Foodscapes as Nutrition Intervention Tools in Global South – A New Agenda

Context

Malnutrition - undernutrition (including stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies) and overnutrition with related non-communicable ailments, is the single largest disease, and cause of death globally (WHO, 2024). Over 2.8 billion adults globally are malnourished and about half of all deaths of children under 5 are the result of undernutrition (WHO, 2024). Most cases of malnutrition are located in low and middle-income countries where food insecurity and climate change heighten undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency vulnerabilities, especially among children and women of reproductive age. These countries are also experiencing high levels of non-communicable diseases.

Foodscape, broadly defined as how people, spaces, and food interact, the complexities of this interconnectedness and its influence on food behaviour, has increasingly been used by scholars to investigate and seek solutions to counteract obesity /overweight (Altink, 2019; Vonthron et al., 2020): However, it is rarely used to provide empirical data for tailored intervention models against undernutrition in vulnerable populations and communities faced with climate-change-induced-food-insecurities.

Aims & Objectives

This project uses a participatory interdisciplinary approach that examines indigenous (usually underutilized) climate-resilient crops through a foodscape lens in order to tailor sustainable agricultural and food innovations that complement country-specific efforts on food security (SDG#2), good health and well-being (SDG#3), climate action (SDG#13) and ultimately poverty eradication (SDG#1).

In this project:

1. UoY faculty, led by Prof Altink, will extend knowledge and uses of the theoretical concept, of ‘foodscape’ and explore how it can be harnessed to design an efficient and sustainable nutrition intervention tool to combat undernutrition and climate-change-induced-food insecurities, using selected communities in Northern Ghana as a baseline.
2. Secondly, we will organize a YESI workshop involving UoY staff working within the Environment and Health, Food, Water, and Waste space, to discuss a follow-on proposal and consider possible funders to scale up the research engagements into a large interdisciplinary grant on climate-change-induced, food-insecure and malnourished communities in the Global South.
3. Dr Boakye, the YESI fellow, will deliver a seminar and also spend time with collaborators from Biology (Katherine Denby) and the Hull York Medical School to explore new techniques for a comprehensive composition analysis of indigenous underutilized crops for nutrition and health. We are keen on establishing a community of practice in the global North and South, committed to exploring models to combat malnutrition and climate-change-induced food insecurities among low and middle-income countries. Organizations and institutions interested in being part of this and future projects are welcome to reach us at yesi@york.ac.uk