Understanding rural food environments and malnutrition-related mortality disparities: A typological approach from Mexico.

Impact of subsidized inorganic fertilizers on farm input usage and food self-sufficiency in Terai, Nepal

Most children and adolescents in the United States fall short of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with disparities by race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geography. As K-12 students consume much of their daily nutrition from school meals, this scoping review sought to document reported impacts of Farm to School (F2S) programs on child-level food-related outcomes and discuss their potential to advance nutrition and health equity within school settings. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Google search engine to identify publications evaluating F2S programs on health and food-related outcomes. Eligible English-language articles published from 2018 to 2024 were included, relevant data was extracted from each publication, and key themes were synthesized using content analysis. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Most interventions were multicomponent and assessed student-level outcomes, including nutrition knowledge, food attitudes, and fruit and vegetable selection and consumption. Findings suggest F2S programs support healthier eating behaviors and positive food-related attitudes among students, particularly those with multiple F2S components. F2S programs are a Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) strategy for promoting healthier school food environments. F2S programs can promote healthy dietary behaviors and perceptions among students while providing an avenue to support equity in school nutrition. Implementation barriers, including funding and local food availability, require further attention to improve equitable F2S adoption and sustainability.

Larval and pupal development in Hermetia illucens: developmental checkpoints and starvation-induced dormancy.

Measuring food accessibility using walkability-integrated gaussian two-step floating catchment area method: A case study of Nanjing, China

Resilient adults but vulnerable larvae: demographic pathways of chiton decline under ocean acidification.

Purpose This study examines the nexus between green-oriented Islamic agricultural financing and national food security in Indonesia, using agricultural financing provided by Islamic banks as a proxy for Islamic green financing. Design/methodology/approach This study uses provincial panel data from 34 Indonesian provinces over 2019–2023. Fixed-effects estimation is employed to control for unobserved heterogeneity, while robust least squares are applied to address outliers and violations of classical assumptions. Findings The results show that green-oriented Islamic agricultural financing is positively and statistically associated with national food security, without implying causal effects. The fixed-effects estimates indicate stronger associations with food affordability and food utilization, while no significant relationship is found with food availability. Robustness checks confirm that the positive association remains significant for national food security and food availability after controlling for outliers and influential observations. Further, regional analysis reveals marked heterogeneity, with the strongest and most consistent effects observed in Java–Kalimantan, followed by Eastern Indonesia, while the relationship is weaker and only marginally significant in the Sumatra region. Research limitations/implications This study employs Islamic agricultural financing as a proxy for green-oriented Islamic financing, which captures its potential contribution rather than fully reflecting Sharia-compliant green financing activities. Future research should develop more precise indicators incorporating environmental performance, climate resilience, governance quality, and Islamic sustainability principles. Practical implications The findings support the integration of green-oriented Islamic finance into regionally differentiated food security and sustainable agriculture policies. Originality/value This study provides recent subnational evidence on the potential contribution of green-oriented Islamic agricultural financing to food security in Indonesia using official indicators from the National Food Agency.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10452-026-10299-x.

Food Is Medicine (FIM) programs integrate interventions such as medically tailored meals or produce prescriptions into clinical care. However, there is limited evidence on how to design these programs to be responsive to the lived experiences of participants to optimize initiation, engagement, and long-term retention. The objective of the study was to develop interventions to promote initiation, engagement, and retention in FIM programs that are responsive to the lived experiences of participants. We used a human-centered design approach to engage current and former cardiac rehabilitation participants in the development of interventions to promote participation and engagement in a FIM program. We recruited participants through invitations sent via electronic health record messages. We interviewed participants about their experiences, preferences, and unmet needs related to healthy eating and program design. Additionally, we elicited participant feedback on draft versions of patient navigator scripts and text messages promoting healthy eating habits. A total of six participants identified themes across Theory of Planned Behavior constructs and emergent themes, including the cost of healthy food, cultural appropriateness, clear and timely communication, transportation, local food access, scheduling flexibility, the ability to provide feedback to the program, and personalized support for navigating food resources. Participants described financial strain as a key barrier to healthy eating and noted that social influence often shaped eating behaviors. Feedback on navigator scripts led to revisions clarifying program logistics, addressing barriers such as language and cultural dietary restrictions, and tailoring positive endorsements to individual health goals. Based on participant feedback, text messages were made more concise, reframed positively (eg, humor and gratitude), and encouraged to be warmer, with respectful language that is easy to understand, while avoiding stigmatizing or overly clinical phrasing. Participants also suggested that messages should reflect empathy and offer actionable information to increase trust and engagement with the program. Trust in the health care system and a sense of dignity in receiving food support emerged as critical themes influencing overall satisfaction and retention. Participants emphasized that endorsement from their health care team and cardiologist was important for building trust in the program. Communication between health care navigators and FIM navigators could help reduce the burden placed on patients to navigate food resources. Using a human-centered design approach, we gained insights about participant-identified needs for navigation scripts and text messages that are culturally sensitive and personalized to promote optimal participation in a FIM program.

The article examines food security in the context of debt dependence and financialisation processes. The authors of the article aimed to identify the associated factors of food vulnerability across countries worldwide and in Ukraine by analysing the relationships between the share of the agricultural sector in GDP, indicators of food accessibility, and debt burden, as well as by assessing the role of financial constraints in shaping threats to food security. The methodological framework of the article is based on comparative analysis, grouping of countries by indicator of agricultural value added, taking into account debt burden and food accessibility, as well as evaluation of the ratio between debt servicing expenditures and public support for agriculture. The paper demonstrates that a high proportion of agriculture in GDP is not an indicator of national food security, nor does it correlate with better food accessibility outcomes. It is emphasised that the key determinant of an adequate level of food security is economic access, primarily driven by household income levels. The study shows that debt dependence constrains fiscal capacity and leads to the prioritisation of debt servicing over financing the agricultural sector. Using Ukraine as a case study, it was found that, despite the high production potential of the agricultural sector, a significant proportion of household expenditures is allocated to food, indicating limited economic access. The paper highlights the specific features of financialisation in Ukraine’s agricultural sector, showing that the ratio of public debt servicing expenditures to agricultural support reflects a trajectory of deteriorating fiscal conditions for agricultural development. The practical significance of the results lies in their applicability for substantiating policy recommendations aimed at improving state policy in agricultural and rural development.

This thesis analyzes individual and community land management strategies and their effects on food accessibility and food sovereignty in Maui County, Hawaii. Through interviews with Indigenous and Local Hawaiians, it strives to highlight their voices while raising awareness of the effects of colonization on food accessibility. Sugar plantations and colonial priorities diverted water resources and reduced access to land, therefore permanently altering the ahupua‘a system. Ongoing agricultural colonialism continues to affect food accessibility and sovereignty in Hawaii. The research finds that community engagement and access to land and water can help strengthen Native Hawaiian culture, language, and food systems and that these three dynamics are interrelated. Establishing community farms with Indigenous land management techniques increases food accessibility in Hawaii. Revitalization of Native Hawaiian culture and the traditional ahupua‘a system can benefit social relationships, environmental resiliency, and physical and cultural health. This research has important implications for food systems in post-colonial landscapes and emphasizes the importance of bottom-up activism for creating sustainable and resilient ecosystems and communities.

Rural communities have assets that can be leveraged to address health disparities, particularly through complex policy, systems and environment (PSE) change approaches. Eleven rural community coalitions across Georgia participated in The Two Georgias Initiative, a 5-year health equity project from 2017 to 2022 designed to address rural-urban health disparities. The coalitions addressed community health concerns through implementing county-specific PSE and programmatic strategies tracked through a Community Change Tracking Tool. This mixed-methods analysis assessed the variation in strategies implemented across domain- and PSE-type. In total, 141 strategies were implemented across 12 domains, ranging from three to 35 per coalition. The coalitions continued to work through the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting to address emerging needs. Food access, health care access and healthy lifestyle education were the most common domains; and implemented strategies were distributed across policy (17.0%), system (28.4%), environment (29.8%) and programmatic (24.8%) approaches. While many strategies were designed to make changes accessible to whole communities, some focused on priority populations including low-income residents, youth and seniors. Key informant interviews (n = 121) revealed that implementation barriers included challenges with staff and partner transitions, and lack of capacity and resources. Staff engagement, community rapport and partner-provided resources facilitated the implementation of strategies across several coalitions, highlighting the important role partnerships and community buy-in have with community-based PSE implementation approaches. At Year 5, among nine coalitions who provided sustainment data, a higher percentage of PSE strategies (95.6%) were sustained compared to programmatic strategies (42.9%), demonstrating the importance of PSE change approaches in community health equity efforts.

Similar to the American public, U.S. service members have challenges in meeting public health guidelines for nutrient-dense foods, practicing supportive eating behaviors, and achieving optimal body composition in a less-than-ideal food environment. The Department of War’s Go for Green® (G4G) nutrition program was developed for military dining facilities to increase availability, access, and awareness of nutritious foods and beverages. Researchers conducted six pilot studies across a variety of military branches, components (active duty, trainee, National Guard), and food venues (cafeteria-style dining facility, snack bar, convenience store) to assess the delivery of targeted program requirements (PRs). Pre- and post-intervention scores, as determined by the G4G Program Fidelity Assessment tool, evaluated each site’s success with targeting at least two of eight G4G PRs. PRs were also grouped into strategies: training, menu revision, food promotion, choice architecture, and marketing and education. Pre-intervention scores ranged from 0% to 100%. Post-intervention, sites earned a passing score for an average of 66% of targeted PRs. Food and beverage coding was the most targeted PR (four of six sites). In addition, all six sites targeted menu revisions as an intervention strategy. Cafeteria-style venues were most likely to target training, marketing, and education-related strategies. Study results show military food venues provide ample opportunity for targeted and varied strategies to support nutrient-dense eating patterns. Worksites and college campuses can benefit from research and translated knowledge gained in military settings to optimize the delivery of nutrition inventions in food venues to benefit overall health.

ABSTRACT Large free‐flowing rivers are rare but important ecosystems. Environmental conditions in these systems vary through space and time, resulting in dynamic patterns of habitat quality for aquatic species. Such variability could influence invasive species success by altering habitat quality, thereby supporting native species adapted to these conditions. Our study examined spatial and temporal trends in energetic habitat quality between native gizzard shad ( Dorosoma cepedianum ) and invasive silver carp ( Hypophthalmichthys molitrix ) in the free‐flowing Wabash River, USA. Environmental conditions (water temperature, velocity, prey type and density) were sampled throughout the river and used as input data to a spatially explicit bioenergetics model to predict fish growth rate potential as an index of habitat quality. Seasonal energetic habitat quality varied considerably for both species. Spring habitat quality was poor for both species throughout the river, and only small portions of the river were suitable during summer, mainly in off‐channel habitats. More of the river was suitable for gizzard shad, especially during autumn. During all seasons, spatial overlap in high‐quality habitat was high between species, especially in the highly suitable off‐channel and main‐channel border habitats. Promoting habitats in unregulated rivers that provide combinations of flow, food availability, and temperature unique to native species may be important for supporting native species and deterring invasive species. Dam removals that allow access to diverse off‐channel habitats may promote biodiversity and protect against invasions in riverscapes.

Copepods are small crustacean zooplankton that closely follow Bergmann's rule, which states that larger organisms will be found at higher latitudes. While thermally driven metabolic effects and food availability are often stated to be the major driver behind this trend, temperature affects multiple variables within the copepod and its environment, one key variable to copepod ecology being viscosity. To test the effects of viscosity on copepod body size, two lineages of subtropical, freshwater Mesocyclops sp. copepods were grown for five generations in cultures of differing temperatures, 30°C and 18°C, and viscosities, natural and altered to mimic 18°C while at 30°C. Copepods grown at 30°C were on average 13.20% smaller than those grown at 18°C, regardless of viscosity. Copepods grown in 30°C cultures with the viscosity of 18°C had no body size differences when compared to copepods grown at 30°C and natural viscosity. Copepods reached sexual maturity after 10 days while grown at 30°C, and 13 days while grown at 18°C, with viscosity playing no role in maturation time. As such, this study provides further support for temperature driving copepod body size, with the viscosity of the environment playing no discernible role in the body size of these small organisms.

This study investigatedstructural drivers of neighborhood food access to identify possible pathways at a census tract level. Data from 9597 census tracts across 201 counties, within 38 states, tested potential pathways including the built environment, criminal justice, education, housing, social cohesion, transportation, wealth, and income/poverty. Historic residential redlining was defined using Home Owners' Loan Corporation residential security maps. Food access was defined using the modified retail food environment index. Direct and indirect relationships were investigated using structural equation modeling (SEM) run in Stata v18, controlling for the population of each census tract. Standardized estimates were used with p < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Redlining was directly associated with higher disadvantage across all tested pathways. Higher disadvantage in the built environment (-0.06, p < 0.001), criminal justice (-0.11, p < 0.001), housing (-0.04, p < 0.01), and social cohesion (-0.18, p < 0.001) was associated with lower food access, while higher disadvantage in education was associated with higher food access (0.07, p < 0.001), and transportation, wealth, and income were not significant pathways. The strongest neighborhood-level drivers were social cohesion, criminal justice, and education. Policies that focus on a holistic approach to the neighborhood environment may be needed to improve access to healthy food options at the neighborhood level.

Although associative learning has been traditionally studied at the individual level, it may also operate in group contexts, particularly in social species such as ants. This study investigated whether colonies of Temnothorax rugatulus ants exhibit collective learning-defined as group-level information acquisition emerging from dynamic individual learning-by examining whether individuals learn more effectively in a colony than alone. Using a visual associative learning paradigm, we trained ants to associate a visual cue with food availability and compared performance between isolated individuals and colonies. We tested subjects across 17 sessions, comprising acquisition and reversal phases, and quantified performance based on the time spent at correct versus incorrect cues. Our results revealed that ants trained in colonies learnt associations more rapidly than those trained alone during both phases. Additionally, observations showed that colony-trained ants spent more time in correct corridors during training and engaged in more tandem runs early in learning. These findings suggest that social interactions-particularly recruitment behaviour-enhance associative learning of individual ants in colonies. This study underscores the importance of considering the social environment in learning research and suggests that collective learning may be an adaptive mechanism in social animals. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of collective intelligence'.

This study examined determinants of stunting among children aged 24-59 months in remote rural areas of West Aceh, Indonesia, and proposed context-specific prevention strategies. A case-control study was conducted in the Kaway XVI sub-district between March and June 2022, involving 33 stunted and 33 non-stunted children selected from the same communities. Data were collected through maternal interviews, anthropometric measurements, and health records, assessing nutritional care practices, household sanitation, food availability, infectious disease history, maternal knowledge, and breastfeeding practices. Multivariate logistic regression showed that inadequate household sanitation (aOR = 26.41), poor nutritional care practices (aOR = 17.43), limited household food availability (aOR = 8.96), and frequent infectious diseases (aOR = 8.45) were independently associated with stunting. These findings demonstrate the relative strength of caregiving, environmental, and food access determinants in a highly resource-limited setting. A multilevel prevention model guided by the MATCH framework is proposed to inform integrated, community-based stunting prevention strategies in remote rural areas.

Abstract Water and food security are integral to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2 and SDG 6). Lack of water and food can severely affect human health and well-being, hampering SDG progress. Climate change-related extreme events further add spatial and temporal uncertainties in water and food availability. Multiple studies have so far focused on assessing water and food security at broader spatial scales, such as state or district levels; however, the lack of finer-resolution socio-economic data limits well-informed decision-making at the local level. In this context, the present study develops an indicator-based approach for assessing water and food security at the sub-district level in Maharashtra State, India. The literature review-based assessment framework consists of four key dimensions: availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability. The water security index (WSI) was calculated using nine indicators, whereas the food security index (FSI) was calculated using twelve indicators. The water-food security index (WFSI) was developed by integrating WSI and FSI.&amp;#xD;The results show significant spatial disparities across the state. Sub-districts in the relatively water-abundant Konkan and parts of the Pune division have consistently higher composite security levels. Many districts, including Dharashiv, Gadchiroli, Nandurbar, and Washim, which were selected as part of the Government of India's Aspirational Districts Programme, demonstrate persistent vulnerabilities in terms of both food and water security indices. WFSI reveals that 100% of sub-districts in Dharashiv and Washim, and 50% in Gadchiroli and Nandurbar, fall into the low category. The high prevalence of low WFSI scores in water- and food-insecure regions underscores the pressing need for targeted, location-specific interventions. The findings will provide policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and development partners with robust, data-driven evidence on the current state of food and water security, while helping researchers and practitioners better identify high-risk sub-districts, thereby facilitating informed decisions about priority research and targeted interventions in vulnerable regions

Across their entire Atlantic breeding range, Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica have experienced decreases in food availability, often leading to population declines. The species is one of the most numerous seabirds in Føroyar (the Faroe Islands, in English) but has faced apparent, unquantified population declines. To better understand the underlying processes of this decline in Føroyar, we studied the change in the average, estimated age of puffins (i.e. the population age structure) harvested over a 20‐year period (1989–2008). We assessed how the population age structure changed over time and in relation to food availability indices (i.e. phytoplankton primary production, juvenile fish) . We showed that the average age of the birds in the population increased over time during the studied period, as the contribution of younger age classes declined, and cohort sizes decreased. Further, we showed that population age structure was significantly affected by food availability in the hatch year and the years preceding the hatch year, but only one of the relationships with food availability in the harvest year was significant. Our study thus suggests that reduced reproductive success driven by variability in foraging conditions is an important factor in the Atlantic puffin population decline in Føroyar.