Who’s adopting the smarter lunchroom approach? Individual characteristics of innovative food service directors

School cafeterias and, subsequently, food service directors (FSDs) play a vital role in feeding children in the U.S. This study investigates which FSDs with different characteristics and organizational affiliations are most willing to embrace and implement new programs in their cafeterias.In 2014 we surveyed a representative sample of 8143 school FSDs across the U.S. regarding their knowledge and use of innovative methods that encourage children to select healthy food options. Nearly all of the surveyed FSDs (93%) are aware of behavioral strategies to promote healthier eating in school lunchrooms, and nearly 93% report having made at least one change in their lunchroom. Male FSDs are more likely to be aware of new programs, though they are less likely to adopt them relative to female FSDs. In addition, membership in a professional organization increases awareness as well as the number of changes made by 0.14 (p < 0.01). Finally, 22% of all respondents say they know about the Smarter Lunchrooms approach, a set of research-based lunchroom behavioral strategies that positively influence children to select healthy foods.The findings highlight the importance of participation in professional associations which provide career-building activities for school FSDs increasing awareness and adoption of innovative approaches to motivate children to eat the nutritious foods. Given these findings, there is reason for policy makers and school districts to consider allocating funds to encourage FSDs to engage more fully in professional association meetings and activities.     

Redistributing food manufacturing: models for the creation and operation of responsive and agile production networks

Abstract

The food industry is a mature industry where its profit margins are thin and its R&D failure rate for new products is substantial. Both facts indicate that decent return on development investment cannot be provided and that the food industry cannot still rely on its traditional way of thinking and innovating. New product development cycles should involve not only the product itself but also the entire manufacturing and distribution network. Hence, collaborative manufacturing and servitization models are key elements for the rapid transformation of the new food industry. Moreover, recent developments in technology have the potential to shift manufacturing production away from large scale manufacturing plants to a network of distributed, smaller scale localized and customizable manufacturing facilities. Such a network is the crucial enabler for the on-demand manufacture of new or even, existing food products to rapidly respond to the consumers´ demands.     

The impact of India’s food security policy on domestic and international rice market

Food security policy making in India is at crossroads. India has emerged as a leading rice exporter. The Government of India has introduced the National Food Security Act which requires 33.6 million tons of rice per year for its public food distribution system. In this study, we modeled India’s rice market and analyzed policy implications of the long-term impact of India’s food security act on domestic and international rice market. We developed a structural economic demand and supply model for India’s rice market and further added subsidy equations to trace the consequence of National Food Security Act on domestic rice consumption and on the international market. We specifically focus on three different scenarios: subsidy as price effect, subsidy as inelastic income effect, and subsidy as elastic income effect under the broader framework of National Food Security Act. We found that at the end of the projection period (2024–2025), as a result of rice subsidy program, the consumption of rice increases significantly in the case of price effect while the inelastic income effect has no or less impact on production, consumption, and export of rice. Hence, the policy implication of our study is that if the objective of the National Food Security Act is to increase consumption then it needs to be implemented as price effect.     

Micro politics of Social Safety Net Programmes: The case of the Food‐For‐Work Programme in Bangladesh

A number of studies have established that politics has a role in shaping and implementing Social Safety Net Programmes (SSNPs) and, conversely, SSNPs also influence national or local politics. This study qualitatively analyzes the micro level political discourses of the Food‐For‐Work programme, one of the top 10 SSNPs in Bangladesh, using the concepts of access, institutions and agency under livelihood framework. The analysis of the findings reveals that the programme is not effective in terms of the stated objectives of reducing poverty, but rather serves the interest of political elites. Beneficiary access to the projects depends on categorical membership, ability to participate and gender, which lead the programme to be reduced to subsidized infrastructure projects.     

Institutionalized Ignorance as a Precondition for Rational Risk Expertise

The present case study seeks to explain the conditions for experts’ rational risk perception by analyzing the institutional contexts that constitute a field of food safety expertise in Denmark. The study highlights the role of risk reporting and how contextual factors affect risk reporting from the lowest organizational level, where concrete risks occur, to the highest organizational level, where the body of professional risk expertise is situated. The article emphasizes the role of knowledge, responsibility, loyalty, and trust as risk‐attenuation factors and concludes by suggesting that the preconditions for the expert's rationality may rather be a lack of risk‐specific knowledge due to poor risk reporting than a superior level of risk knowledge.     

The effects of pre-ordering and behavioral nudges on National School Lunch Program participants’ food item selection

This paper examines the effects of pre-ordering and pre-ordering with behavioral nudges on the selection of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk by National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participants in a Florida school. After collecting two weeks of baseline data, students in grades four and five were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: the first treatment group pre-ordered their lunches online using a unique software program; the second treatment group received behavioral nudges based on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate recommendations while pre-ordering. Student in grades four and seven served as the control group and continued to obtain their lunches through the normal lunch line. Using difference-in-difference regression analysis, we find that students in the first treatment group selected significantly more fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk during the pre-ordering intervention phase of the study relative to students in the control group, 27.7%, 15.8%, and 16.3%, respectively, while students in the second treatment group selected significantly more fruits (51.4%), vegetables (29.7%) and low-fat milk (37.3%) than students in the control group. In addition, we find the nudge had a statistically significant positive effect in addition to the effect of pre-ordering; students who received the MyPlate nudge while pre-ordering selected statistically significantly more fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk than students who pre-ordered without nudging.     

食品安全：公众的认知、情绪和行为

食品安全关系到公众的健康和生命安全,事关社会的公共安全和稳定。文章从公众的认知、情绪和行为三个方面来理解公众在面对食品安全风险时的心理反应,在综述以往公共安全风险和事件研究的基础上,探索食品安全事件可能造成公众恐慌的心理过程,以期能够为食品安全管理与决策者提供应对食品安全风险和事件的思路和策略。     

冷战与重建:朝鲜战争期间有关西德社会市场经济政策的争论

朝鲜战争期间,美国政府多次要求西德修改其社会市场经济政策,加强与西方防务有关的重工业投资和生产。在这一场有关冷战与重建的争论中,出于西德在东西方冷战前沿而具有的极端重要性,以及稳定团结西方阵营的考虑,美国最终接受了西德提出的解决方案。而西德则逐渐以资本主义橱窗的姿态出现在东西方冷战中。     

美国遏制战略与冷战研究

自上世纪中叶以来,美国针对外来威胁的战略选择集中表现为遏制,从而构建、推进了国际关系的冷战状态。大国的国家安全战略选择与冷战状态的起源和延伸存在关联。冷战作为一种国际关系状态生存的动因研究可从四项议题展开,美国国家安全战略的制定具有六个基本特征,美国遏制战略的多元内涵具有五种选择。依据国内外冷战国际关系研究的成果,可以认为,冷战有可能正在从国际关系的例外转成常态。     

The Clash of Voices: Community-based Targeting of Safety-net Interventions in Malawi

Using the principle of community targeting, the 2003 Winter Targeted Input Programme was designed to extend free inputs to about 400,000 households in rural Malawi on the basis of access to dambo, and poverty status. The tendency for most communities was, however, to modify the stipulated criteria on the basis of their perceptions and interpretations of need, entitlement and equity. Strikingly, even though the resulting criteria often reflected priorities conflicting with the officially prescribed guidelines, they were nevertheless not necessarily motivated by fraudulent intentions, though there were some isolated cases of ill‐intention. This article therefore advocates at least the incorporation of views from below in the design of interventions of this nature in order to ensure that they achieve the overall desired strategic impact.