The State of Food Mapping

Sweeney, Glennon; Hand, Michelle D.; Kaiser, Michelle L.; Clark, Jill K.; Rogers, Christy; Spees, Colleen

doi:10.1177/0885412215599425

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Mapping and research of food environments in general has to date primarily been carried out in high-income country (HIC) settings in response to the high prevalence of obesity and associated diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like type 2 diabetes [1][2][3]. Food environment evaluations are imperative in socioeconomically disadvantaged or otherwise vulnerable areas in HICs to promote equitable health outcomes, yet these diet-related diseases are also becoming increasingly prevalent in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snapshots of Urban and Rural Food Environments: EPOCH-Based Mapping in a High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Country from a Non-Communicable Disease Perspective

et al. 2020

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A changing food environment is implicated as a primary contributor to the increasing levels of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study aimed to generate snapshots of selected external food environments to inform intervention strategies for NCD prevention in three countries: Uganda (low income), South Africa (middle income) and Sweden (high income), with one matched pair of urban–rural sites per country. Fifty formal and informal food retail outlets were assessed, and descriptive and comparative statistical analyses were performed. We found that formal food retail outlets in these countries had both positive and negative traits, as they were the main source of basic food items but also made unhealthy food items readily available. The Ugandan setting had predominantly informal outlets, while the Swedish setting had primarily formal outlets and South Africa had both, which fits broadly into the traditional (Uganda), mixed (South Africa) and modern (Sweden) conceptualized food systems. The promotion of unhealthy food products was high in all settings. Uganda had the highest in-community advertising, followed by South Africa and Sweden with the lowest, perhaps related to differences in regulation and implementation. The findings speak to the need to address contextual differences in NCD-related health interventions by incorporating strategies that address the food environment, and for a critical look at regulations that tackle key environment-related factors of food on a larger scale.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snapshots of Urban and Rural Food Environments: EPOCH-Based Mapping in a High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Country from a Non-Communicable Disease Perspective

et al. 2020

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“…In addition to the need for integrated sets of food systems indicators, robust food systems transformation will also require dynamic 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1243466 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 08 frontiersin.org monitoring of short-term changes (Sweeney et al, 2015;Alarcon et al, 2021;Fanzo et al, 2021), including at even more granular levels than the province. Food mapping has been proposed as a way of enhancing indicator data by mapping food systems within an area of interest and providing more dynamic insights (including consideration for food systems interactions) than static overviews provided by the diagnostic approaches found in dashboards (Marte, 2007;Wight and Killham, 2014;Alarcon et al, 2017).…”

Section: Can Food Flow Mapping Augment Indicator-based Decision-makin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food mapping combines spatial analysis, census information and other forms of data to create maps on a regional or city level (Wight and Killham, 2014;Kiambi et al, 2018). Food mapping is amenable to participatory approaches, which helps ensure food systems transformation occurs in a progressive manner with suitable emphasis on agency and social sustainability within the food systems paradigm (Sweeney et al, 2015;Alarcon et al, 2017). Food systems mapping is also useful in providing insights into local food supplies, infrastructure conditions, trade, and individual and external factors (Alarcon et al, 2017;Kiambi et al, 2018;Alarcon et al, 2021).…”

Section: Can Food Flow Mapping Augment Indicator-based Decision-makin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Data for decision-making for sustainable food systems transformation in the Eastern Cape of South Africa: what is needed?

Karan,

Mowlds,

McKeown

et al. 2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Transforming global food systems to promote food and nutritional security can help alleviate both poverty and ill-health, and support sustainable development. Such transformations need to be tailored and sensitive to the vulnerabilities and needs of marginalized communities yet are hindered by knowledge gaps. In particular, the food and nutrition security needs of the most vulnerable are often poorly understood, as are the policy frameworks and resource requirements associated with meeting their needs. To aid the development of frameworks to address these gaps, we review the current state of indicators relating to food systems for the improvement of food and nutrition security at the national and sub-national levels in South Africa. We identify gaps in the decision-making data in South Africa, including absence of food and nutrition security indicators. Integration of the South African Multidimensional Poverty Index and Food System Dashboard indicators could help address this, especially if applied at a sub-national level. Participatory food system mapping could also link data collection with system-level interactions and feedback loops to inform sub-national stakeholders in achieving food and nutritional security.

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“…Since food is a cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary subject that intersects with a wide range of urban issues, food mapping approaches aim to develop visual representations of geospatial and other sources of data to enable improved decision-making. Food mapping can be participatory, involving stakeholders across the food system (including citizen science and crowdsourcing approaches) to expose hidden disparities, strengths, and weaknesses within the food system (Sweeney et al, 2016). While static geospatially tagged "snapshots" are important, it is also necessary to understand the directional flow of food commodities from a range of dimensions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food mapping approaches for understanding food system transformations in rapid-growth city regions in the Global South

Liddy,

Mowlds,

McKeown

et al. 2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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The world’s food systems are rapidly changing due to socioeconomic, environmental, and demographic changes, globalization, and urbanization. Urban regions connect urban food consumption with rural food production and are associated with rapid dietary transitions in developing counties. Despite urbanization being a key driver of city-regional and global food system transformations, city-regional food systems (particularly in developing countries) are under-researched. Although the importance of dynamic urban and peri-urban food systems has led to new frameworks and approaches for mapping food flows within urban regions, our study highlights both opportunities and limitations to food mapping in high-growth city regions in the Global South. We review existing approaches to food mapping using three contrasting city-regional food systems as case studies, namely, Bahir Dar (Ethiopia), Hanoi (Vietnam), and Cali (Colombia), and identify priorities for future progress. These include temporal dimensions of food access; nutritional outcomes of food flows; economic, cultural, and ethnic factors affecting consumer behavior; and how consumption of healthier foods could be enabled by decision-making throughout food supply chains. In addition, the roles of food loss and waste could also be more specifically considered. We conclude that providing a more comprehensive and nutrition-sensitive understanding of city-regional food systems can guide evidence-based interventions and activities to enable transitions to healthier, equitable, and more sustainable urban food systems.

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The State of Food Mapping

Cited by 16 publications

References 43 publications

Snapshots of Urban and Rural Food Environments: EPOCH-Based Mapping in a High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Country from a Non-Communicable Disease Perspective

Snapshots of Urban and Rural Food Environments: EPOCH-Based Mapping in a High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Country from a Non-Communicable Disease Perspective

Data for decision-making for sustainable food systems transformation in the Eastern Cape of South Africa: what is needed?

Food mapping approaches for understanding food system transformations in rapid-growth city regions in the Global South

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