Tracing Food Education for Sustainable Development in iPOPY countries. Recommendations for learning about sustainability and organic food within educational contexts.

Food Education for Sustainable Development (FESD) is evolving into a topical entity included in education in European countries due to the growing focus on environmental and health problems, which cause a ‘sustainability deficit’ within the food system. This paper presents qualitative and exploratory research results from iPOPY project, carried out in Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway regarding FESD and organic food in public food service for young people. The national core curricula in the studied countries seem to allow FESD although it is addressed in school contexts in varying ways through different school subjects; to some extent, the implementation depends on teachers’ other school activities and school food culture. There are teachers who engage in innovative FESD with students, creating new connections between conceptual, practical and experiential education by networking with other teachers and food system actors. Results suggest that pupils and students would achieve more profound learning outcomes if a whole school approach with integrative and coherent educational strategies would be applied and school food culture would be considered from the point of view of SD. The school caterers seem not to be too much involved in FESD but their and their organization’s roles are becoming more important. For successful learning about sustainability and organic food among young people, teachers, caterers, students and school administration have to be included in the process

The iPOPY project and how to communicate with the young generation

The aim of the iPOPY project (2007-2010) is to study how increased consumption of organic food may be achieved by implementation of relevant strategies and instruments linked to food serving outlets for young people in some European countries (Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway). Two cases from the iPOPY project demonstrate that when communicating with the younger generation organic food messages are competing with other messages also in protected food environments, and the sender and receiver attach different meanings to organic food. Our findings contribute to emphasizing the relevance of holistic approaches (e.g. whole school approach) and experiential activities in introducing organic food to young people

Education about organic food and sustainability in Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway: Findings from the iPOPY project

This report presents results from “Work Package 4: Consumer perceptions, practices and learning” of the “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth – iPOPY” project. The report gives an overview of organic food and sustainable development within national core curriculum and examples of education about organic food and sustainability in the participating European countries: Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway

One size fits all? – Differences in school food cultures identified in iPOPY research

The goal of this presentation is to explore integration of organic food into schools from the perspective of school food cultures. First, the concept of school food culture is defined. The presentation is based on data and findings from the ongoing iPOPY- “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth” project, which focuses on how increased consumption of organic food may be achieved through procuring organic food in public food service for young people. Researchers in the iPOPY project have collected available information on organic school meals and have also visited school canteens. Differences and similarities in school food cultures in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Norway) and Italy are discussed. School food cultures reflect local food culture and different school meals systems. School meals can be included in educational services, schools can offer commercial food services or children can bring their lunch from home. Finland and Italy recognize school meals as a part of people’s right to education and serve warm lunch meals, whereas children in Denmark and Norway usually bring their lunch from home and there is a tradition with bread meals for lunch. This presentation shows that school meals and school food cultures are different in iPOPY countries and illustrates that it is not possible to give one recommendation that fits all for how to integrate organic food into schools

Organic food in the canteen - Perceptions among cadets in the Norwegian Defense

Presentation on results from iPOP

Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Norway

In Norway, public procurement of food to youth is not well developed in comparison to many other European and Scandinavian countries. School meals are only offered in very few primary schools, and the common school meal is a packed lunch (sandwiches) brought from home, consumed in the class room. Subscription schemes for milk were introduced around 1970, and for fruit around 1995. Organic milk and fruit is offered only in some regions. Since 2007, fruit is served without payment in all schools with a lower secondary level (class 8-10 or 1-10). This effort was introduced as a first step to develop a free school meal in all public schools, which is a goal of one of the political parties in the current government. As in many other European countries, free school meals were offered (especially to poor children) in schools in the larger Norwegian cities around 1900. However, these meals were criticised for being unhealthy, and replaced by whole grain bread, milk and vegetables around 1930. Increasing private wealth, and increased demand for investments in school buildings, books etc changed the public priority and free school meals disappeared in Oslo around 1960. Today, there is not a general agreement about the optimal school meal composition, and whether or not the meals should be funded by the public. However, the increasing length of the school day and unsatisfactory scores of Norwegian pupils in international comparison tests (e.g. PISA) makes the school meal sector highly relevant in the public debate. Three cases that will be studied in a research project about public organic food procurement for youth are briefly described: The municipality of Trondheim, Øya music festival in Oslo and the Air Force Academy. (Increased) serving of organic food is an important aim in all these cases, and young people are an important target group. The report is produced within the project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”, iPOPY, and will be updated and revised during the project period (2007-2010)

Organic food in the canteen: Perceptions of organic food among cadets in Norwegian defence

This paper explores perceptions of organic food among cadets in the Norwegian Defence after organic food was introduced by the army food services in 2007

Organic food and youth at a Norwegian music festival

We explore how organic food at a festival effect perceptions among youth, and how experiences from the festival context may be transmitted to everyday context. As part of an ongoing European project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth“ (http://ipopy.coreportal.org/) we have observed at the Øya music festival, interviewed organizers and conducted two focus groups with young people recruited at the festival in August 2008. Being at the festival was a positive experience and thus organic food became associated with something positive. The participants had the opportunity to taste a variety of organic foods and were exposed to information although not all had read it. The participants tended to view organic food as being different from conventional food, and there seemed to be an expectation that it would be better for themselves, animals or environment, or taste better. Price and availability were described as constraining factors. The participants felt that pizza had been the best deal, cheapest and most filling. Festival food was mainly linked to necessity and “fuelling the bodyâ€. This notion was also emphasized by mainly offering “finger food†and people eating standing up. There were mixed views on the transmission of organic food from the festival to everyday context. Organic food at festivals was described as a step in the right direction because young people go to festivals and pick up things that they may take with them. However, festivals were also described as separate worlds with limited influence on what people do at home

Disparities in food habits : Review of research in 15 European countries

Fair-97-3096 -project, Disparities group (tasks 4 and 5)

Good practice characteristics of diet and physical activity interventions and policies : an umbrella review

BACKGROUND: This umbrella review aimed at eliciting good practice characteristics of interventions and policies aiming at healthy diet, increasing physical activity, and lowering sedentary behaviors. Applying the World Health Organization's framework, we sought for 3 types of characteristics, reflecting: (1) main intervention/policy characteristics, referring to the design, targets, and participants, (2) monitoring and evaluation processes, and (3) implementation issues. This investigation was undertaken by the DEDPIAC Knowledge Hub (the Knowledge Hub on the DEterminants of DIet and Physical ACtivity), which is an action of the European Union's joint programming initiative. METHODS: A systematic review of reviews and stakeholder documents was conducted. Data from 7 databases was analyzed (99 documents met inclusion criteria). Additionally, resources of 7 major stakeholders (e.g., World Health Organization) were systematically searched (10 documents met inclusion criteria). Overall, the review yielded 74 systematic reviews, 16 position review papers, and 19 stakeholders' documents. Across characteristics, 25% were supported by ≥ 4 systematic reviews. Further, 25% characteristics were supported by ≥ 3 stakeholders' documents. If identified characteristics were included in at least 4 systematic reviews or at least 3 stakeholders' documents, these good practice characteristics were classified as relevant. RESULTS: We derived a list of 149 potential good practice characteristics, of which 53 were classified as relevant. The main characteristics of intervention/policy (n = 18) fell into 6 categories: the use of theory, participants, target behavior, content development/management, multidimensionality, practitioners/settings. Monitoring and evaluation characteristics (n = 18) were grouped into 6 categories: costs/funding, outcomes, evaluation of effects, time/effect size, reach, the evaluation of participation and generalizability, active components/underlying processes. Implementation characteristics (n = 17) were grouped into eight categories: participation processes, training for practitioners, the use/integration of existing resources, feasibility, maintenance/sustainability, implementation partnerships, implementation consistency/adaptation processes, transferability. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the proposed list of 53 good practice characteristics may foster further development of health promotion sciences, as it would allow for identification of success vectors in the domains of main characteristics of interventions/policies, their implementation, evaluation and monitoring processes