Who Cares? The Importance of Emotional Connections with Nature to Ensure Food Security and Wellbeing in Cities

Promoting Slhánay̓ Sḵwálwen (Indigenous Women's Heart Health): Findings From Sharing Circles With Squamish Nation

OBJECTIVE

To gather knowledge and experiences from Squamish Nation citizens to codevelop a model of foraging walks for Indigenous women's heart health.

DESIGN

Qualitative study (sharing circles).

SETTING

Vancouver, Canada (virtual).

PARTICIPANTS

Squamish Nation community members (n = 9), Elders or Knowledge Keepers (n = 5), and researchers (n = 2).

INTERVENTION

Community-led foraging walks as a culturally safe nutrition education strategy.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

Perspectives and experiences.

ANALYSIS

Content analysis and narrative synthesis.

RESULTS

Personal experiences of foraging walks or knowledge of traditional plants were limited for most participants, and all desired to learn more about traditional foods using land-based activities. Participants identified a lack of nutrition education surrounding heart health and common mistreatment and judgment from health professionals. Participants identified important elements of a future Squamish program, including who should be involved, how to implement it, and the most effective temporal and physical setting. All agreed foraging walks help promote 5 dimensions of heart health (physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and social) through physical activity, purposeful nutrition, and connection to community and culture. Findings from the sharing circles were used in the creation of a template for future foraging sessions and contributed to plant identification cards for the whole community.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Community-based pilot studies to test foraging walks as a culturally safe and environmental approach to nutrition education and cardiovascular health awareness for Indigenous communities are warranted. Research to examine the similarities and differences across Indigenous groups related to understanding heart health and land-based practices for nutrition education and heart health awareness is needed.

Food in my life: How Australian adolescents perceive and experience their foodscape

Food choice has long been recognized as an interaction between psychological, social, cultural, economic, and biological forces through life course events and experiences. Adolescence is a particularly sensitive life stage during which personal and external environments influence food decisions and attitudes that can have long-term implications. Young people represent future households, yet little is understood about their perspectives on, and experiences of, their foodscape. To address this, a photovoice study with thirty-two students was undertaken at three state high schools with differing foodscapes in South East Queensland (Australia). Adolescent perspectives on foodscapes highlighted the food in front of them (either common or favourite foods), food routines, their emotional relationship with food, and the important role that family has in shaping their relationship with food (in particular mothers). Adolescents demonstrated an astute awareness of healthy/good and unhealthy/bad foods in relation to ingredients, ways of eating and different types of foods. Yet they expressed noticeable confusion on this matter, referring to some foods as "healthy-ish", or describing a "balanced" diet as consuming something healthy followed by something unhealthy. We found that adolescents are inundated by discretionary foods on a daily basis, however, are not particularly cognisant of them. These findings have direct implications for preventative health messages targeting adolescents.

Nature experience from yards provide an important space for mental health during Covid-19

Urban dwellers' use of public and private green spaces may have changed during the early years of the Covid-19 pandemic due to movement restriction. A survey was deployed in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia 1 year after the start of Covid-19 restrictions (April 2021) to explore relationships of mental health and wellbeing to different patterns of private yard versus public green space visitation. More frequent yard use during the initial year of Covid-19 was correlated with lower stress, depression, and anxiety and higher wellbeing. However, greater duration of yard visits (week prior to survey) was associated with higher stress, anxiety, and depression scores, potentially because individuals may seek to use nature spaces immediately available for emotional regulation during difficult times. The results highlight the importance of yards for mental health and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic and that relationships between nature interaction and mental health may be context and timeframe dependent.

Understanding Wildlife Crime from Eco-Existential and African Perspectives: A Psycho-Philosophical Investigation

Wildlife crime has huge consequences regarding global environmental changes to animals, plants and the entire ecosystem. Combatting wildlife crime effectively requires a deep understanding of human-wildlife interactions and an analysis of the influencing factors. Conservation and green criminology are important in reducing wildlife crime, protecting wildlife and the ecosystem and informing policy-makers about best practices and strategies. However, the past years have shown that wildlife crime is not easy to combat and it is argued in this article that there are underlying existential "givens" and culture-specific aspects that need to be investigated to understand why wildlife crime is still on the rise. This theoretical article explores (eco-)existential perspectives, Greening's four givens and selected African philosophical concepts, aiming to understand the complexities behind the prevalence of wildlife crime within global and African contexts.

Is urban growing of fruit and vegetables associated with better diet quality and what mediates this relationship? Evidence from a cross-sectional survey

Urban agriculture (UA), the growing of fruits and vegetables in urban and peri-urban areas, may improve food security and access, public health and dietary quality on both a broad and personal scale. However, there is little research on the relationship between UA and diet, and potential mediating factors are also unclear. This study aimed to investigate if proximity to and engagement with UA is associated with better diet quality, and what accounts for this relationship. UK-based adults (N = 583, 69% Female) completed measures of proximity to and engagement with UA, perceived access to fruits and vegetables, health and ethical food choice motivations, connection with nature, psychological distress and dietary quality in an online survey. Participants were recruited from UA-related groups and the general public. Proposed relationships were analysed using a structural equation model. Greater proximity to and engagement with UA was associated with greater perceived access to fruits and vegetables, more health-related food choice motivations, more ethical-related food choice, feeling more connected with nature, and, surprisingly greater psychological distress. Furthermore, proximity to and engagement with UA was indirectly associated with better diet quality via health-, and ethical-related, food choice motivations. While the direct pathway between proximity to and engagement with UA and diet quality was not significant, UA is associated with better diet quality, partly via healthier and ethical food choice motivations. Upscaling UA may have benefits for dietary quality via these factors, and more research is needed to test causal relationships and understand these complex interactions.

Sustainability of the agri-food supply chain amidst the pandemic: Diversification, local input production, and consumer behavior

The COVID 19 pandemic was a two-edged sword; it exacerbated the already inefficient agri-food system but, in doing that, made us reflect, rethink possible and sustainable solutions to address SDG's 1, 2, 11, and 5. A lot has been written on the immediate effect of the pandemic on different crops/animals and nodes of the value chain. In this chapter, we look at the negative and positive effect of the pandemic on sustainability in the context of a dynamic agri-food chain focusing on areas of localized input supply and food system sustainability, diversification, and Resilience, and consumer behavior Surveys were carried out in May/June, 2020 to understand the effects of COVID 19 on the agri-food system in Southern, West, Central, and Eastern Africa and strategies to secure sustainable solutions and resulting policy implications. For this chapter, we reflect on the results from 10 countries from Southern and Eastern Africa.

Results show that farmers in Eastern Africa had a diverse portfolio of processed livestock products than those in Southern Africa. Secondly, most farmers in Eastern Africa had diverse processed products. Thus, product diversification created resilience capacities for dairy systems. Diversity in access to inputs also increased the resilience and sustainability of supplies during precarious periods. The findings also reveal that sustainable consumer behavior during pandemics goes beyond responsible consumption. Instead, consumers need to rethink and devise consumption models that alleviate the food consumption-related effects of the pandemics and increase the availability and consumption of alternative products with social, economic, health, and environmental impacts.

Community Supported Agriculture as a Driver of Food-Related Well-Being

Background: There is a growing amount of research interest to understand the role of food in well-being. The demand for community supported agriculture (CSA), bringing people spatially, economically, and socially closer to food, is continuously expanding. CSAs play an important role in both sustainable agriculture practices and influencing consumers’ food-related practices, but yet have received little attention in well-being research. Methods: This study explores food-related well-being among CSA members by using an exploratory, qualitative research design and a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Results: The findings stress the relevance of psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of food-related well-being beyond the nutritional characteristics of food in CSA. Conclusion: The role of sustainable agriculture in contributing to food-related well-being becomes particularly evident based on consumers’ experiences. These results are important in convincing people that their food-related experiences belong to their perceived well-being as well as stimulating people to elevate their multidimensional expectations in relation to food.

Foodscape: A scoping review and a research agenda for food security-related studies

Since 1995, the term ‘foodscape’, a contraction of food and landscape, has been used in various research addressing social and spatial disparities in public health and food systems. This article presents a scoping review of the literature examining how this term is employed and framed. We searched publications using the term foodscape in the Web of Science Core Collection, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases. Analyzing 140 publications, we highlight four approaches to the foodscape: (i) Spatial approaches use statistics and spatial analysis to characterize the diversity of urban foodscapes and their impacts on diet and health, at city or neighborhood scales. (ii) Social and cultural approaches at the same scales show that foodscapes are socially shaped and highlight structural inequalities by combining qualitative case studies and quantitative surveys of food procurement practices. (iii) Behavioral approaches generally focus on indoor micro-scales, showing how consumer perceptions of foodscapes explain and determine food behaviors and food education. (iv) Systemic approaches contest the global corporate food regime and promote local, ethical, and sustainable food networks. Thus, although spatial analysis was the first approach to foodscapes, sociocultural, behavioral and systemic approaches are becoming more common. In the spatial approach, the term ‘foodscape’ is synonymous with ‘food environment’. In the three other approaches, ‘foodscape’ and ‘food environment’ are not synonymous. Scholars consider that the foodscape is not an environment external to individuals but a landscape including, perceived, and socially shaped by individuals and policies. They share a systemic way of thinking, considering culture and experience of food as key to improving our understanding of how food systems affect people. Foodscape studies principally address three issues: public health, social justice, and sustainability. The review concludes with a research agenda, arguing that people-based and place-based approaches need to be combined to tackle the complexity of the food-people-territory nexus.

FOODLIT-PRO: conceptual and empirical development of the food literacy wheel

Pursuing food systems' sustainability is crucial. Given the risk constituted by unhealthy diets, scarce research on food-related adjacent fields, and inconsistency across food literacy conceptualizations, this study aims to explore the constructs' definition and develop a conceptual and empirical framework of food literacy. A quantitative approach was taken on previously obtained qualitative outcomes from 30 interviews with experts from food-related fields. Food literacy was defined by a four-dimension model: Cooking Skills, Preserve and Analyse, Choice and Acquisition, Search and Plan. The framework Food Literacy Wheel integrates the construct definition, food literacy determinants (Internal, External) and influential factors (Nutritional, Psychological, Health, Learning Contexts, Policy, Industry, Sustainability, Social and Cultural). Allowing a broader perspective of food literacy within major food systems, this study contributes with new insights for future instruments and interventions, paving the way to develop/implement food literacy-related multi-sectorial and multilevel actions.

Nature Connection in Early Childhood: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study

There have been calls to reconnect children with nature, both for their own wellbeing, as well as for ecological sustainability. This has driven the growth of outdoor and nature-schools for all ages, but especially in the early childhood education sector. However, to date, there has not been a quantitative study that looks at whether these settings actually promote nature connection. This paper aims to examine the role of nature nurseries in the promotion of connection to nature, when compared to traditional nurseries. Data were collected on the nature connection, using the Connection to Nature Index for Parents of Preschool Children, of 216 children aged 1–8 years, 132 of whom attended nature nurseries while the rest attended traditional nurseries. Duration and frequency of attendance, sex, and parental nature connection were also reported. Statistical analyses were conducted for overall nature connection scores, individual dimension sub-scores and, for the children who attended nature nursery, against predictors. Results indicate that attending a nature nursery is associated with higher nature connection. Predictors for children’s connection to nature were parental nature connection, and total time spent in attendance of an outdoor nursery. This suggests a dose-response style relationship between attendance and nature connection. Implications for real-life applications are put forward and further research directions are explored.

FOODLIT-PRO: Food Literacy Domains, Influential Factors and Determinants-A Qualitative Study

Poor eating habits are increasing the prevalence of weight-related issues, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Given the demand to improve individuals’ food knowledge and competencies aiming at healthier behaviours, the current investigation explores the concept of food literacy. Considering the lack of a shared understanding of food literacy, this study aims to explore food literacy’s domains, influential factors and determinants. Using a qualitative deductive-dominant content analysis, 30 experts from food-related fields were interviewed. The obtained outcomes were compared to available food literacy frameworks. Agreement among inter-raters was nearly perfect (k = 0.82). Yielding a total of 184 codes nested within 19 categories, identified domains were Origin, Safety, Choice and Decision, Select and Acquire, Plan, Preserve, Prepare, Cook, and Knowledge; influential factors included Nutrition, Psychological, Health, Learning Contexts, Policy, Industry, Sustainability, and Social and Cultural; External determinants were “Access to Food-Related Information”, “Perishable and/or Unreliable Food-Related Information”, “Family Dynamic and/or Identity”, and “Professionals’ Unpreparedness on Food-Related Expertise”, and Internal determinants included “Prioritise Food”, “Convenience and Practicality”, “Time and Financial Management”, “Previous Food-Related Habits”, and “Innate and Learned Flavour Preferences”. In conclusion, more than half of the identified attributes (62.5%) are corroborated by the current literature. However, the manifested content unmatched with the current frameworks of food literacy literature express food-literacy-related fields of action, knowledge, competencies, and determinants that have not yet been explored. As such, this study provides new and useful information concerning food literacy definition and development, by identifying its domains, factors of influence, and potential determinants. Moreover, this work paves the way for new measurements and interventions within this field.

Beyond Productivity: Considering the Health, Social Value and Happiness of Home and Community Food Gardens

We are living in an age of concern for mental health and wellbeing. The objective of the research presented in this paper is to investigate the perceived health, social value and happiness benefits of urban agriculture (UA) by focusing on home and community food gardens in South Australia. The results reported in this paper are from “Edible Gardens”, a citizen science project designed to investigate the social value, productivity and resource efficiency of UA in South Australia. Methods include an online survey and in-field garden data collection. Key findings include: dominant home gardener motivations were the produce, enjoyment, and health, while dominant community gardener motivations were enjoyment, connection to others and the produce. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four key factors: Tranquillity and Timeout, Develop and Learn Skills, the Produce, and Social Connection. The key difference between home and community gardeners was an overall social connection. Although home gardeners did not appear to actively value or desire inter-household social connection, this does not mean they do not value or participate in other avenues of social connection, such as via social learning sources or by sharing food with others. The combined results from this research regarding health and wellbeing, social connection and happiness support the premise that engagement in home or community food gardening may provide a preventative or supportive role for gardener health and wellbeing, regardless of whether it is a conscious motivation for participation.