Food Policy Journal Watch: March 2015

by nycadmin March 12, 2015

written by nycadmin March 12, 2015

Food Policy Journal Watch: March 2015

Resource needs for a socially just and sustainable urban agriculture system: Lessons from New York City (Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems)

This paper, based on the Five Borough Farm research, examines the resource needs of urban agriculture operations in terms of farm and garden viability and equity among practitioners. It describes the goals, expectations and resource needs of New York City urban agriculture from the perspectives of farmers and gardeners, and from the views of city officials, funders and supporting non-profits. It discusses the need for attention to the political and social structures that create disparity and precariousness to ensure a sustainable and just urban agricultural system, in addition to the financial and technical assistance resources that enable farmers and gardeners to produce food. The paper concludes with recommended strategies to align resource needs and urban agriculture goals and expectations in New York and other cities.

Parents’ beliefs about the healthfulness of sugary drink options: opportunities to address misperceptions (Public Health Nutrition)

Ninety-six per cent of parents provided on average 2·9 different categories of sugary drinks for their children in the past month. Flavoured waters, fruit drinks and sports drinks were rated as the healthiest sugary drink categories. Across all categories and brands, parents who purchased specific products rated them as significantly healthier than those who did not (P <0·05). Over half of parents reported concern about caffeine, sugar and artificial sweeteners in sugary drinks that their children consume and approximately one-third reported that on-package ingredient claims were important in their purchase decisions

Child-Directed Marketing Inside and on the Exterior of Fast Food Restaurants (American Journal of Preventive Medicine)

More than 20% of fast food restaurants used CDM inside or on their exterior. In multivariate analyses, fast food restaurants that were part of a chain, offered kids’ meals, were located in middle- (compared to high)-income neighborhoods, and in rural (compared to urban) areas had significantly higher odds of using any CDM; chain restaurants and those located in majority black neighborhoods (compared to white) had significantly higher odds of having an indoor display of kids’ meal toys. Compared to 2010, there was a significant decline in use of CDM in 2011, but the prevalence increased close to the 2010 level in 2012.

Influence of food companies’ brand mascots and entertainment companies’ cartoon media characters on children’s diet and health: a systematic review and research needs. (Obesity Reviews)

Results suggest that cartoon media character branding can positively increase children’s fruit or vegetable intake compared with no character branding. However, familiar media character branding is a more powerful influence on children’s food preferences, choices and intake, especially for energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods (e.g. cookies, candy or chocolate) compared with fruits or vegetables. Future research should use a theoretically grounded conceptual model and larger and more diverse samples across settings to produce stronger findings for mediating and moderating factors. Future research can be used to inform the deliberations of policymakers, practitioners and advocates regarding how media character marketing should be used to support healthy food environments for children.

Consumer judgments of explicit and implied health claims on foods: Misguided but not misled (Food Policy)
The results show that health and nutrition claims might not be as misleading as suspected. In fact, the studied claims had little effect on consumer judgments of food healthfulness. The claims, however, had detrimental effects on sensory expectations and purchase intentions for the carrier products. These effects were found both for misleading claims as well as for officially approved claims intended to guide consumer food choice.

Use of a new availability index to evaluate the effect of policy changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on the food environment in New Orleans (Public Health Nutrition)
Changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) occurred in 2009 when supplemental foods offered through the programme were updated to align with current dietary recommendations. The present study reports on a new index developed to monitor the retail environment’s adoption of these new food supply requirements in New Orleans.

Food Policy Journal Watch: March 2015

Food Policy for Breakfast: Barbara Turk, Mayor’s Office of Food Policy: Toward a Global Urban Food Policy Pact

Food Policy Journal Watch: February 2015

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