Knowledge and Experience Related to Community Supported Agriculture and Local Foods among Nutrition Educators

Local food research: a bibliometric review using Citespace II (1970–2020)

Purpose

In recent years, one of the most important and active research areas has been local food. This study aims to examine the evolution and trends of local food research in several disciplines or fields in the 50 years, highlighting emerging research themes, collaborations such as authors, institutions, journals and co-citations such as documents, authors and journals.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 869 local food-related articles from the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1970 to 2020 were analyzed by several bibliometric analyses using CiteSpace II software.

Findings

The findings indicate that the number of studies in the local food field has increased rapidly and it is an interdisciplinary subject. Moreover, the results indicate that there is partly collaboration among authors, institutions or countries that conduct research on local food. For example, the most productive authors in this field are in USA, India, Brazil and European countries. Another remarkable result of this study is that tourism and hospitality discipline has focused on local food subject, especially in the last five years.

Originality/value

This is one of the first attempts by using network analysis to directly understand and visualize the interrelated structures of the local food research. Furthermore, the results of this study may provide researchers a reference guide to better evaluate and monitor local food research.

Community supported agriculture plus nutrition education improves skills, self-efficacy, and eating behaviors among low-income caregivers but not their children: a randomized controlled trial

Background

Adults and children in the U.S. consume inadequate quantities of fruit and vegetables (FV), in part, due to poor access among households with lower socioeconomic status. One approach to improving access to FV is community supported agriculture (CSA) in which households purchase a ‘share’ of local farm produce throughout the growing season. This study examined the effects of cost-offset (half-price) CSA plus tailored nutrition education for low-income households with children.

Methods

The Farm Fresh Foods for Healthy Kids (F3HK) randomized controlled trial in New York, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington (2016–2018) assigned caregiver-child dyads (n = 305) into cost-offset CSA plus education intervention or control (delayed intervention) groups. Following one growing season of CSA participation, changes in children’s diet quality, body mass index (BMI), and physical activity; caregivers’ nutrition knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and diet quality; and household food access and security were examined using multiple linear or logistic regression, with adjustment for baseline value within an intent-to-treat (ITT) framework in which missing data were multiply imputed.

Results

No significant net effects on children’s dietary intake, BMI, or physical activity were observed. Statistically significant net improvements were observed after one growing season for caregivers’ cooking attitudes, skills, and self-efficacy; FV intake and skin carotenoid levels; and household food security. Changes in attitudes and self-efficacy remained one-year after baseline, but improvements in caregiver diet and household food security did not. The number of weeks that participants picked up a CSA share (but not number of education sessions attended) was associated with improvements in caregiver FV intake and household food security.

Conclusions

Cost-offset CSA plus tailored nutrition education for low-income households improved important caregiver and household outcomes within just one season of participation; most notably, both self-reported and objectively measured caregiver FV intake and household food security improved. Households that picked up more shares also reported larger improvements. However, these changes were not maintained after the CSA season ended. These results suggest that cost-offset CSA is a viable approach to improving adult, but not child, FV intake and household food security for low-income families, but the seasonality of most CSAs may limit their potential to improve year-round dietary behavior and food security.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT02770196. Registered 5 April 2016. Retrospectively registered.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12966-021-01168-x.