Meeting the Food Needs of Queensland’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Aged Population: A Review of the Literature

This report summarises research undertaken by Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, in partnership with Diversicare, on ‘Meeting the cultural food needs of Queensland’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) aged’. An earlier literature review[6] summarised the state of the evidence in relation to Australia’s CALD aged population and their less than optimal usage of Home and Community Care services (HACC), in particular, food services. This report builds on the information presented in the literature review aiming to explore the current provision of food services to CALD clients and the barriers and enablers to this service provision in Queensland.

Design LED innovation to rejuvenate local food systems and healthy communities : an emerging research agenda

Food Sovereignty (food freedom) is about empowering people to develop their own local food system. Food Sovereignty challenges designers to enable people to innovate the local food system, rather than having a food system which is dictated by corporate interests and failed business ethics. Communities are realising the potential for design to assist in the innovation process, and add strategic value to potentially localise the food system. Design Led Innovation (DLI) offers a strategic framework to address large-scale cultural, systemic and economic changes. The DLI approach empowers communities to take organised action to achieve a healthy, prosperous and happy way of life. DLI can assist with business models in the business world and it is evident this approach can assist with creating social change too. This paper presents on an emerging research agenda aimed to assist designer’s focus from individuals and systems to communities and urban problems. This paper also presents the research proposition that DLI and service design coupled with social entrepreneurial ventures such as local food projects and creative community inventions, have the potential to enable social innovation for healthy and happy communities.

Monitoring the levels of important nutrients in the food supply

A food supply that delivers energy-dense products with high levels of salt, saturated fats and trans fats, in large portion sizes, is a major cause of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The highly processed foods produced by large food corporations are primary drivers of increases in consumption of these adverse nutrients. The objective of this paper is to present an approach to monitoring food composition that can both document the extent of the problem and underpin novel actions to address it. The monitoring approach seeks to systematically collect information on high-level contextual factors influencing food composition and assess the energy density, salt, saturated fat, trans fats and portion sizes of highly processed foods for sale in retail outlets (with a focus on supermarkets and quick-service restaurants). Regular surveys of food composition are proposed across geographies and over time using a pragmatic, standardized methodology. Surveys have already been undertaken in several high- and middle-income countries, and the trends have been valuable in informing policy approaches. The purpose of collecting data is not to exhaustively document the composition of all foods in the food supply in each country, but rather to provide information to support governments, industry and communities to develop and enact strategies to curb food-related NCDs.

Commentary on Nutrition and older Indigenous Australians : service delivery implications in remote communities. A narrative review

Indigenous Australians are the most socially and economically disadvantaged population group in Australia and have the poorest health status. The statistics describe and highlight the degree of sicknesses and disadvantage along with lower life expectancy, elevated mortality rate and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, respiratory disease and kidney disease. While these statistics reflect poor health status and a high level of illness within Indigenous communities, it is known that individual, family and community behaviours play a key role in Indigenous health and wellbeing outcomes. These behavioural issues include use of tobacco, alcohol and other substances along with lack of physical activity and poor nutrition. The paper Nutrition and older Indigenous Australians: Service delivery implications in remote communities. A narrative view explores some of the issues specific to nutrition. Bronwyn Fredericks was invited to provide this commentary by the Editor of the Australasian Journal on Aging.

Drivers of local food consumption: A comparative study

Purpose The aim of this paper is to empirically explore antecedents of local food purchase intention in two food producing countries with different cultural backgrounds. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was employed to collect data from consumers located in Chile (n=283) and Australia (n=300). A proposed model is tested with structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings Attitude towards consuming local food is a strong and direct driver of intentions to purchase local food in both countries. Attitude toward supporting local agri-businesses and consumer ethnocentrism are found to positively impact attitude towards consuming local food in both countries. Attitude towards local agri-businesses also has a direct effect on intentions to purchase local food in Australia, but not in Chile. Interestingly, subjective norms are not found to affect intentions to consume local food in either country. Research limitations/implications The paper examines factors affecting the attitude toward and behavioural intention regarding local food consumption and develops an extended model of local food consumption. An outcome of this new model is the inclusion of personal variables, which influence local food purchasing behaviour. Practical implications Producers and retailers need to develop campaigns explaining how consuming local food supports local businesses and farmers, which will reinforce personal values associated with local consumption. Originality/value This is the first study to demonstrate that positive attitudes toward local foods are important drivers of local food purchase behaviour, independent of the cultural characteristics or level of economic development within a country.

Controlling routine front line service workers: an Australian retail supermarket case

Food retail is known for its use of flexible labour and for the centralisation of functions at head office, resulting in a reduction of managerial autonomy at store level. This article employs a typology of controls developed from labour process scholarship to explore how retail managers negotiate the control of their predominantly part-time workforce. Using an Australian supermarket chain as a case, and mixed methods, the article demonstrates that supermarkets use a multiplicity of forms of control across their workforce. For front line service workers, the article identifies a new configuration of controls which intersects with employment status and acts differentially for checkout operators on different employment contracts.

ANF guidelines for healthy food choices

The Australian Nutrition Foundation (ANF) was one of the first community service organisations to work with food industry , having pioneered the concept of corporate membership since its inception in 1982. ANF has worked closely and successfully with industry - the development of the ANF Food Selection Guidelines for Children and Adolescents is one example of this collaboration. While the guidelines were initially developed for use in school canteens, they can be used in a range of institutions where caterers wish to have tender specifications for purchase of healthy food for children and adolescents.

Influence of food supplementation on the fitness of two biological control agents: a predatory nabid bug and a bollworm pupal parasitoid

Many arthropod predators and parasitoids exhibit either stage-specific or lifetime omnivory, in that they include extra-floral nectar, floral nectar, honeydew or pollen in their immature and/or adult diet. Access to these plant-derived foods can enhance pest suppression by increasing both the individual fitness and local density of natural enemies. Commercial products such as Amino-Feed®, Envirofeast®, and Pred-Feed® can be applied to crops to act as artificial-plant-derived foods. In laboratory and glasshouse experiments we examined the influence of carbohydrate and protein rich Amino-Feed UV® or Amino-Feed, respectively, on the fitness of a predatory nabid bug Nabis kinbergii Reuter (Hemiptera: Nabidae) and bollworm pupal parasitoid Ichneumon promissorius (Erichson) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). Under the chosen conditions, the provision of either wet or dry residues of Amino-Feed UV had no discernable effect on immediate or longer-term survival and immature development times of N. kinbergii. In contrast, the provision of honey, Amino-Feed plus extrafloral nectar, and extrafloral nectar alone had a marked effect on the longevity of I. promissorius, indicating that they were limited by at least carbohydrates as an energy source, but probably not protein. Compared with a water only diet, the provision of Amino-Feed plus extrafloral nectar increased the longevity of males and females of I. promissorius by 3.0- and 2.4-fold, respectively. Not only did female parasitoids live longer when provided food, but the total number of eggs laid and timing of deposition was affected by diet under the chosen conditions. Notably, females in the water and honey treatments deposited greater numbers of eggs earlier in the trial, but this trend was unable to be sustained over their lifetime. Egg numbers in these treatments subsequently fell below the levels achieved by females in the Amino-Feed plus extrafloral nectar and cotton extrafloral nectar only treatments. Furthermore, there were times when the inclusion of the Amino-Feed was beneficial compared with cotton extrafloral nectar only. Artificial food supplements and plant-derived foods are worthy of further investigation because they have potential to improve the ecosystem service of biological pest control in targeted agroecosystems by providing natural enemies with an alternative source of nutrition, particularly during periods of prey/host scarcity.

North Queensland Food Industry Development

Provision of food industry development advice, guidance, and NATA microbiological testing service to the North Queensland food industry in 2008/2009.

Food habits and dietary variability of pelagic nekton off Oregon and Washington, 1979-1984

The food habits of 20 species of pelagic nekton were investigated from collections made with small-mesh purse seines from 1979-84 off Washington and Oregon. Four species (spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias; soupfin shark, Galeorhinus zyopterus; blue shark, Prionace glauca; and cutthroat trout, Salmo clarki) were mainly piscivorous. Six species (coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch; chinook salmon, O. tshawytscha; black rockfish, Sebastes melanops; yellowtail rockfish, S. f1avidus; sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria; and jack mackerel, Trachurus symmetricus) consumed both nektonic and planktonic organisms. The remaining species (market squid, Loligo opalescens; American shad, Alosa sapidissima; Pacific herring, Clupea harengus pallasi; northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax; pink salmon, O. gorbuscha; surf smelt, Hypomesus pretiosus; Pacific hake, Merluccius productus; Pacific saury, Cololabis saira; Pacific mackerel, Scomber japonicus; and medusafish, Icichthys lockingtom) were primarily planktonic feeders. There were substantial interannual, seasonal, and geographic variations in the diets of several species due primarily to changes in prey availability. Juvenile salmonids were not commonly consumed by this assemblage of fishes (PDF file contains 36 pages.)

Opportunistic feeding of longhorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus): Are scallop fishery discards an important food subsidy for scavengers on Georges Bank?

There has been much recent interest in the effects of fishing on habitat and non-target species, as well as in protecting certain areas of the seabed from these effects (e.g. Jennings and Kaiser, 1998; Benaka, 1999; Langton and Auster, 1999; Kaiser and de Groot, 2000). As part of an effort to determine the effectiveness of marine closed areas in promoting recovery of commercial species (e.g. haddock, Melanogrammus aegelfinus; sea scallops, Placopecten magellanicus; yellowtail flounder, Limanda ferruginea; cod, Gadus morhua), nontarget species, and habitat, a multidisciplinary research cruise was conducted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service. The cruise was conducted in closed area II (CA-II) of the eastern portion of Georges Bank during 19–29 June 2000 (Fig. 1). The area has historically produced high landings of scallops but was closed in 1994 principally for groundfish recovery (Fogarty and Murawski, 1998). The southern portion of the area was reopened to scallop fishing from 15 June to 12 November 1999, and again from 15 June to 15 August 2000. While conducting our planned sampling, we observed scallop viscera (the noncalcareous remains from scallops that have been shucked by commercial fishermen at sea) in the stomachs of several fish species at some of these locations, namely little skate (Raja erinacea), winter skate (R. ocellata), red hake (Urophycis chuss), and longhorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus). We examined the stomach contents of a known scavenger, the longhorn sculpin, to evaluate and document the extent of this phenomenon.

Industrialization as a key element of sustainable product-service solutions

Product-service systems are seen by many authors to offer potential for significant sustainability benefit. Manufacturing companies are said to be essential to such a change through their influence over product performance and over the use and end-of-life stages. Yet linking these stages such that the producer is incentivized to improve the performance of later stages is still a challenge. This paper argues for placing the producer at the centre of a new arrangement: by seeking to utilize the producer's knowledge of designing and the knowledge of volume production, through creation of platforms, while cooperating closely with other actors. The paper describes three case studies that have used such an approach to design and implement new food production systems. Based on 12 months of action research observations, 10 participating organizations from the cases were studied, and the implemented solutions assessed for environmental, economic and social performance. The results demonstrate a high level of sustainability benefit is achievable using platforms and partners to design product-service systems, while highlighting that changes to production arrangements are necessary but not sufficient to improve whole life-cycle environmental performance of product-service systems, and that producers need to cooperate closely with other actors to achieve the claimed benefits.

Building more sustainable solutions in production-consumption systems: the case of food for people with reduced access

In new product development, the ability to integrate different dimensions of sustainability at a value chain level is still a complex, problematic goal. As product-service approaches are increasingly enabling the introduction of more sustainable paths, this paper describes the authors' experience thus far when building insights into conditions for the implementation of integrated solutions in a process of co-development and testing in real life conditions, which are driven by a social need focusing on food for people with reduced access. Throughout this process, which brought together producers, consumers and other stakeholders to design and test industrialised, sustainable solutions, empirical evidence demonstrates feasibility and usefulness of the approach and insight into the conditions for implementing interactive, comprehensive multi-stakeholder processes in real life situations. In addition, results show that the delivery of innovative solutions enabled to offer social added value, economic profits and environmental improvements under specific experimental conditions. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of saving and credit cooperatives on food security in the West Amhara Region of Ethiopia

In rural Ethiopia, among other things, lack of adequate financial service is considered as the basic problem to alleviate rural poverty and to solve the problem of food insecurity. Commercial banks are restricted to urban centres. Providing rural financial service through RUSACCO to the poor has been proposed as a tool for economic development and for achieving food security. Evidence from research in this regard has been so far scanty, especially in rural Ethiopia. The aims of this study are to analyze the determinants of membership, to identify socioeconomic and demographic factors that influence members’ participation in RUSACCOs and to quantify the impact of RUSACCOs on member households’ food security. The study was conducted in two purposely selected woredas in the Amhara region one from food insecure (Lay Gayint woreda) and the other from food secure (Dejen woreda). Six RUSACCOs were selected randomly from these two woredas. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions and survey techniques were used to collect primary data. Collected data was then analyzed using mixed methods depending on the nature of data. For quantitative data analysis appropriate statistical models were used. The study result reveals that the number of members in each RUSACCO is very small. However, the majority of non-member respondents are willing to join RUSACCO. Lack of information about the benefits of RUSACCO membership is the main problem why many rural poor do not join RUSACCOs. Members participate in different aspects of the cooperatives, starting from attending general assembly up to board membership. They also participate actively in saving and borrowing activities of RUSACCO. The majority of the respondents believe the RUSACCO is a vital instrument in combating food insecurity. The empirical findings indicate that gender, marital status, occupation, educational level, participation in local leadership and participation in other income generation means determine the decision of rural poor to join a RUSACCO or not. The amount of saving is determined by household head occupation, farming experience and income level. While age of household head, primary occupation, farming experience, date of membership, annual total consumption expenditure, amount of saving and participation in other income generation activities influence members’ amount of borrowing by RUSACCO members. Finally, the study confirms that RUSACCO participation improves household food security. RUSACCO membership has made positive impact on household total consumption expenditure and food expenditure.