Publications

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/26525

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Reducing Barriers to Successful SNAP Application and Participation among Indiana Households with Young Children
(2024) Babb, Angela; Suttles, Shellye; Knudsen, Dan; Mischler, John; Daellenbach, Isabelle; DuPilka, Jenna
While the 2019 national rate of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation was 85% of eligible individuals, the Indiana participation rate was considerably lower at 75% (USDA FNS, 2019). Given the relationship between food insecurity and public health, closing the gap between SNAP participation and food-insecure households with young children would increase health equity across Indiana. Our community-involved project investigated the SNAP application process and barriers to successful SNAP participation among food-insecure households with young children in Indiana. We find major barriers include participation stigma, eligibility guidelines, onerous paperwork and verification requirements associated with the application, fear of being a public charge and denied residency or citizenship, and SNAP benefits not being adequate in proportion to the application burden. We recommend educational campaigns and SNAP outreach to vulnerable populations, as well as the elimination of asset testing and the gross income test. We recommend streamlining the application process with an interactive website, and updating the Thrifty Food Plan to determine more adequate benefits for households.
Voice of the Farmer: A Survey of Indiana Meat Farmers and Their Processing Needs
(2021) Smith, Jodee; Valliant, Julia; Brownlee, Liz; Bower, Tricia
Food Comida Rawl 317: Nourishing and Sustaining our Indianapolis Communities
(2022-01) Suttles, Shellye; Babb, Angela; Smith, Jodee; Guo, June; O'Neill, Marie; Healy, Brian; Booras, Elissa; Hess, Jessie; Najah, Nadine; Bentley, Jessica; Gracia, Niki; Kattman, Ali; Wada, Terri; Fernhaber, Stephanie
Our research effort sought to understand the specific challenges households and food system practitioners face in navigating the Indianapolis and Marion County food system. We also explored consumer visions and practitioner solutions for improvements to the local food system to achieve greater food security and food access for all residents, at all times. We conducted mixed methods research that used focus groups, surveys, and spatial data visualization and analysis of the Indianapolis and Marion County food system. Overall, the challenges that local residents face in the food system are largely cultural and asset- based and, to a lesser degree, physical and geographic. The primary challenges identified by practitioners included: (1) limited food access and food insecurity, (2) connecting to resources, (3) policies and regulations, (4) communication, and (5) collaboration. As a result of these findings, we provide ten policy prototype recommendations that address consumer visions and practitioner solutions related to supporting food system equity, diversity, and inclusivity across local food cultures, healthy eating, food access and availability, and incorporation of the community voice, as well as creating asset-based resources for households, effective government programming, and opportunities for food system collaboration and awareness among existing collectives.
Reducing Barriers to Successful SNAP Application and Participation among Indiana Households with Young Children: Executive Summary
(2023-03-10) Babb, Angela; Suttles, Shellye; Knudsen, Daniel; Daellenbach, Isabelle; DuPilka, Jenna
While the 2019 national rate of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation was 85% of eligible individuals, the Indiana participation rate was considerably lower at 75% (USDA FNS, 2019). Given the relationship between food insecurity and public health, closing the gap between SNAP participation and food-insecure households with young children would increase health equity across Indiana. Our community-involved project investigated the SNAP application process and barriers to successful SNAP participation among food-insecure households with young children in Indiana.
What's for Lunch? Local food purchasing by Indiana institutions
(2023-12-05) Smith, Jodee; O'Neill, Marie; Ahmed, Alicia; Leatherman, Kelly; Allen, Mel; Babb, Angela
We set out to understand current purchasing patterns across institution types and to: 1) Understand if and how institutions are buying locally produced foods; 2) Examine the barriers and motivations for purchasing local food; and 3)Determine what steps to take to support ourIndiana farm economy through wholesale,institutional purchasing of Indiana grown,raised and produced foods. Through 200 food purchasers who spend more than $522 million per year buying food, we learned 1) 78% are buying local food; 2) Half of buyers define 'local' as food grown within Indiana; 3) Buyers need support from value chain professionals to strategically source and implement a local food buying program; 4) Distributors need to clearly identify local product and highlight for buyers; 5) Fiscal incentives are appealing for buyers.
Hybrid-maize seed certification and smallholder adoption in Zambia
(Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2020-07) Blekking, Jordan; Waldman, Kurt; Evans, Tom
During the 1990s many Southern African governments liberalized their seed markets. This move initiated an influx of hybrid-maize seeds onto markets through greater involvement of private seed developers. Since then the number of varieties of hybrid seeds has grown considerably. Using an institutional analysis framework, we illustrate the complex system of actors and feedbacks that govern the seed certification process in Zambia. We also examine how small holder hybrid-seed use has changed over the last decade. We find the Zambian seed certification system allows for frequent certification of new varieties each year without much scrutiny of seed use and performance by smallholders. Smallholders face a complex challenge in selecting seeds due to inconsistencies between the potential yields cited during the seed certification process and the reported yields of smallholders. This inconsistency jeopardizes the goal of food security sought after by both smallholders and policymakers.
Formal/Informal Employment and Urban Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Applied Geography, 2020-01) Blekking, Jordan; Waldman, Kurt; Tuholske, Cascade; Evans, Tom
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to add nearly 800 million urban residents by 2050. Due to this rapid urban population increase there is an urgent need to understand the drivers of urban food security across the region. Understanding food security in an urban environment is difficult due to the complexity of the relationships between urban consumers and food suppliers. Unlike rural communities, urban residents produce little of their own food, and are largely reliant on food suppliers to meet their dietary needs. Identifying urban food insecure households is further complicated by the lack of food security metrics specifically designed for the urban context. We use household-level data from 718 low-income households in Lusaka, Zambia, to assess urban food security through two measures, the Food Consumption Score (FCS) and the Coping Strategies Index (CSI). Our assessment investigates the association between food security and different employment types across the city, with particular attention paid to spatial variance of outcomes and statistical differences between households with majority formal or informal employment. Our study reveals three substantial findings. First, we find statistically significant differences in FCS and CSI of households predominantly engaged with formal employment over households engaged in informal employment. Secondly, we find significant associations between purchasing food from informal and formal food suppliers and the use of coping strategies and consumption of higher calorie foods. Lastly, we identify substantial challenges in using FCS and CSI to evaluate urban food security. Both metrics are predicated on underlying assumptions that may not accurately represent household food consumption and coping strategies in urban areas of SSA.
Sustainability Action Plan for the City of Bloomington, Indiana: Following up on policy and action for local food and agriculture
(2021) Smith, Jodee; Leatherman, K; Beyer, R
The following report details the City of Bloomington’s progress in accomplishing its local food and agriculture goals detailed in their 2018 Sustainability Action Plan (SAP). This document also serves to complete a food policy analysis objective as outlined in the Indiana Farm Connect USDA Local Food Promotion Program grant (LFPP) that the City is a partner on.
Making place-based sustainability initiatives visible in the Brazilian Amazon
(Current Opinions in Environmental Sustainability, 2021-04) Andersson, Krister; Brondizio, Eduardo; de Castro, Fabio; Futemma, Celia; Gonzalez, Tais; Londres, Marina; Lopes, Gabriela; Molina-Garzon, Adriana; Salk, Carl; Siani, Sacha; Tengo, Maria; Tourne, Daiana
From state-based developmentalism to community-based initiatives to market-based conservation, the Brazilian Amazon has been a laboratory of development interventions for over 50 years. The region is now confronting a devastating COVID-19 pandemic amid renewed environmental pressures and increasing social inequities. While these forces are shaping the present and future of the region, the Amazon has also become an incubator of local innovations and efforts confronting these pressures. Often overlooked, place-based initiatives involving individual and collective-action have growing roles in promoting regional sustainability. We review the history of development interventions influencing the emergence of place-based initiatives and their potential to promoting changes in productive systems, value-aggregation and market-access, and governance arrangements improving living-standards and environmental sustainability. We provide examples of initiatives documented by the AGENTS project, contextualizing them within the literature. We reflect on challenges and opportunities affecting their trajectories at this critical juncture for the future of the region.
Uma agricultura amazônica: sem o conhecimento do agricultor ribeirinho não haveria expansão global da economia do açaí
(Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência, 2021) Brondizio, Eduardo
A Systems Approach to Local Food
(Indiana University Press, 2017) Farmer, James; Robinson, Jennifer
Food after the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Case for Change Posed by Alternative Food: A Case Study of the American Midwest
(Global Sustainability, 2021-02) Babb, Angela; Burris, Mecca; Farmer, James; Knudsen, Daniel; Mzali, Leila; Robinson, Jennifer; Shattuck, Annie; Spiewak, Ruta; Suttles, Shellye
Non-Technical Summary. In this paper, we focus on the disruption that the current pandemic has created within the US industrial food system. We suggest that the pandemic has provided an opening for small producers. Attending to small-scale responses to the pandemic can guide policy and public investments towards a more just and sustainable future for food. Technical Summary. Building on the IPES-Food Communique of April 2020, we examine the many ways in which the US industrial food system faltered during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Using Regime Theory as a guide, we suggest that such a catastrophic crisis may create significant opportunities for an emergent food regime. Drawing from our research and participant observation in the US Midwest, we examine changes in the food system occasioned by the pandemic that foreshadow a new food regime. We suggest several blockages and risks to this new regime and suggest policies that would make transition smoother to a more just and sustainable food system. Social Media Summary (120 characters). What will food be like after the pandemic? This new study outlines an alternative food system emerging in the American Midwest.
The Global Açaí: A Chronicle of Possibilities and Predicaments of an Amazonian Superfood
(Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, 2020-12) Brondizio, Eduardo
Farm seeker needs versus farm owner offers: A comparison and analysis in the U.S. Midwest and Plains
(Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2020-02) Dickinson, Stephanie; Farmer, James; Golzarri-Arroyo, Lilian; Ruhf, Kathryn; Valliant, Julia; Zhang, Yijia
Land access for new farmers and ranchers includes transfers from owners without family successors. We compare how farm seekers’ needs align with the offerings of farm owners whose farm assets may transfer out of family in the 12-state North Central Region as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Phase 1, managers of farm link services, which connect farm owners without a successor in their family to farm seekers, estimated the patterns demonstrated by their program’s seeker and owner participants through a questionnaire. In Phase 2, managers of these and select other agricultural and rural programs circulated to their networks an online survey whose respondents included 178 farm seekers and 183 farm owners whose assets may transfer out of family. Findings denote similarities and barriers between the two groups. The biggest difference was that few owners offered an on-farm residence, which was a top need of seekers. In terms of similarities, the survey found no statistical differences in the groups’ respective locations on a rural-urban continuum, nor in land parcel sizes sought and offered. Half of farm link service providers concurred, observing a match between seeker and owner land needs. However, the other half of service providers reported wide differences, observing two patterns. First, incoming farmers preparing for commodity row crop, hay and fodder, and beef production are well-matched by owners with like type farms to offer, although new entrants often seek bigger parcels than owners offer. Second, seekers preparing for specialty crop, dairy, and hog or poultry (outdoor and indoor) production far exceed the number of owners who offer the infrastructure and scale for these production systems, particularly for parcels under 40 acres. Results suggest opportunities for research and intervention to target barriers and areas of alignment between owner and seeker needs, especially for affordable on-farm housing for new farm operators.
Gender and Social Seed Networks for Climate Change Adaptation: Evidence from Bean, Finger Millet, and Sorghum Seed Systems in East Africa
(Sustainability, 2021-02) Otieno, Gloria; Recha, John; Reynolds, Travis William; Zebrowski, Wesley Mlsna
In many East African countries, women and men have different levels of access to formal markets for agricultural inputs, including seed, reflecting a combination of gender norms and resource constraints. As a result, women and men may have different levels of participation in—and reliance upon—informal seed systems for sourcing preferred planting material and accessing new crop varieties over time. We use network analysis to explore differences in seed networks accessed by women and men for three major food security crops—beans, finger millet, and sorghum—in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Drawing on data from an original survey of 1001 rural farm households across five study sites, we find that women, on average, have fewer connections to experts and farmers’ groups than men but are relatively better connected in farmer-to-farmer social networks across different farming systems. We further find women’s and men’s networks are clustered by gender (i.e., women’s networks include more women, and men’s networks include more men)—and that men’s networks are more likely to exchange improved seed. Women’s networks, though sometimes larger, are less likely to exchange improved varieties that might help farmers adapt to climate change. Women farmers across contexts may also be more reliant on farmer-to-farmer networks than men due to their relative isolation from other seed and information sources. Findings emphasize the need for careful attention to the different implications of seed policies, market interventions, and other seed system reforms to support gender-equitable food security options for women and men in sub-Saharan Africa.
Informal vendors and food systems planning in an emerging African city
(Food Policy, 2021-08) Blekking, Jordan; Fobi, Daniel; Giroux, Stacey; Resnick, Danielle; Waldman, Kurt
Rapid urban growth is straining infrastructures, economies, and food security of cities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Amid competing issues of sanitation, housing, and unemployment, planning for urban food security receives less attention. Despite the proliferation of supermarkets in SSA, informal food vendors remain crucial sources of food for the majority of households. However, as cities grow and planners try to adapt, these informal vendors are generally left out of planning considerations, marginalized by policies that do not support this business model, or subjected to political vicissitudes. This paper analyzes how vendors in emerging cities are economically, socially, and spatially integrated within the urban food system, highlighting the assets these vendors represent and the ways they might support growth in cities. We map vendors’ networks of food suppliers, and describe sources of operating capital and labor assets to show the range of services vendors utilize and the types of institutions, businesses, and individuals that vendors use to support their work. We spatially analyze the relationship between vendors and suppliers, and between vendors and households, to demonstrate how enmeshed these vendors are in the broader food system and the links they create between consumers and suppliers. We demonstrate that due to spatial differences and vendors’ and consumers’ needs in emerging cities, a one-size-fits-all approach for integration of informal vendors in the food system is less likely to be successful in terms of either economic development or household food security.
The Pandemic and the Process of Becoming
(Sapiens, 2020-11) Osterhoudt, Sarah
Agricultural decision making and climate uncertainty in developing countries
(Environmental Research Letters, 2020-11) Attari, Shahzeen; Baylis, Kathy; Blekking, Jordan; Evans, Tom; Giroux, Stacey; Omar, Shahera; Todd, Peter; Waldman, Kurt
In situations of uncertainty, people often make decisions with heuristic shortcuts or decision rules, rather than using computational or logical methods such as optimizing their behavior based on specific goals. The high level of uncertainty and complexity involved in adapting to climate change suggests that heuristics would be commonly used in this context rather than more structured decision methods. Through a systematic review of 137 articles, from 2007–2017 we explore the behavioral and cognitive assumptions used to examine agricultural decision-making related to climate change among farmers in developing countries. We find a strong orientation toward modeling behavior and decision making as a rational utility-maximizing process, despite decades of research demonstrating the prevalence of simpler heuristic choice when facing uncertainty and real-world constraints. Behavioral and cognitive approaches can increase our ability to predict or explain decisions being made in this realm, particularly in terms of how we understand decision making around information processing and risk assessment. In the following review, we highlight articles that have contributed to developing a more realistic decision-making framework for studying this problem on the ground. While there is a burgeoning literature using psychological insights to examine decision making under climate uncertainty, few studies consider the prevalence of simple heuristics, the presence of cognitive biases, and the salience of climate relative to other risk factors.
Food and Agricultural Transportation Challenges Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Choices, 2020) Suttles, Shellye; Wade, Tara; Walters, Lurleen
“Nobody wants to kill”: Economies of affect and violence in Madagascar’s vanilla boom
(American Ethnologist, 2020-08) Osterhoudt, Sarah
Vanilla prices in Madagascar have reached historic highs. For the country’s vanilla-producing smallholders, the influx of new wealth has resulted in profound affective changes—in large part owing to vanilla theft, which has become widespread. Anxiety and anger are rampant in vanilla-producing communities, and these feelings are increasingly channeled into deadly mob violence against accused thieves. Rather than random acts, these extrajudicial killings are structured by localized cultural, material, and affective forms, as people enact and embody commodity violence in intimate, often contradictory ways. Commodity violence emerges as an additional form of unwanted emotional and physical labor for smallholders. With the vanilla market, as with commodity markets more generally, it is those with the least to gain who are disproportionately exposed to violence and harm.

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