Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environment and Natural Resources

The global food system faces a daunting challenge to feed a growing human population while simultaneously minimizing the environmental impacts of food production. The boundary-spanning, social-ecological nature of this system makes it a particularly valuable arena in which to study complex governance. As a focal point for this inquiry, I suggest that novel food production technologies may be seen as wicked problems in the study of food systems governance. For instance, an emerging food production technique called cellular agriculture has gained attention as a promising alternative to animal-derived meat production that may require significantly fewer resources. While cellular agriculture holds great promise in reducing the environmental burdens involved in producing protein for human diets, it also adds a layer of complexity to food system governance. There are several substantial challenges and controversies that must be overcome to realize the potential of cellular agriculture and doing so will require designing policies that consider a wide range of diverse actors with varied, sometimes opposing, interests. The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) provides a strong theoretical basis to understand the actors involved in policy subsystems and how they self-organize into competing coalitions based on key policy beliefs. Yet, important gaps exist in ACF literature regarding how coalitions operate in nascent policy subsystems due to the difficulty in observing “nontrivial coordination” in these early stages. Consequently, there is scant knowledge about early coalition development and agenda-setting as well as broader emergent subsystem dynamics. One valuable way to address this shortcoming is by employing the study of discourse coalitions, or groups of actors in a subsystem who are linked through shared public positions on policy debates, which can lend useful insights into which sets of actors might become advocacy coalitions and how informal groups of actors can influ (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ramiro Berardo (Advisor); Jill Clark (Committee Member); Matthew Hamilton (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Policy; Social Research; Sustainability

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Public Policy and Management

Food insecurity and poor diet quality affect millions of United States (US) residents, leading to negative health and social outcomes and burdening the US health care system. Activists and researchers theorize that food environments, the constellations of food resources within a given geography, represent a locus of intervention that can improve food security and access to healthful food. Despite this theoretical connection, research on the relationships between food environments, food security, and diet quality remains inconsistent. The papers presented in this dissertation aim to present three approaches to studying food environments that help illuminate these connections. The study presented in Chapter 2 uses a hierarchical modeling approach to understand the connection between county-level food environments and food security. This analysis relies on 12,748 household-level observations from the December 2010 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement as well as food environment data from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns. This exploratory descriptive essay suggests that population-adjusted county-level counts of grocery stores and specialty stores are associated with a decreased risk of household food insecurity, while population-adjusted county-level counts of convenience stores are associated with an increased risk of household food insecurity. Furthermore, this study highlights a potential moderating role of specialty stores on risk of household food insecurity for households in iii which all adults identify as Black. The study also suggests a potential moderating role of population-adjusted county-level counts of SNAP-authorized food retailers on risk of household food insecurity for households with at least one disabled household member. Using a relational approach, Chapter 3 develops the proximate food retail quality (PFRQ) score, an individual-level inverse-distance weighted measure of food ret (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jill Clark (Committee Chair); Stephanie Moulton (Committee Member); Stephane Lavertu (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, City and Regional Planning

Food waste is a wicked problem. It is the result of agricultural economic policies, income inequality, deficient distribution networks, and food edibility enculturation among other factors. Food waste is generated at every level of the food system, with each level having numerous activities with enough uniqueness and reasons for wasting food. Equally, there are numerous ways to prevent, reduce and recycle food waste at each level of the food system, but solutions also depend on the same factors that causes it and are additionally influenced by sustainability policies, existing waste management infrastructure, land use priorities, and social and personal psychological norms. Hence it can feel that finding a solution for food waste is a never-ending battle. Solutions must be implemented at all levels of the food system and in order to do this food waste and solid waste management planners must look for causes and solutions at the macro and micro scales. The research presented here is concerned with implementing solutions and understanding how these solutions could be successfully implemented. In the first essay, I report the case study of a planning process undertaken in the Mississippi Gulf Coast to develop a food system plan that integrated strategies commonly included in regional solid waste management plans, in order to manage food waste more sustainably with strategies designed to accommodate local needs and unique circumstances. While most food system plans acknowledge the importance of managing food waste, this study was the first food system planning effort that included a committee composed of local solid waste management professionals and local stakeholders interested in food waste prevention, reduction, and recycling. The planning process was a three-step process that engaged stakeholders in the food supply chain from production, distribution, retail, and consumption through to post-consumption. The essay describes the specific steps taken to assess the g (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bernadette Hanlon PhD (Advisor); Brian Roe PhD (Advisor); Kareem Usher PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Evans-Cowley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Area Planning and Development; Behavioral Psychology; Environmental Health; Environmental Management; Environmental Studies; Land Use Planning; Public Health; Sanitation; Social Psychology; Sustainability; Urban Planning; Wildlife Management

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

National concern about American eating habits have risen in the last several years and many authors, scientific and research institutions have put the spotlight on the urgent need of rethinking, improving and creating legal frameworks that control the way food is produced, processed, distributed, consumed, and disposed across the country. Since the food industry has impacted the way dining services at schools, colleges and universities operate today. The way dining halls operate today in higher education institutions are the result of a complex interaction of elements such as agro-food industry, corporate food systems, socio-economic, environmental and cultural factors. This paper identifies the historical and current elements that have shaped students' food environment, explains national food industry practices that are implemented in colleges across the country, identifies some of the most recently emerging sustainable initiatives on campus that can decrease the environmental footprint, and improve student's eating habits. This paper focuses on the University of Cincinnati's food system as case study to understand how food systems function in higher education institutions.

Committee: Johanna Looye PhD (Committee Chair); Francis Russell MArch, BA (Committee Member) Subjects: Urban Planning

Bachelor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, School Of Interdisciplinary Studies - Interdisciplinary Studies

Using examples from community nutrition, this project shows that health is best understood through an ecological systems model. Furthermore, this model contains both an ethical and epistemological imperative to generate health-related knowledge through participatory action research. First the ecological systems model of health is simultaneously described and illustrated with examples from nutrition. This model is one that understands individual well-being as the result of complex interactions within and among nested systems of environmental influence. Thinking about health this way acknowledges the impact of stress, social support, membership in community organizations, the built environment, agricultural subsidies, genetically modified organics and more on the health outcomes of individuals. Also, this model of health highlights a number of the positive, multi-level effects that could come about if local food systems were comprehensively integrated into nutrition assistance programs. The analysis next examines the implications of such a model that acknowledges the agency of individuals to impact both their physical health and larger systems of which they are a part. These elements of ecological systems theory demand research that is both participatory, so that the divisions between researchers and subjects are renegotiated, and action-oriented, so that research actively works for systemic change. Finally, my work evaluating the Oxford Farmers Market Uptown's (OFMU) Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) federal food assistance program is presented as a case-study. Using Empowerment Evaluation (EE), a participatory research technique, to identify and address barriers toward using EBT at OFMU, it became clear that OFMU could provide nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate foods to low-income members of the Oxford community, given more targeted advertisement and outreach. EE provided flexible and effective tools for evaluation but fell short of comprehensively i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Chris Wolfe PhD (Advisor); William Newell PhD (Committee Member); Kathleen Johnson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

In 2023, 13.5 percent of U.S. households experienced food insecurity. There are notable disparities in who faces food insecurity across socio-demographic groups and region. The recognition of intersecting barriers that exacerbate food insecurity in rural areas has prompted significant federal investments to bolster local food systems and the creation of new initiatives to strengthen rural infrastructure, connect communities with federal resources, and support rural health and well-being. The concept of community food security (CFS) recognizes a broader set of political, social, environmental, and economic factors than traditional conceptualizations of food security and may be a promising framework for informing rural health policy. A core element of the CFS framework is community self-reliance. At present, community self-reliance is considered synonymous with physical food infrastructure; however, extant scholarship demonstrates that the presence of physical food infrastructure is not sufficient, and social factors, including social relationships and networks, are promising mechanisms for supporting food security in rural areas. This dissertation employs a pragmatic research paradigm and the principles of community-engaged research to interrogate CFS in rural communities. I achieve this via three empirical studies, each with a distinct unit of analysis: individual (Chapter 2), group (Chapter 3), and organizational (Chapter 4). Leveraging in-depth, semi-structured interviews, Chapter 2 explores how residents of a rural, high food insecurity region characterize their experiences with food insecurity, resulting in a set of themes that both converge with, and diverge from, the constructs underpinning current food security measurement. For Chapter 3, I conducted focus groups to explore how residents in southeast Ohio conceptualize CFS and how the social and physical components of the local food system, including group-identified community assets, work in concert to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Garner (Committee Chair); Russell Hassan (Committee Member); Alisha Coleman-Jensen (Committee Member); Jill Clark (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Public Administration

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to global agriculture and food security. Small farms are especially vulnerable to the local impacts of large-scale drivers of change. Effective adaptation in agriculture requires working across scales, and geographic, political, and disciplinary boundaries to address barriers. I use elements of case study, agent-based modeling and serious games, to design a model of farmer decision-making using the sociocognitive framework of climate change adaptation. I examine how adaptation functions as a process, how complex dynamics influence farmer behavior, and how individual decisions influence collective behavior in response to climate change. This novel approach to adaptation research in agriculture examines the relationships between the contextual, compositional, and cognitive elements of the sociocognitive theory. The tools developed for this research have broad practical and theoretical future applications in climate adaptation research and policymaking. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: James Jordan Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elizabeth McCann Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dale Rothmann Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Agronomy; Climate Change; Ecology; Environmental Studies; Geography; Land Use Planning; Livestock; Plant Sciences; Political Science; Public Health; Regional Studies; Social Research; Sustainability; Systems Design; Urban Planning; Water Resource Management

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Community gardening efforts often carry a social purpose, such as building climate resilience, alleviating hunger, or promoting food justice. Meanwhile, the identities and motivations of community gardeners reflect both personal stories and broader social narratives. The involvement of universities in community gardening projects introduces an additional dimension of power and privilege that is underexplored in scholarly literature. This research uses critical autoethnography to explore the relationship of community gardening and social identity. Guided by Chang (2008) and Anderson and Glass-Coffin (2013), a systematic, reflexive process of meaning-making was used to compose three autoethnographic accounts. Each autoethnography draws on the author's lived experience in the community food system in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire between 2010 and 2019 to illustrate aspects of community gardening and social identity in this context. Unique access to data and insights about community food systems is provided by the author's dual and multiple positionality in this context (e.g., as an educator/student, provider/recipient of food assistance, mother/environmentalist). The resulting accounts weave thickly descriptive vignettes with relevant scholarly literature that contextualize and problematize the author's lived experience. A key theme across the narratives is that “people live layered lives . . . making it possible to feel oppression in one area and privilege in others” (Bochner, 2002, p. 6). Intended impacts of this research are expanding critical autoethnographic methods in food studies and environmental studies, offering cultural critique on the impacts of university engagement in community food systems, and embracing qualities of vulnerability, engagement, and open-endedness in critical social research (Anderson & Glass-Coffin, 2013).

Committee: Libby McCann PhD (Committee Chair); Joy Ackerman PhD (Committee Member); Kim Niewolny PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Food Science; Higher Education; Sustainability

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, Management

Food banks and food retail stores serve critical roles in closing the gap in access to fresh quality food. Both entities are salient resources for low-income food insecure consumers. Low-income consumers, specifically those who participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), rely upon food banks to combat hunger and extend food supply. In 2018, the USDA reported 52% of SNAP consumers visited a food bank within a 12-month period. The increasing out-growth and demand for hunger relief services, such as food banks, has caused a shift in food access. In addition, the presence of food banks has been identified as a potential threat to market share for local retailers. This dynamic has created tension for local grocers who manage operations in food insecure environments. Through this study, I examine the impact of food banks on food retail stores in a local food environment. The main finding of my study is that food bank distributions have an income and substitution effect in food insecure environments. This effect is exemplified by fluctuations in retail transactions and SNAP consumer purchase behavior. As an income effect, consumers utilize food bank distributions to supplement the lack of finances to acquire food. Conversely, as a substitution, food bank distributions provide consumers with access to food items that are not available at grocery stores. Our findings are from an integrated mixed-method study. Qualitative results from Study 1 encompassed 24 retail operators and partners across Cuyahoga County, Ohio. I found local retail operators and partners identified food banks as silent competitors in food insecure environments. Local retailers and partners provide access to food items in the absence of large-scale supermarkets. The services provided by food banks were identified as a disruptor for local retailers in managing operations in food insecure areas. In Study 2, I examined the economic impact of food bank distributions on (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Corinne Coen (Advisor) Subjects: Nutrition; Public Policy; Social Research; Sustainability

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Leadership and Change

Our local and regional food systems are predominately modeled on a failed capitalist market-based economy. In the absence of corporate accountability, and/or support on the federal policy level, local and regional leadership and self-organized networks are critical to the scaling across and evolution of a moral and equitable food system. Networked food systems leaders are developing the capacity to solve wicked problems, and spark change. Understanding the values and practices of local food systems leadership, that initiate, influence, and support activities is essential to understanding how to foster conditions for local and regional food network growth. My dissertation research is designed to better understand the leadership practices, values and use of power which contribute to the flourishing of food system networks. In this mixed method study, I set out to answer the question, “What is the nature of leadership in emerging local and regional food networks that provides the foundation for a network to strengthen and scale?” The leadership practices, values, and use of power in three local/regional food networks are studied; synthesizing social network analysis data with semi structured interviews, using the results of an iterative thematic analysis as the foundation from which to consider a critical analysis. This dissertation establishes Human Centeredness as a foundation for Leadership as Practice to occur in self-organized food systems networks. Human Centeredness, for the purposes of my framework and model, is a recognition of the importance and contribution that relationships and connection, essentially a human centered way of being make to laying the foundation for leadership as practice to occur. The findings also reveal the need for a greater understanding of the importance of power and accessing various forms of power within and beyond the known boundaries of networks. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donna Ladkin PhD (Committee Chair); Aqeel Tirmizi PhD (Committee Member); Claire Reinelt PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Agriculture; Climate Change; Ecology; Economics; Environmental Health; Geography; Personal Relationships; Political Science; Public Policy; Social Structure; Sustainability; Systematic

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Public Policy and Management

Increasingly, the practice of governance depends on multi-stakeholder engagement and collaboration. Such collaborative governance arrangements are not only increasingly necessary for public sector institutions to create effective policy, but can also facilitate democratic engagement by involving a wider range of participants in the policy making process. These motivations are equally true in rural places, which face significant social, economic, and environmental challenges. Despite the growing importance of collaborative governance overall and its applicability in rural places, no research has rigorously investigated the practice of collaborative governance as it is applied in rural communities. This dissertation focuses on answering a foundational question; how do rural communities enact collaborative governance? I explore the question in the context of food and agriculture system policy through a study of two examples of collaborative governance; the Local Foods Coalition in the San Luis Valley of Colorado and the Ag Success Team in Wayne County, Ohio. Employing an interpretive methodology guided by methodological localism, I explore the social ecosystem context of these two cases of collaboration, how members came to participate in each group, and the nature of their collaborative work. Findings from these cases suggest that, while extant frameworks of collaborative governance are applicable to collaborative governance in rural settings, four key observations require further investigation and consideration, not only for our understanding of rural collaborative governance, but potentially collaborative governance in other settings as well. First, people in these rural communities wore “multiple hats” (i.e. had many different roles), which complicated engagement. Second, stakeholder engagement for collaboration depended on largely informal personal relationships rather than institutional partnerships. Regardless of intention, resulting engagement efforts t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jill Clark Ph.D. (Advisor); Jos Raadschelders Ph.D. (Committee Member); Bernadette Hanlon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jason Reece Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Area Planning and Development; Public Administration; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Anthropology

This dissertation analyzes how winegrowers in central Ohio and the eastern French region of Alsace respond to changes in their vineyards, wine cellars, and tasting rooms, as well as how changing ecological conditions influence changing social processes (and vice versa). I build upon the French notion of terroir to reconceptualize it as a theoretical model of social-ecological “sense-making” that helps people make sense of the various interactive components of the winegrowing system. Such a framework also provides individuals with a guide for understanding through their sensory faculties what an idealized system of winegrowing feels like. By analyzing how they define the taste of place, I argue that winegrowers and others are able to pinpoint not only changes in their respective landscapes, but also opportunities for adaptation and/or innovation. Amid discourses of global climate change, winegrowers are experiencing its differential effects. Central Ohio winegrowers tend to be more concerned with increased rainfall and freezing temperatures, while those in Alsace are concerned with periods of less rainfall and very high temperatures. These conditions appear to prompt winegrowers to (re)consider whether they can plant new varietals, how they may intervene in the fermentation process, and what wines are available for their clientele. In short, vitivinicultural practices are invariably linked to cultural behaviors that continue to change over time and space. Bringing together multisensory ethnography and multispecies perspectives, and based on my case studies and each new vintage, I characterized the extent to which changing landscapes influence the production and elaboration of place-based goods. Accordingly, I asked: (1) What changes do winegrowers perceive in their winegrowing landscapes? (2) How do they adapt to changes in winegrowing conditions? (3) How do these changes influence winegrowers' constructions of terroir and the “taste of place”? I interviewe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anna Willow (Advisor); Nicholas Kawa (Committee Member); Mark Moritz (Committee Member); Noah Tamarkin (Committee Member); Marie Thiollet-Scholtus (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

The purpose of this thesis is to understand perspectives on Ohio University's role in the Southeast Ohio food system as the regional anchor institution. This analysis looks at food system investment as a tool for creating rural economic development opportunities to mitigate regional economic distress. Through a convenience sample, I interviewed and held focus groups with key members of the university and community who are involved in the local food system and university procurement activities. Four themes arose from the data as a result of qualitative coding. These include 1) Ohio University's Power and Obligations; 2) Creating and Managing Change at Ohio University; 3) The Student Experience: Pressures and Perspectives; and 4) The Potential of Local Food. Each of these highlight a disconnect in the ways internal and external stakeholders view the position and role of the university in the local food system. As a result, I formulated recommendations on how the university can become a better partner in community engagement and social responsibility. This includes creating a formal recognition of anchor institution status, steps towards becoming a sustained member of the food system through procurement, implementing triple bottom line metrics, establishing clear communication guidelines with the community, and creating local food education opportunities for students.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Committee Chair); Theresa Moran (Committee Member); Larry Burmeister (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Sociology

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

This study investigates the relationship between the reorganization of food provisioning systems and large-scale food crises through a comparative historical analysis of three famines: Hawaii in the 1820s, Madagascar in the 1920s, and Cambodia in the 1970s. The study identifies and analyzes the structural transformations–that is, changes to the relationships between producers and consumers–that make food provisioning systems more vulnerable to failure. Up to now, economic and political explanations for food crisis have dominated the literature. These approaches tend to focus on a small set of spatially and temporally proximate conditions and neglect important socio-ecological interactions. Using approaches from comparative historical analysis, political ecology, and Marxist political economy, this study focuses on the role of large-scale and long-term socio-ecological processes in famine genesis. For each case, the study identifies the causal mechanisms and interactions that precipitated famine. These results are compared using contextualized mechanistic analysis to reveal structural similarities and differences between cases. On this basis, the study develops a novel framework for crisis evolution that identifies two distinct temporal phases and five different types of causal mechanisms involved in food system failure. The framework contributes to current work in food studies and offers the potential for structural indicators of future crisis. With current food systems undergoing dramatic transformation in response to population growth and movement, political upheaval, climate change, and market expansion, it is imperative that policy makers identify and eschew the structural changes that are precursors to disaster.

Committee: James Tyner PhD (Committee Chair); Mandy Munro-Stasiuk PhD (Committee Member); Victoria Turner PhD (Committee Member); Joshua Stacher PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography; History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, Individual Interdisciplinary Program

Engaging with sensory ethnography at the Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes, I bring forward ways of knowing about food and social relationships that are complex and interdisciplinary, abstract, and at the same time, intensely felt and personal. Conducting research in the Green Mountains of Vermont in 2016, during the 44th annual gathering, I explore the social spaces of the counterculture gathering where food is produced, distributed, prepared, consumed, and disposed of, as being deeply performative. These sites enable expressions of difference, and stand as incarnations of the personal as political—embodied and dynamic. Food spaces are potent affective environments, where Love, variously expressed and interpreted, directs intention. Through active participation, select interviews, historical research, and reflection, I encounter and consider how food and affect interanimate to define identities, influence relationships between ecologies, modulate environments, and shape economies. Chaosmos, the constant interplay between order (the cosmos) and disorder (chaos) provides the stage for considering the experience of self-organized food systems in affective, cooperative, and horizontal environments. This interdisciplinary study privileges embodied experiences and intuitive ways of knowing as they concern multisensorial scholarship. Hybrid creative/academic elements introduce chaosmos into the dissertation-as-artifact. In the end, through the transmission of affect, the performance of food, and the praxis of self-organizing and complex reciprocity, a social ecology of food emerges at the Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes as order from disorder. The implications of this research speak to the complex nature of food environments as social structures of empowerment and resistance.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Devika Chawla PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Smoki Musaraj PhD (Committee Member); Larry Burmeister PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Communication; Cultural Anthropology; Economic Theory; Experiments; Peace Studies; Personal Relationships; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology; Spirituality; Sustainability

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2017, Geography (Arts and Sciences)

Local food systems have emerged as a potential solution to both the ills of the neoliberal global food system and as a means of increasing the food security of low-income people through access to healthy, locally grown foods. However, many of the claims about local food systems are largely unsubstantiated. Although empirical research provides evidence of the difficulty food systems encounter addressing food insecurity due to deeply imbedded structures such as inequality, neoliberal entitlement cuts, and the market-based economy, additional research is needed to understand the relationship between these processes at the local level better. The Athens County, Ohio region has a thriving local food system with hundreds of individuals working to facilitate and promote the local food system. Despite this vibrant local food scene, in 2015, Athens County had a food insecurity rate of 20.4 percent that is higher than the national average of 13.4. This research addresses ways in which the local food system in the Athens region exhibits elements of neoliberalism through themes of market development, emphasis on personal responsibility, and reliance on charity. These themes are indicative of the neoliberal shift of responsibility for well-being away from the state towards individuals and community groups and the belief that the market is the site where social issues like food security are best addressed. Each of these themes creates its own set of constraints for actors in the local food system and limits their ability to decrease low-income food insecurity. Based on these findings, a set of best practices is provided to counter neoliberal tendencies in the local food system and better address local food insecurity.

Committee: Harold Perkins (Committee Chair); Risa Whitson (Committee Member); Thomas Smucker (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Master of City and Regional Planning, The Ohio State University, 2017, City and Regional Planning

The American Planning Association reports that food systems planning has been a field of growing interest among planners since 2004. Food systems planning encompasses planning activities that are performed in the context of food production, distribution, access, consumption, and waste. These activities are related to a number of planning issues, including land use and zoning, energy allocation, public health, environmental sustainability, and social equity. Like planning in general, food systems planning operates within the context of competing stakeholder interests and power structures. One major problem which food planning can address is the sociospatial disparity in food environments across race for measures of access and consumption. Research consistently shows that Black Americans have lower measures of access to nutritionally-dense food than White Americans, as well as a greater number of diet-related pathological outcomes. While there is continued debate about the causal mechanisms behind these phenomena, the evidence is clear that race and food environments are closely correlated. Many states, counties, cities, and neighborhoods have developed food action plans which address issues such as sustainable food production, healthful food access, and food waste management. However, the author has observed that these plans follow a larger trend in public policy of being “color blind” or "post-racial", meaning policies created without cognizance of the ways race factors into the issues they address. This is evidenced by many plans talking about race in merely a descriptive way—such as reporting simple demographics—or by ignoring race all together. This thesis tested this observation by assessing the presence of race-conscious discourse within a cross section of 10 county food action plans. This was accomplished by operationalizing critical discourse analysis through using ranking method based on Julian Agyeman's (2005) Just Sustainability Index. By measuring this (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kareem Usher (Advisor); Bernadette Hanlon (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Geography; Urban Planning

MLIS, Kent State University, 2016, College of Communication and Information / School of Information

Making use of semantic technologies to combine various resources into one integrated environment, this study developed an ontology for hypertensive individuals to gain a better understanding of the nutrients in foods and recipes and what effect these have on the disease, prescribed drugs, and their general health. In particular, 10% of a sample of 500 recipes obtained from the web, and 10% of the food items from the USDA nutrient database was used as data in the ontology which had 75 classes, 22 object properties, and 33 data properties. The study established proto-personas to aid in development of competency questions which would be used with the Pellet reasoner to test whether the ontology could inform about nutrition goals for hypertensive individuals. The testing results provide evidence to support the idea that an ontology may be used to provide guidance to individuals with chronic disease, highlighting what foods may be safely consumed and which may cause problems. The conclusion is that an ontology can be successfully used to provide support to medical personnel and advance the cause of patient engagement as they seek to manage chronic illnesses such as hypertension.

Committee: Marcia Zeng Ph.D. (Advisor); Rebecca Meehan Ph.D. (Advisor); Karen Gracy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Health; Information Science; Information Systems; Library Science; Web Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Agricultural and Extension Education

Hospitals and healthcare services comprise a significant segment of the U.S. economy. Their implicit mission of improving overall health positions them as key leaders in initiating conversations around food. The American Medical Association notes that a large predictor of hospital patient and general public health is the quantity and quality of food intake. Hence, a hospital's stance on food (both delivery of and communication about) is of critical importance to positively affect patient, employee, and community health. As standard institutionalized foodservice evolves, some hospitals have introduced local foods as a means of improving health and wellness. Hospitals engaged in local foods procurement have: helped circulate more dollars in the local economy; provided fresher, healthier foods picked at the height of ripeness with higher nutritional values; stimulated hospital staff and patient awareness of and interest in healthy, nutritious eating via local foods (know your farmer programs); and increased positive community relations and media exposure. However, investigation into the hospital foodservice literature leaves it unclear as to what percentage of hospitals actually participate in procuring, serving, or promoting local foods to patients and employees. This may indicate a significant opportunity. The purpose of this study was to investigate what factors (independent variables) contributed to hospital foodservice directors (FSDs) purchasing or not purchasing local foods for their operations. A census of Ohio hospital FSDs (population frame n = 155) was undertaken in which 67.8% responded. The broad research questions asked about how much knowledge Ohio hospital FSDs had of the local food movement, to what extent they currently used local foods (or had interest in purchasing local foods in the future), what systemic issues advanced or impeded their use of local foods, and what relationships existed between demographic variables and the use of local foods. Th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott Scheer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jeffrey King Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jerold Thomas Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Agricultural Education; Health Care; Nutrition

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

As an integral part of a new and improved food economy, urban agriculture has the potential to bring productive uses back to urban lands while creating jobs, social capital, green space, and, most importantly, fresh produce. The City Council of Cincinnati recently introduced a program to allow urban agriculture on city-owned vacant parcels. This thesis attempts to identify Cincinnati's food deserts – areas without transit or pedestrian access to full-service grocery stores – in order to determine whether the new program has the potential to improve food access in the areas that need it the most. Once the food deserts are identified using GIS software, these are overlaid on maps of the proposed vacant parcels to determine if there is any overlap. Finally, an inventory of additional vacant parcels in the city is examined to determine the possibility of these being used to ameliorate the food access issues.

Committee: Frank Russell (Committee Chair); Xinhao Wang PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Health; Urban Planning