Between the city and the farm: food environments in artisanal mining communities in Upper Guinea

Abstract

Objective: Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a widespread livelihood in low- and middle-income countries, however many in ASM communities face high levels of poverty and malnutrition. The food environments in ASM communities have non-agricultural rural characteristics that differ from those in urban and subsistence rural areas examined in much existing food environment literature. Design: We examine these complex external and personal food environments in ASM communities via a study using qualitative and quantitative methods. Market surveys and a cross-sectional household survey, plus qualitative mining site non-participant observations and in-depth structured interviews, were conducted in three waves. Setting: Eighteen study sites in ASM communities in northern Guinea. Participants: Surveys covered mothers in mining households with young children (n=613); in-depth interviews engaged mothers of young children (n=45), food vendors (n=40), and young single miners (n=15); observations focused on mothers of young children (n=25). Results: The external food environment in these ASM communities combines widespread availability of commercially-processed and staple-heavy foods with lower availability and higher prices for more nutritious, non-staple foods. Within the personal food environment, miners are constrained in their food choices by considerable variability in daily cash income and limited time for acquisition and preparation. Conclusions: We demonstrate that ASM communities have characteristics of both urban and rural populations and argue for greater nuance and appreciation of complexity in food environment research and resultant policy and programming.

Food Environments and Their Influence on Food Choices: A Case Study in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

“…We found that fresh produce of fairly high quality was available within the informal settlements, and we also found a high availability of fried foods such as french fries and mandazi (fried dough) as well as prepared meals being sold by street vendors (e.g., githeri). In contrast to other studies examining food environments in sub-Saharan Africa [18], commercially processed foods were not as prevalent in our study settings. Much of the global discussion around poor quality diets stemming from the nutrition transition has centered on an increase in ultra-processed foods.…”

“…However, much of the food environment literature has focused solely on high-income countries [14,15] and on specific dimensions (e.g., availability) of the food environment. Although there has been a growing amount of food environment research in LMICs [16][17][18][19], critical research gaps remain regarding the multitude of external food environment dimensions and individual factors that influence consumer behavior [12,[20][21][22]. These knowledge gaps limit the ability to design comprehensive interventions that have the potential to lead to marked shifts in diets and disease burdens.…”

How Perspectives on Food Safety of Vendors and Consumers Translate into Food-Choice Behaviors in 6 African and Asian Countries

“…We identified the projects that captured how food safety is conceptualized across different perspectives; some projects did not have information on food safety because the projects that were funded in the portfolio had different aims, not all of which covered food safety. Data from projects in the following 6 countries were included: Ghana [ 25 ], Guinea [ 26 ], India [ 27 ], Kenya [ 10 ], Tanzania [ 28 ], and Vietnam [ 29 ] ( Table 1 ).…”

“…In Guinea, Nordhagen et al [ 26 ] used stratified sampling to purposively select study sites based on their proximal distance to villages and towns. Data were collected from May 2018 to December 2019 through nonparticipant observations at mining sites ( n = 25) and markets ( n = 8), household surveys ( n = 613) and market surveys ( n = 4), and in-depth interviews with mothers ( n = 45) and food vendors ( n = 40).…”

“…Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. The current study used data from in-depth interviews with mothers and vendors [ 26 ].…”