered to be a “gift” that can be spiritually enriching or life enhancing. One such group of individuals are mediums who claim to receive information from spirits of the deceased in the form of auditory or visual perceptions. This study explores how mediums come to interpret their experiences as mediumistic and how they describe their relationship with spirit voices. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Spiritualist mediums using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three themes were identified: “Childhood anomalous experiences”, “A search for meaning: Normalisation of mediumship”, and “relationship with spirit”. These themes illuminated aspects of the mediumistic experience that have therapeutic implications for individuals who have similar experiences but become distressed by them