Challenges and Responses (Asynchronous Session)
Using Okara Powder as Partial Flour Replacement in Sponge Cake View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tsui Yan Leung
In view of the food waste problem, by-product is considering as the ingredient in food which can help to decrease the waste during process. This research uses Okara, one of the food by-products of soybean, to test the acceptability and accessibility in flour replacement of sponge cake. Okara powder was applied to replace 10-50% flour in five samples of cake for recipe development and sensory tasting. After conducting the recipe testing, the differences among the batters before baking and the texture of cake after baking has been identified. The result from recipe testing shows that higher ration of the okara powder may cause the texture properties of the cake changes such as less tender, moisture, more granularity and crumb color. Sensory evaluation has been conducted to test the feedback from the respondents. Furthermore, from the results of the sensory evaluation indicate that sponge cake contains 12.5% of okara powder replacement have highest satisfactory. This research was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. UGC/IDS(R)25/20).
Featured Household Agricultural Food Access in Bikotiba, Togo View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Katryna Kibler
West African farmers are among the most food insecure in the world and are threatened by climate change, environmental degradation, population growth, globalization, poverty, and political and economic instability. These threats hinder rural farmers’ abilities to adapt to food system changes, or their resilience to food insecurity. If Indigenous communities, with centuries of traditional farming and ecological knowledge, support research of their food systems, a researcher must foster ethical, decolonized knowledge exchange and prioritize community needs. In this study, my long-term relationships in Bikotiba, Togo, fostered a participatory study of household agricultural food access (AFA) and related community food security tipping-points. Semi-structured interviews with 56% of household heads in Bikotiba in 2018 led Indigenous Research Assistants and I to conclusions validated by the community. I conducted further data reduction techniques and statistical analyses, culminating in a group of eight related observed variables that could be combined to function as three lower dimensional representations of AFA. Further, I used partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) to explore relationships between the observed data and the unobservable AFA construct. PLS-PM indicated that the quantity of different crops farmed contributed less to AFA than choices, such as whether to keep livestock. Further, our study provided critical insight to challenges with the primary subsistence crop yield gap, maize, which will be critical as climate threats mount. These results pave the way for future participatory food system studies, including foci on maize monocultures, documenting Indigenous agricultural histories, quantifying agricultural labor, farmer decision making, nutrition, and more.
Featured Double-Tongued Hinduism on a Plate: Deconstructing Food Politics of India
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Manjari Thakur
Hindu sacred texts, their sundry interpretations, Indian (Hindu) literature, and movies are replete with transcripts cataloging who eats and with whom, who starves, and what is prohibited as food in each facet of life. Food: this brief, four-lettered word, that is perhaps considered unexciting, and an unimportant thing. However, it has the power to describe a community or an individual beyond its strictly prosaic and material sense of physical sustenance. Moreover, when “food is no longer a widely (locally) accessible and equally produced means, [it becomes] a central and tangible trace of the dominant ordering of social relations” (Cooks 95). To dissect and dig deep into Cooks’ words, my paper explores the untouchability issue within the caste system, the concept of Joothan, and the lives of widows to expose the food politics within the caste and gender systems in Hinduism through various movies and fictions. Caste, religion, and gender divisions in India decide the kind of food is pure and impure to manipulate and exploit an individual or a community, and if it is ever opposed then the religious fanatics threaten the whole community.
Featured Fostering Local Food Systems: Challenges and Opportunities in Regional Australia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lucie Newsome
Niche, small scale, sustainable alternative food producers often depend upon strong local food systems for business viability. Local food systems may be less developed in geographically isolated areas with a low population density or without established infrastructure. By examining the experiences of ten alternative food producers in a remote area of Australia I seek to understand how these producers create opportunities for their business and overcome constraints. This is coupled with a survey that examines consumers' attitudes toward alternative food production, including attitudes toward purchasing from local food systems. I find that consumers perceive local food to have environmental and social benefits, to be interested in purchasing from local producers but to see it as difficult and inconvenient process. The alternative producers that I interviewed described their food production actions to be values driven and personally rewarding. They did, however, identify a number of practical difficulties to operating their business. This included logistics such as transport systems, infrastructure availability, government support and consumer understanding of the safety and benefits of local food. This study contributes to our understanding of what is needed to develop immature local food systems in remote areas.
Takeaways from Fifteen Month Lessons Learned from Community Food Distribution and Nutrition Teams during the COVID-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ogbochi McKinney, Pamela Mukaire
During the earlier escalation of the COVID-19 state of emergency, as uncertainty gripped the world around, local leaders in Jinja, Uganda joined the RIBHO Food and Nutrition Program to mobilize food distribution sites overnight, to serve the most vulnerable members of the community during the pandemic. As this newly forged network grappled with meeting the increasing immediate food needs of clients, they were faced with significant challenges to include disruptions in the food supply chain, cut backs in donations, and the need for personal protective equipment, cleaning products, and other protocols for the safe operations of food distribution sites, and the limited availability of volunteers (the backbone of the food distribution network), due to movement restrictions and temporary closures of public transportation. Amid these and other challenges, the network was continually forced to rethink its operations. The intent of this paper is to highlight the trends seen by a sample of food distribution sites within the network over a fifteen-month period, with a focus on the self-reported observations from nearly 350 food distributors working on the front lines during the pandemic. Self-reports illustrate some of the challenges faced by the food distribution network during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, how they adapted accordingly, and their policy level change proposal to achieve a united front against hunger during nationwide emergencies.
Alternative Food Practices for Climate Futures: Listening to the Voices of Young Adults in Western Canada View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laurence Ammann Lanthier
For decades, climate scientists and activists have warned us of the ever-growing threat of global warming and the urgent need for climate commitments from elected representatives. In response to the constant exposure to environmental catastrophes, experiences of distress and concern for the environment are rising, particularly among young adults. Meanwhile, industrial agricultural systems are increasingly understood as contributing to environmental degradation, inciting many to explore alternative food systems for their potential to secure the food supply while contributing to ecological health. My research is situated at the intersection of food and concern for the environment, where I explore why and how alternative food practices are adopted by young adults, and how these practices interact with their climate distress. I conducted interviews with 20 young adults in urban centers in Western Canada who have an alternative food practice (e.g. gardening, canning, foraging, dumpster diving, participating in local food organizations, etc.) that is influenced by their concern for the environment. I found that for participants, the food domain constitutes an accessible and desirable area of climate action. The ability to contribute to better futures through alternative food practices, paired with a conscientious framing of their individual agency, allows participants to lessen their climate distress and sustain their alternative food practices. Additional findings include the detailed motivations for undertaking these practices, the enablers and barriers experienced in doing so, and details on young adults’ experiences as individuals concerned for planetary health.
