Clean household air for the Americas

Silva, Agnes Soares da; Smith, Kirk R.

doi:10.1136/bmj.l330

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…Other authors, mainly with an agricultural engineering background are in favor of changing the original ingredients of tortillas to make them more accessible and nutritious for the urban population, even promoting tortillas made from white sorghum [56]. Since the 1980s, some authors have advocated for gas to be used in all rural households [57], while others have shown evidence that as long as firewood is accessible, rural households will always prefer it over using firewood to prepare food products other than tortillas [58,59]. Some mechanized pressing processes have also incorporated a porous material similar to that of metates in order to preserve the traditional quality of tortillas.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handmade Comal Tortillas in Michoacán: Traditional Practices along the Rural-Urban Gradient

Arnés

Astier

2019

IJERPH

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Certain components of global food security continue to be threatened. Globalization has impacted food patterns, leading to greater homogenization of diets and the standardization of processes of food transformation, both in the countryside and in the cities. In Mexico, this has led to a drop in the use of native corn landraces and in the value associated with traditional practices around their growing and the processing and consumption of tortillas. The aim of this work was to analyze the main characteristics of the handmade comal tortilla system along the rural-urban gradient taking into account: (1) The type of seed and production, (2) manufacturing processes, (3) marketing channels and purpose of sales, and (4) perceptions regarding the quality of the product. Research was conducted on 41 handmade tortilla workshops located in rural areas in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin and in urban and peri-urban areas of a medium-sized city in Michoacán (Mexico). Results showed that the origin of the grain follows a gradient-like pattern: In rural areas, tortillas are made with local and native corn predominate, while in urban contexts most tortillas come from hybrid corn produced in Sinaloa or Jalisco. There is a generalized preference for white tortillas, but blue tortillas are used for personal consumption in rural areas and as a gourmet product in the city. 100% of the rural workshops make their own nixtamal, while almost 50% of the peri-urban and urban businesses buy pre-made nixtamal dough. Surprisingly, 50% of the rural handmade tortilla workshops admit that they add nixtamalized corn flour and/or wheat flour to their tortilla mix. We conclude that not all handmade comal tortillas are produced equally and, although in rural areas traditions are better preserved, these also have contradictions. We also conclude that it is important to promote the revaluation of agrobiodiversity, traditional gastronomy, and food security without sacrificing quality, nutrition, and flavor.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handmade Comal Tortillas in Michoacán: Traditional Practices along the Rural-Urban Gradient

Arnés

Astier

2019

IJERPH

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Household fuel mixes in peri-urban and rural Ecuador: Explaining the context of LPG, patterns of continued firewood use, and the challenges of induction cooking

Gould

Schlesinger²,

Molina

et al. 2020

Energy Policy

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Nationwide transitions from cooking with solid fuels to clean fuels promise substantial health, climate, and environmental benefits. For decades, Ecuador has invested heavily in consumption subsidies for liquified petroleum gas (LPG), a leading clean fuel. With the goal of understanding household energy use in a context where LPG is ubiquitous and cheap, we administered 808 household surveys in peri-urban and rural communities in Coastal and Andean Ecuadorian provinces. We assess cooking fuel patterns after long-term LPG access and the reach of induction stoves promoted through a recent government program.Nearly all participants reported using LPG for more than a decade and frequent, convenient access to highly subsidized LPG. Nonetheless, half of rural households and 20% of peri-urban households rely on firewood to meet specific household energy needs, like space heating or heating water for bathing. Induction was rare and many induction owners reported zero use because the required equipment had never been installed by electricity companies, their stove had broken, or due to fears of high electricity costs.Our discussion is instructive for other countries because of Ecuador's long-standing clean fuel policies, robust LPG market and standardized cylinder recirculation model, and promotion of induction stoves.

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Kirk R Smith: a life’s work on improving air quality

Adair-Rohani

2020

Bull. World Health Organ.

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Clean household air for the Americas

Abstract: We should be aiming to eliminate polluting cooking fuels from the PAHO region

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

Handmade Comal Tortillas in Michoacán: Traditional Practices along the Rural-Urban Gradient

Handmade Comal Tortillas in Michoacán: Traditional Practices along the Rural-Urban Gradient

Household fuel mixes in peri-urban and rural Ecuador: Explaining the context of LPG, patterns of continued firewood use, and the challenges of induction cooking

Kirk R Smith: a life’s work on improving air quality

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