Fresh garlic : a possible vehicle for Salmonella Virchow

A sustained increase in Salmonella enterica serovar Virchow notifications in South Eastern Australia between September 1997 and May 1998 instigated a case-control study and environmental investigations. Cases were defined as having locally acquired culture-confirmed S. Virchow phage-type 8 infection and diarrhoeal disease. Matched controls were selected by progressive digit dialling based on cases telephone numbers. An exposure and food history questionnaire was administered by telephone. Phage typing and pulse field gel electrophoresis were performed on case and environmental isolates. Thirty-two notifications of S. Virchow infection met the case definition, 37% reported bloody diarrhoea and S. Virchow was isolated from blood in 13% of cases. Twelve patients were admitted to hospital and one died. Fresh garlic (OR 4·1, 95% CI 1·3-12·8) and semi-dried tomatoes (OR 12·6, 95% CI 1·5-103·1) were associated with these cases. The associations remained significant after adjusting for sex and age. S. Virchow (PT 8) was cultured from two brands of semi-dried tomatoes associated with cases in two different states. We provide sufficient evidence for semi-dried tomatoes and fresh garlic to be considered as potential risk foods in future Salmonella outbreak investigations.

Introduction: of turtles, dining and the importance of history in food, food in history

Feasting on North American moose or Caribbean turtle in Renaissance Italy, Ancient Rome, or the colonial working-class pub, is Social and Cultural history in a new and exciting form. Dining on Turtles traverses time and place to open up food and drink as a new field of historical enquiry. In chapters covering the heritage landscapes of sugar canefields, the reform of popular drinking customs, the importance of eating and drinking culture to Olympic Games planning, and the significance of cookbooks to civic society, historians here break new ground in locating food's importance. From the exploration of French tavern rituals, Scottish feasting on haggis, and memories of food traditions in Cyprus come themes of identity and nationalism, change and continuity.

‘My history is a tile in a mosaic’ : an interview with Jim Cullen

JIM CULLEN was born in Queens, New York, and attended public schools on Long Island. He received his B.A. in English from Tufts University, and his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in American Civilization from Brown University. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including Harvard and Brown. He is currently a teacher, and serves on the Board of the Trustees, at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. Jim is married to historian Lyde Cullen Sizer and has four children.
CONTEXT: Dr Glenn Moore co-ordinates the subject 'Searching for the American Dream’ at The University of Melbourne. For the last nine years he has taken second and third year history students to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C to explore the philosophy of genius loci. Dr Moore gets students to work in food banks, visit homeless shelters, museums and organizes an array of guest speakers with experts such as Boston public defender, Denise Regan, Neera Tanden, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and Alec Ross, vice president of One Economy. As the leading expert on the American Dream, with the publication of so many books in American history such as: The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation, Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition and Restless in the Promised Land: Catholics and the American Dream, Jim Cullen has spoken to the students for the last five years. I interviewed him prior to his recent discussion with the students in New York on 5 July 2006 at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Ecology of epifaunal caridean shrimps in the Hopkins River estuary, and the role of estuaries in the life history of the atyid "Paratya Australiensis" Kemp, 1917 in south-eastern Australia

This study examined the factors affecting the distribution and abundance of epifaunal caridean shrimps in seagrass meadows of the Hopkins River estuary in south-western Victoria, Australia, and investigated the life history patterns of the freshwater Parana australiensis, found for the first time in estuaries. Adult and sub-adult shrimps were surveyed in seagrass meadows along the estuary over two years, and their planktonic larvae were surveyed in adjacent waters. Three species were collected. The marine Palaemon serenus occurred only near the mouth, summer to autumn, in high salinities. The marine/estuarine Macrobrachium intermedium occurred throughout the estuary. Adults were most abundant in late autumn, and least abundant in summer (unlike trends reported in marine meadows). Densities were higher and less variable in downstream meadows. P. australiensis occurred in the upper estuary all year, most abundantly in spring, due to migration from the river after peak discharge. Ovigerous females dominated, while males, showing less migration into the estuary, dominated above estuarine influence. Adults disappeared from the estuary in summer as salinity rose. Breeding period for P. australiensis was briefer in the estuary (September-December) than upstream (July-April). M. intermedium began breeding later in the upper estuary (November/December-March) than in the lower estuary (October-March), probably reflecting a physiological response to lower salinity, rather than an interaction with P. australiensis. No ovigerous P. serenus were found in the estuary. Larvae of P. australiensis and M intermedium occurred abundantly throughout the estuary, but P. serenus larvae did not. P. australiensis was an early coloniser to the plankton after peak discharge (November-December). Larvae concentrated in the deep saline layer at the head of the intruding salt wedge, thus probably maintaining longitudinal position. Diurnal vertical migrations were evident within the salt wedge, and in a deep pool above tidal influence. M. intermedium larvae occurred October-May in the lower estuary and November-April in the upper estuary, peaking in abundance one to two months after P. australiensis. They were associated with low surface flows and surface salinities greater than 10, over an anoxic deeper layer. All three species exhibited extended development of euryhaline larvae in the laboratory. Tolerances and optimal salinities of larvae of the three species reflected their distributions. M. intermedium was the most euryhaline species. P. australiensis larvae were tolerant of higher salinities than juveniles of adults: capable of developing in salinity of at least 15. Most P. australiensis juveniles recruited to the estuary November-December, after which numbers declined dramatically. After settlement, most recruits probably migrated upstream out of the estuary. Two cohorts of M. intermedium recruited to the estuary from larvae in summer (December and February), but some juveniles also migrated from adjacent coastal waters. Post-larval migration was at least as important a determinant of abundance as direct recruitment from estuarine, planktonic larvae in all three species. Distributions among seagrass meadows along the estuary were determined primarily by physico-chemical patterns driven by hydrological changes. Seasonal variations in salinity and temperature were strongly associated with seasonal variations in shrimp abundance. Salinity tolerances of adults of the three species reflected their distribution patterns. Biotic interactions were more important in determining distributions within meadows. P. australiensis, when abundant, were associated with seagrass biomass. M. intermedium were also, but when seagrass was sparsest and least extensive. The two species apparently partitioned the seagrass meadow according to depth in early summer. Laboratory experiments suggested P. australiensis was displaced from deeper water by M. intermedium. Preference for vegetative complexity and competition for position within meadows suggest the underlying importance of predation in regulating shrimp populations. A survey of south-eastern Australian estuaries found P. australiensis larvae abundant in all stable, open, well-developed, salt-wedge estuaries where adults were abundant. Adults were most abundant in low salinities among submerged leafy macrophytes. Reproductive traits of P. australiensis were compared in estuarine and fresh reaches of three rivers. Early in the breeding season, egg size was smaller, and (size-specific) egg number larger in estuaries than upstream. A trade-off between egg size and egg number resulted in no difference in total (size-specific) reproductive investment between locations. Reproductive investment tended to decrease at some locations over the breeding season, and this decrease was a result of decreased egg size in most cases. The decrease in reproductive investment probably reflected reduced food availability for the adult, while the reduced egg size was probably a response to improved conditions for larval development. In the Hopkins River, larger egg size at upstream sites was reflected in larger early stage larvae. Later stage larvae were larger in the estuary, suggesting more favourable conditions for larval development. Allozyme electrophoresis showed the P. australiensis populations in each of the three rivers to be distinct. Allozyme frequencies were not different within the Hopkins River, but upstream and estuarine locations in the Curdies and Gellibrand were different. Although some variation in reproductive traits within catchments may have been due to genotypic differences, trade-offs between egg size and number, and decreases in egg size over summer were probably due to plastic responses to environmental cues. It is proposed P. australiensis inhabits and reproduces in both estuarine and freshwater environments by plastic response to environmental conditions. Recruitment to estuaries is dependent on the presence of suitable adult, littoral habitat, and a stable salt wedge for larval retention. Estuaries are important recruitment sites for P. australiensis, potentially allowing an extra brood each year before riverine recruitment. Estuarine broods could constitute a large part of the total fecundity of P. australiensis females. Euryhaline larvae and estuarine recruitment of P. australiensis suggest marine transport of larvae between estuaries as a possible dispersal mechanism for Paratya species.

History of contact and change in the Goroka Valley, Central Highlands of New Guinea, 1934-1949

The thesis traces the interaction of the Goroka Valley people with European and coastal New Guinean intruders during the pacification stage of contact and change. In this 15 year period the people moved from a traditional subsistence culture to the threshold of a modern, European-influenced technological society. The contact experiences of the inhabitants of the Valley and the outsiders who influenced them are examined, using both oral and documentary sources. A central theme of this study is the attempts by Europeans and their coastal New Guinean collaborators to achieve the pacification of a people for whom warfare has been described as 'the dominant orientation'. The newcomers saw pacification as being inextricably linked with social, economic and religious transformation, and consequently it was pursued by patrol officers, missionaries and soldiers alike. Following an introductory chapter outlining the pre-contact and early-contact history of the Goroka Valley people, there is a discussion of the causes of tribal fighting in Highlands communities and two case studies of violent events which, although occurring beyond the Goroka Valley, had important consequences for those who lived within its bounds. The focus then shifts to the first permanent settlement of the agents of change -initially these were coastal New Guinean evangelists and policemen - and their impact on the local people. A period of consolidation is then described, as both government and missions established a permanent 'European presence in the Valley'. This period was characterised by vigorous pacification coupled with the introduction of innovations in health and education, agriculture, technology, law and religion. The gradual transformation of Goroka Valley society as a result of the people's interaction with the newcomers was abruptly accelerated in 1943, when many hundreds of Allied soldiers occupied the Valley in anticipation of a threatened Japanese invasion. Village life was disrupted as men were conscripted as carriers and labourers and whole communities were obliged to grow food to assist the Allied war effort. Those living close to military airfields-and camps were subject to Japanese aerial attacks and the entire population was exposed to an epidemic of bacillary dysentery introduced by the combatants. However the War also brought some positive effects, including paradoxically, the almost total cessation of tribal fighting, the construction of an ail-weather airstrip at Goroka which ensured its future as a town and administrative and commercial centre, and the compulsory growing of vegetables, coffee, etc, which laid the foundations for a cash economy and material prosperity. The final chapter examines the aftermath of military occupation, the return of civil administration and the implementation of social and economic policies which brought the Goroka Valley people into the rapid-development phase of contact. By 1949 Gorokans were ready to channel their aggressive energies into commercial competitiveness and adopt a cash-crop economy, to accept the European rule of law, to take advantage of Western innovations in medicine, education, transport and communications, to seek employment opportunities at home and in other parts of the country and to modify their primal world view with European religious and secular values. A Stone Age people was in process of being transformed into a modern society.

Comparison of life-history characteristics of island and mainland populations of the swamp antechinus

The reproductive ecology of the swamp antechinus Antechinus minimus, a small dasyurid (Dasyuridae) marsupial with obligate male semelparity, was investigated in populations inhabiting the mainland coast and on a nearby offshore island in south-eastern Australia. The size and sex ratios of litters, individual body mass and size, timing of births and female longevity were determined from live-trapped animals. The island population had significantly smaller litter sizes and greater adult body mass in comparison with the mainland population. This is consistent with features of the ‘island syndrome’, which predicts directional selection for these traits in high-density populations with reduced extrinsic mortality. However, inter-annual variability in litter sizes in the island population suggests that litter size is more responsive to fluctuating local conditions, such as population density, which is likely to affect food availability, rather than directional genetic changes. In contrast with other antechinus species, biased sex ratios were not evident. In addition, large variations of the timing of births were estimated at both sites and these appear to be related to seasonal conditions such as autumn rainfall and female body mass before mating.

A population-based study of preschoolers' food neophobia and its associations with food preferences

Objective: This cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the relationships between food preferences, food neophobia, and children’s characteristics among a population-based sample of preschoolers.

Design: A parent-report questionnaire.

Setting: Child-care centers, kindergartens, playgroups, day nurseries, and swimming centers.

Subjects: 371 two- to five-year-old Australian children.

Outcome Measures: Associations between food neophobia and the food preferences and characteristics.

Analysis: Analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, Pearson product-moment correlations, and Fisher z test were used to estimate and compare the associations between these variables.

Results: Food neophobia was associated with reduced preferences for all food groups, but especially for vegetables (r = −0.60; P < .001). It was also associated with liking fewer food types (r = −0.55; P < .001), disliking more food types (r = 0.42; P < .001), the number of untried food types (r = 0.25; P < .001), a less varied range of food preferences (r = −0.59; P < .001), and less healthful food preferences overall (r = −0.55; P < .001). No significant relationships (P < .01) were observed between food neophobia and a child’s age, sex, or history of breast-feeding.

Conclusions: The study confirms and extends results obtained in experimental research and population-based intake studies of food neophobia to children’s everyday food preferences. The findings suggest that preschool children’s everyday food preferences are strongly associated with food neophobia but not with children’s age, sex, or history of breast-feeding. When aiming to influence children’s food preferences, the effects of food neophobia and strategies to reduce it should be considered.

Are animal personality traits linked to life-history productivity?

Animal personality traits such as boldness, activity and aggressiveness have been described for many animal species. However, why some individuals are consistently bolder or more active than others, for example, is currently obscure. Given that life-history tradeoffs are common and known to promote inter-individual differences in behavior, we suggest that consistent individual differences in animal personality traits can be favored when those traits contribute to consistent individual differences in productivity (growth and/or fecundity). A survey of empirical studies indicates that boldness, activity and/or aggressiveness are positively related to food intake rates, productivity and other life-history traits in a wide range of taxa. Our conceptual framework sets the stage for a closer look at relationships between personality traits and life-history traits in animals.

Historiographic foodways: a survey of food and drink histories in Australia

This essay is a survey of the field of food and drink history in Australia since the 1970s. It discusses the range of research and picks out key historiographic aspects: the search for an Australian cuisine; regional food cultures; connection between sources and historical interpretation; and the interdisciplinarity of food and drink history. It suggests that as food and drink histories have broadened beyond a search for culinary traditions and a gastronomic sensibility, so our understanding of food and drink in Australian history has deepened. It also argues that food and drink history is more than textual knowledge in books and articles: television programs and exhibitions held in museums and libraries, for example, have enhanced our understanding of food and drink histories.

Climate-induced reaction norms for life-history traits in pythons

Climate change modelers predict increasingly frequent “extreme events,” so it is critical to quantify whether organismal responses (such as reproductive output) measured over the range of usual climatic conditions can predict responses under more extreme conditions. In a 20-year field study on water pythons (Liasis fuscus), we quantified the effects of climatically driven annual variation in food supply on demographic traits of female pythons (feeding rate, body size, body mass, and reproductive output). Reaction norms linking food supply to feeding rates and residual body mass were broadly linear, whereas norms linking food supply to female body size became curvilinear when a dramatic (flooding-induced) famine reduced the mean body size at sexual maturity. Thus, the reaction norms recorded over 16 years of “normal” (albeit highly variable) climatic conditions gave little insight into the population's response to a more extreme nutritional crisis.

Food for thought

'Food for thought 'embraces the notion that a revolution can start at the dinner table. In the 1970s Judy Chicago’s work 'The Dinner Party' sparked debate and brought attention to the significant contribution of women throughout history. LEVEL drew from the central idea of this work - the gathering of women around the dining table - in order to explore the richness of ideas that this kind of debate generates as a contemporary form of consciousness-raising.

 As part of the 2012 Next Wave Festival, LEVEL hosted a series of dinner party events and banner making workshops at the Footscray Community Arts Centre. Dinner themes addressed the role of women in the arts and in the media, the significance of feminist generations in Australian art and the role of art to bring about political change for women.

Hungry for change: the food banking industry in Australia

Purpose – Over the last 20 years, food banks in Australia have expanded nationwide and are a well-organised “industry” operating as a third tier of the emergency food relief system. The purpose of this paper is to overview the expansion and operation of food banks as an additional self-perpetuating “tier” in the response to hunger.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on secondary data sourced from the internet; as well as information provided by Foodbank Australia and Food Bank South Australia (known as Food Bank SA) to outline the history, development and operation of food banks. Food banking is then critically analysed by examining the nature and framing of the social problems and policies that food banking seeks to address. This critique challenges the dominant intellectual paradigm that focuses on
solving problems; rather it questions how problem representation may imply certain understandings.

Findings – The issue of food banks is framed as one of food re-distribution and feeding hungry people; however, the paper argue that “the problem” underpinning the food bank industry is one of maintaining food system efficiency. Food banks continue as a neo-liberal mechanism to deflect query, debate and structural action on food poverty and hunger. Consequently their existence does little to ameliorate the problem of food poverty.

Practical implications – New approaches and partnerships with stakeholders remain key challenges for food banks to work more effectively to address food poverty.

Social implications – While the food bank industry remains the dominant solution to food poverty in Australia, debate will be deflected from the underlying structural causes of hunger.

Originality/value – This paper contributes to the limited academic literature and minimal critique of the food bank industry in Australia. It proposes that the rapid expansion of food banks is a salient marker of government and policy failure to address food poverty.

Food security: one of a number of ‘securities’ we need for a full life: an Australian perspective

Although agriculture in Australia is very productive, the current food supply systems in Australia fail to deliver healthy diets to all Australians and fail to protect the natural resources on which they depend. The operation of the food systems creates ‘collateral damage’ to the natural environment including biodiversity loss. In coming decades, Australia’s food supply systems will be increasingly challenged by resource price inflation and climate change. Australia exports more than half of its current agricultural production. Government and business are aiming to substantially increase production to bolster exports. This will increase pressure on agricultural resources and exacerbate ‘collateral’ damage to the environment. The Australian public have a deep and ongoing interest in a very wide range of issues associated with the food systems including the environment, health and sustainability. Food is something we require in order to live and a good diet is something we have to have to be healthy. For health over a life-time we need food security. However, we also require a range of other material goods and social arrangements in order to develop and flourish as human beings. And we need these other things to be secure over a life-time. Food is therefore one security among a range of other securities we need in order to flourish. The paper outlines a number of approaches, as examples, that help to identify what these other goods and arrangements might be. The approaches mentioned in this paper include human rights, national securities, human needs, authentic happiness, capabilities, sustainability and environmental ethics. The different approaches provide a way of evaluating the current situation and indicating a direction for change within the food systems that will address the problems. However, changing large systems such as those involved in food supply is difficult because inertias and vested interests make the current food supply systems resilient to change. The paper suggests that one of the first and ongoing tasks is to develop an understanding of the situation from a comprehensive social–ecological systems perspective. The paper also suggests that a practical leverage point for system change is restructuring the flow of information on the health, natural resources and biodiversity loss issues related to the food supply systems.

Which infants with eczema are at risk of food allergy? Results from a population-based cohort

BACKGROUND: The relationship between early onset eczema and food allergy among infants has never been examined in a population-based sample using the gold standard for diagnosis, oral food challenge. OBJECTIVE: We characterised the risk of challenge-proven food allergy among infants with eczema in the general population. METHODS: One-year-old infants (n = 4453 meeting criteria for this analysis) were assessed for history of eczema, received a nurse-administered eczema examination and underwent skin prick testing to peanut, egg and sesame. Those with a detectable wheal to one of the test foods underwent an oral food challenge irrespective of wheal size. The risk of food allergy, stratified by eczema severity and age of onset, was estimated using multivariate logistic regression with population sampling weights. RESULTS: One in five infants with eczema were allergic to peanut, egg white or sesame, compared to one in twenty-five infants without eczema (OR 6.2, 95% CI 4.9, 7.9, P < 0.001). The prevalence of peanut allergy was low in the absence of eczema (0.7% 95% CI 0.4, 1.1). Infants with eczema were 11.0 times more likely to develop peanut allergy (95% CI 6.6, 18.6) and 5.8 times more likely to develop egg allergy (95% CI 4.6, 7.4) by 12 months than infants without eczema. 50.8% of infants (95% CI 42.8, 58.9) with early eczema onset (<3 months) who required doctor-prescribed topical corticosteroid treatment developed challenge-proven food allergy. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Eczema, across the clinical severity spectrum in infancy, is a strong risk factor for IgE-mediated food allergy. Infants with eczema were six times more likely to have egg allergy and 11 times more likely to have peanut allergy by 12 months than infants without eczema. Our data suggest that a heightened awareness of food allergy risk among healthcare practitioners treating infants with eczema, especially if early onset and severe, is warranted.