Scholarly Work - Health & Human Development
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/2920
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Item Teaching Food System Sustainability in Dietetic Programs: Need, Conceptualization, and Practical Approaches(2011-01) Harmon, Alison H.; Lapp, Julia; Blair, Dorothy; Hauck-Lawson, AnnieContemporary globalized food systems add new dimensions to the conceptualization of “healthy” food. The need to address biophysical, social, and environmental aspects of food systems is internationally recognized. In a survey of 265 dietetics programs, 68% of 145 educators were interested in sustainability education techniques yet felt inadequately prepared. We report on survey results and provide strategies for sustainability education (1) conceptually, as sustainable food system action goals; and (2) pedagogically, as didactic approaches to teaching that promote the sustainability goals, examples of teaching methods, and a selected reference list on sustainable food issues linked with the goals.Item Food Insecurity Experience: Building Empathy in Future Food and Nutrition Professionals(2017-03) Harmon, Alison H.; Landolfi, Kara; Byker Shanks, Carmen; Hansen, Leanna; Iverson, Laura; Anacker, MelodyOBJECTIVE To assess changes in empathy in students completing a food insecurity experience. DESIGN Mixed methods; quantitative data from survey in years 1 and 2; qualitative data extracted from students\' workbooks in years 2-5. This study was conducted over 10 weeks annually for 5 years. SETTING Northwest US land-grant university. PARTICIPANTS Students enrolled in a community nutrition course who chose to complete the food insecurity exercise. Total included 58 students in quantitative analysis in years 1 and 2 and 119 in qualitative analysis, years 2-5. INTERVENTION(S) The intervention was a food insecurity experience in which participants spent no more than $3/d on food for 5 days ($15 total) while striving for a nutritious diet and reflecting on their experience. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Empathy scores measured by Likert scales; participant responses and reflections recorded in workbook journals. ANALYSIS Comparison of means across time using paired t tests (P < .05); coding and sorting themes from workbook journals. RESULTS Quantitative findings indicated that both classroom content and experiential exercises were important for enhancing empathy about food insecurity. Empathy scores increased from time I to time II and from time I to time III. Qualitative reflections among participants included terms such as guilt, empathy, compassion, and raised consciousness about food insecurity. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Experiential and transformational learning to develop empathy can take place in a 5-day food insecurity experience during a typical university-level community nutrition course. This intervention can be tested for applications in other contexts.Item Organic agriculture supports biodiversity and sustainable food production(2011-10) Underwood, Teri; Mccullum-Gomez, Christine; Harmon, Alison H.; Roberts, SusanBiodiversity is vital to several important ecosystem services that ensure sustainability of food production. In organic agriculture, land management practices that promote biodiversity and soil quality are emphasized and the goal is to maintain a sustainable agricultural system. Soil quality or soil health is the foundation for all agriculture and natural plant communities and a primary indicator of sustainable land management. Soil quality is affected by farm management and land use decisions. This article presents a review of the literature on the question: How do organic agriculture and conventional agriculture differ in regard to their impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services? All of the 22 articles identified in this review reported a significant increase in at least one variable that indicated enhanced biodiversity and/or ecosystem services on sites farmed using an organic farming system compared to sites farmed using a conventional farming system. This review underlines the importance of biodiversity, particularly soil biodiversity, to sustainable food production and underscores the need for further ecological studies on the links between farm management systems and soil quality.Item Considerations for exploring livestock as a nutrition intervention in the rural United States(2015-07) Sarjahani, Andrew; Harmon, Alison H.Residents of rural communities in the United States typically have poor access to high-quality protein. Internationally, livestock nutrition intervention programs have been successful at increasing access to high-quality dietary protein in rural areas; however, these programs have not been largely explored in the rural United States. Given its lack of support facilities, availability of land, lack of zoning restrictions, and economic struggles, the rural United States is an ideal setting to pursue a livestock nutrition intervention project. What, then, would it take to establish an intervention? A number of community and livestock-related considerations need to be addressed in preparation for a livestock nutrition intervention in a rural community in the United States. Four examples of livestock are discussed.Item Sustainable hospital food service: restoring health and prosperity to rural Montana(2014-02) Montague, Jennifer; Wilcox, Jessica; Harmon, Alison H.Montana is a large, sparsely populated agricultural state experiencing both rural economic decline and high rates of chronic disease related to poor nutrition. Pursuing a more sustainable and self–reliant food system may help alleviate both of these problems. This investigation explores the sustainable practices foodservice directors in Montana’s rural hospitals are implementing, their challenges and opportunities. A case study of one innovative rural hospital demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating sustainable practices, and reveals local food purchasing in particular as an excellent way to support the local agricultural economy and build social capital while addressing the mission of the institution. An in–depth investigation of this foodservice and interviews with ten additional hospital foodservice directors provided an initial assessment of the extent to which rural Montana hospitals are engaging in sustainable practices, and particularly local food purchasing. Key challenges include financial constraints, concerns about food safety, existing contractual relationships, and staff training needs. Conversely, the continued reliance on scratch cooking in rural hospitals is seen as a significant opportunity, and several hospitals studied have gardens on–site. Conclusions include resources for foodservice directors who wish to integrate sustainable policies and practices in rural hospital foodservice operations.Item Development and Evaluation of an introductory course in sustainable food and bioenergy systems(2014-02) Malone, Kate; Harmon, Alison H.; Dyer, William E.; Maxwell, Bruce D.; Perillo, CatherineThe purpose of this paper is to describe the development, instruction, and evaluation of the undergraduate pilot course, Introduction to Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems (SFBS), at Montana State University. Introduction to SFBS is an interdisciplinary, team-taught, experiential education course designed to introduce students to broad array of SFBS-related topics, expose students to career opportunities in these fields, and enable them to establish relationships with food, agriculture, and energy stakeholders. Students completed baseline and follow-up surveys in which they reported information about their backgrounds, values, and knowledge of SFBS-related topics. The surveys also tracked students' learning and allowed them to provide feedback on course methods. According to the follow-up survey, over the course of the semester students demonstrated development of course vocabulary and concepts. Students' experiences in the course prompted changes in their school- and career-related goals. Additionally, the team-teaching approach was highly valued. Students also indicated that teaching should be more solutions-focused. Evaluation of students' backgrounds and learning is an important tool for the future evolution of this course and the development of others like it. The survey tool was in its first iteration; it will require revision as the course evolves. Introduction to SFBS can serve as a model for curricula related to sustainable agriculture, food, and energy. Courses like this can prepare students to become informed, innovative, critical thinkers capable of excelling in a multitude of food, agriculture, and energy-related careers. This course will continue to be monitored and evaluated as the curriculum evolves.Item Sustainable agriculture undergraduate degree programs: A land-grant university mission(2012-05) Jacobsen, Krista; Niewolny, Kim; Schroeder-Moreno, Michelle; Van Horn, Mark; Harmon, Alison H.; Chen Fanslow, Yolanda; Williams, Mark; Parr, DamianThere has been considerable growth in the number undergraduate degree programs in sustainable agriculture (SA) in universities and colleges across the country in the past 25 years. As a subset of this national trend, land-grant universities (LGUs) are emerging as catalysts in innovative SA program development, in part due to the LGU tripartite mission of education, extension, and research. This mission compels LGUs to develop undergraduate degree offerings to engage student, faculty, and community stakeholders who are increasingly interested in SA. In this article, which is an outcome of a gathering of faculty, staff and students from SA programs at LGUs at a workshop prior to the 4th National Sustainable Agriculture Education Association Conference in August 2011, we discuss the justification for SA programming at LGUs, the emergence of SA major and minor degrees at 11 LGUs to date, the common successes and challenges of current SA programs, strategies for improving existing SA programming, and systematic approaches for expanding SA education impact across institutional lines. We also introduce several additional topic-based articles that resulted from workshop dialogue that appear in this issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, including civic engagement efforts in SA education through community-university partnerships, a critical documentation of the implicit inclusion of values into SA education, and efforts to internationalize SA curriculum.Item Community Supported Agriculture: A Conceptual Model of Health Implications(2014-04) Harmon, Alison H.Community supported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative food marketing and distribution model in which consumers pay a membership fee before the season in return for a weekly share of a farm’s harvest. Since the first two were initiated in the 1980s, the number of farms operating as CSAs in the US has grown to more than 6,000. This paper offers a conceptual model of the health implications and challenges of CSA for individuals, families, communities, and local food systems. CSAs benefit individual health by improving diet; contribute to family health by advancing food skills and encouraging family meals; foster the development of healthy relationships between growers and eaters in communities; and promote sustainability in local food systems by conserving natural resources, improving economic viability of small–scale agriculture, minimizing the need for food processing and long–distance distribution, and improving access to high quality food. Challenges for CSA members include more time to prepare whole foods compared to processed foods, inconvenience compared to one–stop shopping at a supermarket, and prohibitive pricing for limited–resource families. Fully utilizing CSA as a health promotion strategy will require the support of health professionals, policy makers, and private sector industries such as health insurance.Item Food Insecurity Experience: Building Empathy in Future Food and Nutrition Professionals(2016-12) Harmon, Alison H.; Landolfi, Kara; Byker Shanks, Carmen; Hansen, Leanna; Iverson, Laura; Anacker, MelodyOBJECTIVE: To assess changes in empathy in students completing a food insecurity experience. DESIGN: Mixed methods; quantitative data from survey in years 1 and 2; qualitative data extracted from students' workbooks in years 2-5. This study was conducted over 10weeks annually for 5years. SETTING: Northwest US land-grant university. PARTICIPANTS: Students enrolled in a community nutrition course who chose to complete the food insecurity exercise. Total included 58 students in quantitative analysis in years 1 and 2 and 119 in qualitative analysis, years 2-5. INTERVENTION(S): The intervention was a food insecurity experience in which participants spent no more than $3/d on food for 5days ($15 total) while striving for a nutritious diet and reflecting on their experience. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Empathy scores measured by Likert scales; participant responses and reflections recorded in workbook journals. ANALYSIS: Comparison of means across time using paired t tests (P<.05); coding and sorting themes from workbook journals. RESULTS: Quantitative findings indicated that both classroom content and experiential exercises were important for enhancing empathy about food insecurity. Empathy scores increased from time I to time II and from time I to time III. Qualitative reflections among participants included terms such as guilt, empathy, compassion, and raised consciousness about food insecurity. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Experiential and transformational learning to develop empathy can take place in a 5-day food insecurity experience during a typical university-level community nutrition course. This intervention can be tested for applications in other contexts.Item National Chain Restaurant Practices Supporting Food Sustainability(2014-11) Pinard, Courtney A.; Byker Shanks, Carmen; Serrano, Elena L.; Harmon, Alison H.Although sustainable food practices are becoming popular among consumers, there is little known about restaurants’ practices, such as sourcing local or organic products. The goal of this study was to examine published information about sustainable practices in chain restaurants in 2008 and 2011. Restaurant websites were inspected in 2008 and 2011–2012 for information supporting sustainable food practices. Sustainability ratings were categorized as no practice, planned practice, or practice. In 2008, there were few reported practices; however, in 2011 there was a proliferation. This research demonstrates the increasing popularity of sustainable food practices and the potential to reach a broader audience.