Assessing the contribution of nonmarket factors to the market value generated by cow-calf operations in rangelands of the western USA: A true cost accounting approach.

Food system transformation requires a better understanding of the negative and positive externalities involved in food production and consumption. Although negative externalities have received substantial attention, positive externalities have been largely overlooked. True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an economic assessment aimed at accounting for externalities in food systems. The beef industry is an important part of the US food system. In the western USA, beef cattle production is a major land use and economic activity that involves direct links among the cattle, range ecosystems, range management, climate, and ranchers' decisions and welfare. We present a case study based on a TCA assessment to quantify and monetize the contribution of human, social, natural, and produced capitals, as well as farm structure, to the market value generated by cow-calf operations, a key component of the USA beef industry. We estimated an Ordinary Least Square regression model based on indicators of these capitals and of farm structure derived from publicly available data sources at the county level. From model coefficients, we estimated the marginal revenue product of these factors. Results show that nonmarket factors linked with human and social capitals support market performance by contributing to the market value of cow-calf production. These factors operate at scales above the ranch, usually remain hidden, and seldomly are considered in policy decision-making which can lead to policies that inadvertently hamper or eliminate these positive externalities.

Considering tradeoffs in "local" food policies: examples from school feeding programmes.

City, national, and multinational governments are increasingly leveraging nutrition programme spending, specifically pursuing policies that require or incentive "local" procurement, to meet a myriad of goals. However, these policies involve tradeoffs that are often not fully considered by government officials, planners, and advocates. This perspective article provides some examples of those tradeoffs from the peer-reviewed literature, which, we argue, are useful to consider in setting school feeding programme policies to achieve sustainability goals.

Novel methods for an interesting time: Exploring U.S. local food systems' impacts and initiatives to respond to COVID.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health and social distancing mandates caused unprecedented shifts and disruptions for local and regional food systems (LRFS). The pandemic also brought new and heightened attention to the structure and resiliency of US food systems, and LRFS appeared to be positioned to significantly increase the scope and scale of their market reach as a result. Researchers from three universities collaborated with staff from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service to recruit leaders from sixteen key coalitions within the U.S. LRFS sector to frame an adaptive, community-driven set of applied research activities to understand important themes, learn from effective responses and gain insights into how local and regional supply chains may change post-pandemic. In this paper, we summarise urgent and emergent strategies and innovations from LRFS captured in a fall 2020 consumer survey, with additional insights on how the survey was framed and interpreted, considering synthesis of collaborative discussions and project team interactions. We conclude the article with a set of research, policy and technical assistance priorities that were identified and validated by this LRFS network.

The Impact of State Farm to School Procurement Incentives on School Purchasing Decisions.

BACKGROUND: The most recent Farm to School (FTS) Census reported that of the 42% of US schools that participate in FTS, 77% procure food locally. In 2019, Colorado joined many other states in passing legislation that provides per-meal incentives for purchasing local foods. However, little is known about how these incentives impact procurement decisions of school Food Service Directors (FSDs), and purported benefits of FTS cannot accrue without additional local purchases by school FSDs. METHODS: We constructed a unique, primary dataset of fresh fruit and vegetable purchases from 18 months of school invoices in 3 Northern Colorado school districts and parameterized an optimization model that mimics FSD decisions. Subsequently, we simulated how procurement is impacted by local food reimbursements. RESULTS: Assuming 2017 and 2018 purchasing behavior, at $0.05 per meal reimbursement, FSDs would increase fresh fruit and vegetable purchasing by 11-12% in August-October, but by only 0-1% in November-December, likely due to seasonality constraints. CONCLUSIONS: While an increase in FTS procurement was expected, the magnitude of the potential increase when aligned with the Colorado growing season is notable. This work underscores that adequately funded reimbursement-based FTS policies can increase FTS procurement without disrupting normal cost-minimizing purchasing behavior.

Emergency Food Provision for Children and Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examples from Five U.S. Cities.

As lockdown and school closure policies were implemented in response to the coronavirus, the federal government provided funding and relaxed its rules to support emergency food provision, but not guidance on best practices for effectiveness. Accordingly, cities developed a diverse patchwork of emergency feeding programs. This article uses qualitative data to provide insight into emergency food provision developed in five cities to serve children and families. Based on our qualitative analysis, we find that the effectiveness of local approaches appears to depend on: (i) cross-sector collaboration, (ii) supply chains, and (iii) addressing gaps in service to increased risk populations.

Farm to School Activities and Student Outcomes: A Systematic Review.

Farm to school programs (F2SPs) operate in 42% of school districts and are supported in part through federal and state policies as well as philanthropic funding. Although research evaluating the effects of farm to school-related activities on student outcomes is growing, a systematic review of the results and thus a synthesis of implications for future programming have not occurred. The primary objective of this systematic literature review is to summarize and evaluate studies on student outcomes associated with farm to school-related activities up to 1 September, 2017. Four databases spanning 4 research disciplines were used to identify full-text, English-language studies. Twenty-one studies were reviewed: 7 explicitly investigated F2SPs, and 14 evaluated the impact of school-based interventions that were relevant to activities reported in the 2013 and/or 2015 Farm to School Census. All of the F2SP studies (n = 7) and 85.7% of farm to school-related activity studies (n = 12) were multicomponent, and there was a wide variety of implemented intervention components across the reviewed studies. Results from F2SP and farm to school-related activity studies consistently show positive impacts on food and nutrition-related knowledge; most studies also suggest a positive relation between farm to school-related activities and healthy food selection during school meals, nutrition self-efficacy, and willingness to try fruits and vegetables. The impact of farm to school activities on fruit and vegetable consumption and preferences is unclear. The most common F2SP study limitations were study designs that preclude causal inference, outcome measurement with no reported or limited psychometric testing, lack of long-term outcome evaluation, and challenges related to quantifying intervention implementation. These findings underscore the need for more conclusive evidence on the relation between farm to school-related activities and changes in fruit and vegetable consumption.

Analyzing the Role of Community and Individual Factors in Food Insecurity: Identifying Diverse Barriers Across Clustered Community Members.

This paper uses the results from a community food security assessment survey of 684 residents and three focus groups in Pueblo County, Colorado to examine the question: what community and individual factors contribute to or alleviate food insecurity, and are these factors consistent throughout a sub-county population. Importantly, we use a technique called cluster analysis to endogenously determine the key factors pertinent to food access and fruit and vegetable consumption. Our results show significant heterogeneity among sub-population clusters in terms of the community and individual factors that would make it easier to get access to fruits and vegetables. We find two distinct clusters of food insecure populations: the first was significantly less likely to identify increased access to fruits and vegetables proximate to where they live or work as a way to improve their household's healthy food consumption despite being significantly less likely to utilize a personal vehicle to get to the store; the second group did not report significant challenges with access, rather with affordability. We conclude that though interventions focused on improving the local food retail environment may be important for some subsamples of the food insecure population, it is unclear that proximity to a store with healthy food will support enhanced food security for all. We recommend that future research recognizes that determinants of food insecurity may vary within county or zip code level regions, and that multiple interventions that target sub-population clusters may elicit better improvements in access to and consumption of fruits and vegetables.