CONTEXT: Smallholder farmers in Africa are among those most impacted by climate change. Employing stra-tegies such as planting early maturing or drought tolerant hybrid seeds is one common climate adaptive strategy for these households. However, seed choice has become increasingly complex for farmers. One way farmers look for clarity about seeds is to consult with other farmers. OBJECTIVE: We investigate smallholders' advice seeking within the context of a community water project in rural Kenya, a type of community-based common pool resource management organization. We examine a maize seed advice seeking network and compare it with a more general advice seeking network to better understand the social networks of maize seed advice seeking, and to characterize how peer-to-peer advice networks might factor into farmer decision-making about seeds. METHODS: We use exponential random graph modeling for the maize seed advice and general advice networks to test what factors predict advice-seeking among farmers in 104, or 92% of households in the community water project.

Halting the loss of jobs and knowledge from small-scale producers requires investing in rural sustainability, addressing poverty and inequity and ensuring the economic gains stay local. The benefits would be shared globally. Halting the loss of jobs and knowledge from small-scale producers requires investing in rural sustainability, addressing poverty and inequity and ensuring the economic gains stay local. The benefits would be shared globally.

Abstract While grain farming has seen a major shift toward organic production in recent years, the USA continues to lag behind with domestic demand continuing to outpace domestic supply, making the USA an all-around net importer. The Midwestern USA is poised to help remedy this imbalance; however, farmers continue to slowly transition to organic production systems. Existing literature has identified three prevalent narratives that farmers use to frame their organic transition: environmentalism, farm-family legacy and economic factors, in addition to a four and untested religiosity narrative. This study sought to better understand how these different narratives frame grain farmers’ thought processes for transitioning from conventional production systems to certified organic production systems. We co-created narratives around organic production with farmers, which resulted in four passages aligned with the literature: farm-family legacy, economic values, environmental values and Christianity and stewarding Eden. Then, we mailed a paper survey to conventional, in transition and certified organic Indiana grain farmers in order to test how these different narratives motivated organic production. We found that the most prevalent narrative around organic production is the farm-family legacy, which specifically resonated with midsize farmers. We also found that the religious stewardship narrative resonated with a substantial number of organic and mixed practice farmers, which is likely due to Amish farmers within the sample. These results shed light on the role that narratives and associated values play in organic practice use and can inform the organic efforts of agricultural professionals.

Food system transformations that are driven by climate change and urbanization have important implications for the food retail landscape of urban sub-Saharan Africa. Urban populations in sub-Saharan Africa are growing rapidly, climate change shocks are increasingly common, and the spatial footprints of cities are expanding, all of which challenge food systems to meet the needs of urban consumers. As supply chains increase in complexity and length, urban food retailers are increasingly vulnerable to more variable and extreme events associated with climate change. Urban food systems are also changing in response to urbanization through a variety of linkages, such as rising incomes, changing diet preferences, and the growth of the supermarket industry. Considering the roles and diversity of food retailers within urban food systems is a critical step to understanding and addressing the specific pathways through which urbanization and climate change will impact food system sustainability across rapidly growing African cities.

Older adults and those living in rural areas face unique challenges to health and food security which were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine the interrelationships among food security, physical health, and loneliness among rural older adults before the onset of and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from a cross-sectional household survey of older adults in rural Indiana, administered May 2020 through July 2020, our results show a higher prevalence of food insecurity, poorer physical health, and increased loneliness after the onset of the pandemic. Path analyses confirmed the interrelationship between food security, health, and the absence of loneliness before and after the onset of COVID-19. Loneliness emerged as a major pathway through which the pandemic impacted quality of life, particularly affecting older women and physical health. Policy initiatives should consider the unique experiences and challenges associated with rural life among older adults and create food security initiatives that incorporate socialization while also considering the challenges associated with poor physical health in older age. Furthermore, our analysis shows that those who are vulnerable to food security, poor health, and loneliness in the absence of a global pandemic remain vulnerable during a pandemic.

AbstractThe types of food retailers operating in cities in sub-Saharan Africa and their physical distribution contribute to the spatial characteristics of food systems. As smaller urban areas expand in terms of both population and spatial extent, the importance of ensuring both physical and financial access to food throughout a city is critical for ensuring sustainable food systems. In this chapter, we use data collected from two smaller cities, Mumbwa and Monze, Zambia. Using spatial analysis, we investigate how household food purchasing behaviour differs based on the use of three different types of food retailers: traditional markets, small grocers and street vendors. We find significant hotspots of food purchasing behaviour in both Mumbwa and Monze; specifically, households located in the centre of each city purchase primarily from traditional markets, while households near the periphery use a mixture of street vendors and small grocers. Mumbwa households located in hotspots of street vendor purchases have the worst household food access, while Monze households have relatively similar food access regardless of whether they are in hotspots. Although spatial characteristics are often absent from studies related to food security in sub-Saharan Africa, our case study results suggest that food access not only varies spatially, but so does the relationship between households and the food retailers they purchase from. Our findings contribute to the ongoing discussion surrounding transformation of food systems, the emergence of smaller African urban areas and how spatial analysis methods can be applied to study food access.

Environmentally sustainable food consumption is one component of addressing climate change. Previous research has largely approached sustainable food consumption by investigating individual behaviors, without a broader conceptualization of what motivates food consumers to act sustainably. Using a representative sample of Indiana consumers, we explore sustainability across a range of food behaviors through latent class analysis, controlling for environmental attitudes, spatial access to food, and consumer demographics. This approach allows us to go beyond consumer segmentation analysis to explore how consumers conceptualize sustainable food behavior. The largest class of consumers (44% of the sample) appear either unwilling or unable to pay more for sustainability but are more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors that intersect with self-oriented attributes such as health benefits and lower cost. A second class (34%) consists of consumers who seem to be primarily motivated by the single issue of buying organic, are on average higher income, more educated, have better access to food, and are not opposed to paying for sustainability. Consumers in the smallest and most highly motivated group (9%) in terms of sustainability attitudes and self-perceived sustainability focus on local food production and are generally rural dwelling with less income. Only 13% of consumers engage in few to no sustainable behaviors, and these people notably exhibit the least sustainable attitudes. These findings illustrate the ways in which food sustainability is more nuanced than often characterized—much of it is driven by convenience and self-interest rather than reputation with respect to sustainability or conviction about environmental outcomes. This work also highlights how a combination of social, psychological, and spatial barriers exists and shape how different consumer groups conceptualize sustainable food consumption.

Organic certification provides an opportunity for crop farmers to improve their viability and reduce the environmental impacts of commodity grain production, yet farmers have only transitioned to organic certification on less than five percent of US farmland. We focus on land tenure as a barrier to wider adoption of organic certification in the Midwest state of Indiana, where 50 % of farmland is rented. Addressing the lack of research on the relationship between tenant farmers and their non-operating landowners, we show how these relationships affect the adoption of conservation practices. Presenting findings from a survey and 30 in-depth interviews with conventional, transitioning, and organic farmers in Indiana, we show significant differences in land tenure arrangements for farmers certified and transitioning to organic compared to farmers only using conventional practices. We contextualize tenant-landlord relationship dynamics across the spectrum of practice adoption, illustrating how land tenure arrangements shape conservation management decision making. Our findings illustrate the barriers and opportunities to adoption of organic certification, given the variability in landowners' interest in organic certification. While conventional tenant farmers described long-term rental relationships characterized by a sense of trust, the high level of competition for access to rented farmland exerted pressure on them to conform to perceived norms about farming practices and avoid consideration of more risky and less socially acceptable or familiar conservation practices, for fear of losing their landlord's confidence and trust.

To explore how older adults in rural communities navigate food insecurity, ten focus groups were held in Indiana, USA with 65 discussants. Recordings underwent inductive qualitative data analysis. Driving and transport remain a barrier to rural food access. Living alone is another contributor to food insecurity, while older adults' social networks are protective. Congregate meal sites are critical to maintaining nutrition and are underfunded; one-third of this region's meal sites closed in 2019. These must be maintained and expanded. Transportation to food outlets is needed. Mechanisms that reinforce older adults' social networks can build upon an existing asset.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many aspects of our lives. Older adults, those with less income or fewer resources, and those living in rural parts of the United States are potentially more vulnerable. To understand the negative impact of COVID-19 on perceived food security, physical and mental health, and loneliness in a sample of older, rural, low-income adults in the United States, we use results from a mailed survey in which residents of four Indiana counties contrasted their status during the early period of the pandemic to their typical pre-pandemic status. We test for significant changes in status and what predicts negative impacts to food security, health, and loneliness. We asked respondents to report on both pre-pandemic and since-pandemic experiences in the instrument, which was administered after the pandemic had begun, in May 2020. We measure food security using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (six-item short form; HFSSM), physical and mental health using the Centers for Disease Control's Healthy Days Measures (HRQOL-4), and loneliness using the UCLA Revised Loneliness Scale. A binomial test identified significant declines in status for all three measures. Logistic regressions identified factors associated with each of the measures worsening. Fear of going to the store or food pantry was associated with all three measures. Decreased store hours and closed food pantries were associated with lower food security. More education, fewer years of age, being female, decreased income, and stockpiling were associated with more reported days of poor physical or mental health. Fewer years of age, lack of transportation, and eating less often with others were associated with perceived increased loneliness. The pandemic had a negative impact on respondents' food security, unhealthy days, and loneliness, but different factors were associated with each measure for this population. Our findings provide insight for targeted recovery efforts.

Urbanization is occurring across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), both from migration and natural growth, and often without urban planning, which can hamper the ability of households to obtain affordable, accessible food. Through stratified random sampling, we collected data from 135 households in Mumbwa, Zambia, to examine the relationship between migration and food accessibility in a small tertiary city. We investigate the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and food access of households that migrated or were more established in Mumbwa, and the spatial characteristics of food access. We find recent migrant households have significantly better food access than non-migrant households and those that migrated earlier. Results from a negative binomial regression suggest that recent migrant households tend to have better existing household wealth, labor assets, and smaller household size. Using spatial analysis we identify a cluster of households with lower food accessibility in an unplanned area of the city with limited basic services. We find non-migrant and migrant households in this cluster, which suggests informal settlements in this size city are settled by both household types alike. These results illustrate the challenge policymakers face in addressing urban food accessibility for all residents, due to the spatial, economic, and social heterogeneity of the phenomenon.

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.

Persisting gender inequities across political, economic, and public life have motivated global agendas to increase women's leadership at all levels of society. Gender quotas offer one solution to encourage equitable gender representation in public decision-making by specifying a target number of women to serve on publicly-elected bodies. For natural resource governance sectors, can gender quotas promote women's representation and participation in leadership? In 2010, Kenya enacted a new Constitution that included an article mandating that no one gender should make up greater than two-thirds of the composition of public committees. This 'two-thirds gender rule' also applies to community-level governance of water resources through water user resource associations, which were formally recognized in 2002. We present a study of community-based water committee compliance with Kenya's national two-thirds gender rule based on surveys, focus groups, and interviews with water committee members. We show that Kenya's gender quota has been moderately successful in increasing women's representation on water committees. However, men hold more higher-level leadership positions than women, who typically serve as trea surers. Although there were no statistically significant differences between men and women's selfreported participation frequency in various committee activities, men contributed significantly more hours per week to committee activities, facilitated meetings more frequently, and were more willing to lead meetings. Based on this leadership gap, we examine the sufficiency of a gender quota to promote equal leadership opportunities for women. We find that realizing the vision of a gender quota is conditional on how individuals are represented on community-based environmental committees as well as how individuals participate in committee activities. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

It is a difficult time to be a farmer, particularly in the midwestern US, where a slow-moving farm crisis has been brewing. In recent years farmers have faced multiple socioeconomic threats such as a trade war with China, industry consolidation, and decreasing farmgate prices, as well as multiple environmental threats, including flooding and drought. We analyze farmers’ assessments of these concurrent risks and their relationship to stress and farm exit, through a mail survey of 210 soy and dairy farmers in Indiana. On average, environmental threats are perceived as less of a threat to farmers than to immediate socioeconomic threats such as the trade war and, more importantly, long-run economic issues such as price decline and consolidation. We find evidence that farm exit is largely determined by farmer identity, perspectives on the trade war, and stress. The ongoing trade war with China is a key source of stress for soybean farmers and federal payments from the Market Facilitation Program are unlikely to stem farm exit. Addressing the farm exit problem and mitigating the current farm crisis necessitates greater attention to how policies, indirectly lead to farm exit through stress.

Geographical indications (GIs) have been used globally to denote quality of a product related to geography, raw materials, particular skills, or other processing techniques. In recent years, agencies such as FAO have been encouraging further development of GIs around food and agricultural products to support sustainable development. Considering the pressing need for more sustainable food systems, we ask: Are current GI schemes working to promote sustainability in food systems, and if so, how? We examine this question with analysis of current GIs for agricultural crops in Italy. We developed a Java-based application to compile, read, index, and search the corpus of files retrieved from the eAmbrosia database, which houses GI applications and registrations for agricultural products. We find several examples of GIs mandating and protecting sustainable modes of production. We conclude with a discussion of this geographic scheme in Italy, implications for sustainable development, and considerations for U.S. food systems.

Limited research has examined sexual victimization among U.S. college men, and particularly fraternity men. We report the prevalence of sexual assault (SA) victimization among a sample of college fraternity members and the sociodemographic variables associated with this victimization. In April 2018, we conducted a web-based survey study among a random sample of fraternity members (n = 102) from a list of all fraternity members at a large Midwestern university. We used Fisher's exact tests, Student's t-tests, and log-binomial regression models to assess associations between sociodemographic variables and any SA victimization (attempted or completed penetrative sexual assault). Over a quarter (27.5%) of respondents reported experiencing any SA victimization-penetrative sexual assault (13.7%) or attempted penetrative sexual assault (25.5%)-since entering college. Age, school year, and being on a varsity sports team were significantly associated with any SA victimization (p-values: <.01, <.01, and .02, respectively). Regression analyses showed older fraternity men had experienced significantly greater prevalence of any SA victimization compared to younger fraternity men (prevalence ratio [PR]: 2.78, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.35-5.73). Furthermore, any SA victimization was also more common among varsity sports team members (3%) compared to nonmembers (0%). These findings indicate that college men, particularly fraternity members, may experience sexual assault victimization at high rates. Our more inclusive survey language may have captured sexually violent experiences that traditional measures have not, such as "made to penetrate" experiences. We encourage the use of queries that are sensitive to the specific characteristics of male sexual violence victimization, including experiences of nonconsensual sexual activity where the victim is either the penetrated or the penetrator. Furthermore, prevention efforts and supportive services for survivors should be expanded to better address male SA victimization on college campuses.

For smallholder farmers in developing countries, agricultural production is seasonal yet food demand is constant throughout the year. One fundamental agricultural decision is how much harvest to sell versus store for subsequent household consumption. Little is known about the temporal dimensions of grain storage, the extent to which storage levels vary over time, and the diversity of food storage patterns across different household types. This paper examines household level maize storage consumption, sales, and purchases using weekly food storage data collected via text message. We demonstrate how high frequency data can be used to measure rates and patterns of food storage decline, identify thresholds of food security, and anticipate future periods of food insecurity at a fine spatial scale.

Making decisions regarding data and the overall credibility of research constitutes research data governance. In this paper, we present results of an exploratory study of the stakeholders of research data governance. The study was conducted among individuals who work in academic and research institutions in the US, with the goal of understanding what entities are perceived as making decisions regarding data and who researchers believe should be responsible for governing research data. Our results show that there is considerable diversity and complexity across stakeholders, both in terms of who they are and their ideas about data governance. To account for this diversity, we propose to frame research data governance in the context of polycentric governance of a knowledge commons. We argue that approaching research data from the commons perspective will allow for a governance framework that can balance the goals of science and society, allow us to shift the discussion toward protection from enclosure and knowledge resilience, and help to ensure that multiple voices are included in all levels of decision-making.

Food sharing is an important part of smallholder food systems and can help households to buffer food security shocks. Household food sharing is the smallest scale food exchange system, yet we do not understand how it compares with food exchange networks at other spatial scales. To this end, we collect information on bilateral household food sharing in two villages in Zambia with approximately 50 households each. We observed seasonal fluctuations for the density of the food sharing. To our knowledge, we are the first to show that the gravity model of trade is applicable to household food sharing. Additionally, sharing networks exhibit the same statistical properties as food exchanges in other locations and at different spatial scales. Specifically, maize exchanges (in mass) follow the Gamma distribution and the relationship between household mass flux and connectivity follows a power law distribution. This work sheds light on household food sharing in rainfed agricultural systems and suggests common underlying mechanisms of food exchange systems across spatial scales and geographies.