Ecology of Food and Nutrition (EFN) promotes scholarly discussion and engagement on the holistic and cross-cultural dimensions of the study of food and nutrition. Articles published in this journal focus on foods and food systems not only in terms of their utilization to satisfy human nutritional needs and health but also how social and cultural factors relate to food, food cultures, and nutrition. Only a handful of journals publish articles that explicitly address the intersections of food and nutrition, biology and culture, and policy and practice from a holistic and global perspective. It is this scholarship that EFN seeks to promote. This issue of EFN includes three articles discussing cutting-edge issues in food and nutrition, including food insecurity, use of information and communication technology for effective food distribution, and the food culture mismatch.
The article by Kihlstorm et al. presents the results of a research study examining the association between food insecurity and health-related quality of life in an older adult population – a rapidly growing population segment in the United States. This important study focuses on predictors of food insecurity (e.g., low income, minority status, single, disability) among older adults. The researchers used cross-sectional surveys completed by 234 older adults accessing health services at three primary care clinics in Florida. Based on a rigorous statistical analysis of their data, Kihlstorm and colleagues conclude that food insecure older adults were more likely to report physically unhealthy days and activity limitation days. This study strongly underscores the importance of considering food insecurity among older adults, especially for developing intervention program, policy planning, and implementation.
The article by Ross et al. presents the findings of a unique study that seeks to examine the acceptability of and need for a smartphone app-based delivery service among Baltimore City corner store owners and wholesalers/distributors in order to improve access to healthier foods in neighborhood corner stores. The authors collected qualitative data from wholesalers, distributors, and store owners in addition to a range of other stakeholders to understand the feasibility and cultural adaptability of app-based delivery service in Baltimore City. Their study suggests that while there is a generalized acceptability of app-based food delivery services among storeowners, costs associated with such a delivery system and lack of foreign language capability may act as barriers to the adoption of such an innovative food delivery service system.
Finally, the article by Agaronov et al. presents the results of a participatory action research project among Black and Latino adolescents in New York City. The study’s main objective was to compare the experience of Black and Latino adolescents between their school and home food environments. The authors used a grounded theory approach to learn about the mismatch between food-related experiences of adolescents at home and school. The article offers a detailed and nuanced discussion of food culture mismatch in terms of sensory-emotional and sociopolitical experiences of adolescents between school and home and offers excellent policy and praxis implications of these findings.