Abstract Background Food literacy refers to the individual’s capabilities to make informed food choices. While there are several conceptual frameworks for defining food literacy, food literacy questionnaires specifically designed for adolescents are scarce. This study aimed to develop and validate a comprehensive food literacy questionnaire for adolescents. Methods The study consisted of three stages. First, a concept questionnaire was developed based on literature, expert sessions, and existing food literacy questionnaires. Secondly, a validation study was conducted among 673 Dutch secondary school adolescents aged 12–18 years. The questionnaire was evaluated and optimized based on the facility index, factor analyses, Cronbach’s alpha, and process evaluation questions. Thirdly, the optimized food literacy questionnaire was completed by 540 Dutch adolescents (grade 1–3) for further evaluation and validation. Results The concept questionnaire consisted of 63 items covering four main concepts: Knowledge, Skills, Social environment, and Physical environment. Based on the factor analyses results, the latter two concepts were reclassified into Self-control and Handling socio-cultural influences, which improved reliability. Based on the validation study results, ten knowledge questions (too easy or too difficult) and six statements were removed. This resulted in an optimized 47‑item questionnaire. The results from the third phase showed that this questionnaire was sufficiently reliable (Cronbach’s alpha between 0.72 and 0.83) and no longer contained knowledge questions that were too difficult or too easy. Conclusions The questionnaire that was developed to assess adolescents’ food literacy contains a wide range of aspects related to being capable of making informed and conscious food choices. After testing in two validation studies, this questionnaire with 47 items was found to be sufficiently valid, reliable, and feasible to be administered in secondary schools. This food literacy questionnaire can be widely used in adolescent research and practice.
OBJECTIVE:The living environment can significantly influence health negatively, particularly in disadvantaged neighbourhoods where risk factors and limited resources converge. Social cohesion and inclusive meeting places promote well-being, yet little is known about what makes these spaces accessible and meaningful for specific groups. This study explored how neighbourhood meeting places can better align with the needs of two often underrepresented groups: women with a non-Western migration background and teenage girls (12-18 years old), in four disadvantaged Dutch neighbourhoods. METHODS:A qualitative participatory study was conducted in four municipalities in the Netherlands in March 2024 - June 2025. Data were collected through a neighbourhood orientation, focus groups, PhotoVoice, interviews, and validation sessions with neighbourhood workers, women, and girls, to assess the needs, barriers and success elements regarding meeting places. Thematic analysis was guided by the Movement Friendly Environment model, organizing data into four domains: physical design (hardware), social use (software), organizational structures (orgware), and perception (mindware). RESULTS:In total, 97 participants contributed: 29 neighbourhood workers, 44 women, and 24 girls. The results, structured according to the four 'wares,' revealed a broad range of needs and experiences regarding meeting places. Women and girls valued clean, nearby, and welcoming public spaces with sufficient seating, safety, greenery and gender-sensitive design. Preferred activities included cooking, language learning, informal gatherings, and sports, ideally in familiar, culturally sensitive, and child-friendly settings. Ownership, trust and feelings of safety were important factors in fostering engagement. Barriers included unclear communication, language difficulties, lack of childcare, and feelings of unsafety. Neighbourhood workers played an important role in outreach, facilitation, and empowerment. CONCLUSION:Accessible, inclusive and meaningful meeting places for women and teenage girls emerge when physical, social, and organizational elements are aligned and mutually reinforcing, and are integrated with citizen's perception, participation, engagement, and strong social networks.
Agroforestry, the purposeful integration of woody vegetation and agriculture, is increasingly recognised as a nature-based solution to enhance the climate resilience of European farming systems. Despite growing policy support, robust comparative evidence on which practices deliver the greatest resilience across Europe's diverse climatic contexts remains lacking. To address this gap, we conducted three regional Delphi studies with 46 European agroforestry researchers covering Northern, Western & Central, and Southern Europe. There was strong consensus that all agroforestry practices offer greater resilience to climate impact drivers than cropping- or livestock-only baselines, with closed-canopy practices such as forest farming and forest grazing rated most resilient. Key resilience mechanisms are the protective functions of trees, interactions between components that improve tree, livestock, crop, or soil health, and higher agrobiodiversity that increases adaptive capacity. Consensus on resilience relative to tree-only baselines was limited, except in Southern Europe where agroforestry practices were recognised as reducing wildfire risk. Knowledge gaps remain around pest and disease dynamics, financial performance, and social resilience.
Selecting the right tree species is a crucial step in designing sustainable and effective agroforestry systems. To support this process, several decision support systems (DSS) have been developed in various countries to help farmers and advisors choose appropriate species. However, these tools are often limited in reach—typically used only within the country where they were created—and tend to focus on different aspects of adaptation to local conditions or achieving specific farming objectives. In this context, we introduce a new framework for agroforestry tree species selection. Its goals are twofold: (i) to compile and organize the knowledge embedded in existing tree selection tools, and (ii) to offer an intuitive, user-friendly graphical interface—AgroforesTreeAdvice. This tool allows users to input local parameters such as soil type, climate, biotic factors, and farm-level or socio-economic constraints, alongside production goals (e.g., timber, fruits) and ecosystem service objectives (e.g., soil conservation, carbon storage). The unified system successfully integrates eight existing agroforestry DSS, improving their (i) findability by centralizing them in one location, (ii) accessibility through a standardized and user-friendly interface, (iii) interoperability by enabling API-based queries across all tools, and (iv) reusability for future DSS development. Finally, we present early user feedback from pilot deployments in three countries, highlighting the tool’s benefits and outlining next steps toward further harmonization of agroforestry databases.
Species-rich grasslands are proposed to promote biodiversity and reduce nitrogen (N) fertilization while maintaining productivity. However, the effectiveness of this strategy remains uncertain, particularly since grasslands with varying species richness are managed differently. We compared biomass yield and forage quality of three grassland management types varying in species richness and N fertilization levels in an on-farm context. We compared biomass yield and forage quality of three grassland management types: permanent grassland (Lolium perenne L. dominated) and multispecies grassland (sown with grasses, forbs, and legumes) fertilized with 0, 150, and 300 kg N ha⁻1, and unfertilized semi-natural grassland (highly species-diverse) at twelve farm locations over two years. Multispecies grasslands with 150 kg N ha⁻1 produced yields similar to permanent grasslands fertilized with 300 kg N ha⁻1 due to higher legume cover and biological N2 fixation. Nitrogen fertilization negatively impacted legume cover and likely reduced biological N2 fixation. Multispecies grassland differed less in in terms of yield over two years with varying weather conditions, suggesting enhanced drought tolerance. Semi-natural grasslands had the highest species richness but the lowest biomass yields and forage quality. Transitioning from permanent- to multispecies grasslands presents a promising diversification strategy for livestock farmers aiming to improve sustainability and biodiversity, while reducing N fertilization and maintaining productivity. Yet, species richness remains substantially higher in semi-natural grasslands at the cost of reduced biomass yield and forage quality. Optimization of N fertilization should be considered to improve persistence of legumes and forbs in agricultural multispecies grasslands.
