How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security

Globally, around 2 billion people are affected by moderate to severe food insecurity. The linkages from food security through to environmental sustainability are well established, but not yet well measured. This is a critical gap, as it hampers our understanding of how environmental shocks carry thr...

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Autores principales: Bell, Andrew Reid, Roberts, Mari A., Grace, Kathryn L., Morgan, Alexander, Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: IOP Publishing 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171339
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author Bell, Andrew Reid
Roberts, Mari A.
Grace, Kathryn L.
Morgan, Alexander
Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque
author_browse Bell, Andrew Reid
Grace, Kathryn L.
Morgan, Alexander
Roberts, Mari A.
Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque
author_facet Bell, Andrew Reid
Roberts, Mari A.
Grace, Kathryn L.
Morgan, Alexander
Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque
author_sort Bell, Andrew Reid
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Globally, around 2 billion people are affected by moderate to severe food insecurity. The linkages from food security through to environmental sustainability are well established, but not yet well measured. This is a critical gap, as it hampers our understanding of how environmental shocks carry through to become consumption shocks to households, communities, or regions; how responses to these shocks (e.g., dietary substitutions) feed back into further environmental stress. In this study, we present preliminary results from an innovative approach that could transform conventional practices of measuring food consumption into data on the same temporal and spatial footing as environmental data. We developed an alternative approach to conventional one-off food consumption measures that harnesses the expanding presence of mobile and smartphones, measuring food consumption over time with precision and with the potential to capture seasonal shifts in diet and food consumption patterns. Our method provides a picture of breaks and booms in access to forms of food calories, and the ability to compare different moments in time, such as those before and after a nutrition or other economic intervention, a key priority area for research and humanitarian decision-making in nutrition. We show that the distribution of food calories over time is a stronger prediction of health outcomes than any one period's measure, as might be obtained in a conventional household survey, and discuss the part that methods like this should play in a future reimagination of rural engagement and social data collection.
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spelling CGSpace1713392025-02-19T14:36:12Z How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security Bell, Andrew Reid Roberts, Mari A. Grace, Kathryn L. Morgan, Alexander Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque food security food consumption diet calories nutrition smartphones surveys Globally, around 2 billion people are affected by moderate to severe food insecurity. The linkages from food security through to environmental sustainability are well established, but not yet well measured. This is a critical gap, as it hampers our understanding of how environmental shocks carry through to become consumption shocks to households, communities, or regions; how responses to these shocks (e.g., dietary substitutions) feed back into further environmental stress. In this study, we present preliminary results from an innovative approach that could transform conventional practices of measuring food consumption into data on the same temporal and spatial footing as environmental data. We developed an alternative approach to conventional one-off food consumption measures that harnesses the expanding presence of mobile and smartphones, measuring food consumption over time with precision and with the potential to capture seasonal shifts in diet and food consumption patterns. Our method provides a picture of breaks and booms in access to forms of food calories, and the ability to compare different moments in time, such as those before and after a nutrition or other economic intervention, a key priority area for research and humanitarian decision-making in nutrition. We show that the distribution of food calories over time is a stronger prediction of health outcomes than any one period's measure, as might be obtained in a conventional household survey, and discuss the part that methods like this should play in a future reimagination of rural engagement and social data collection. 2021-04-01 2025-01-29T12:58:02Z 2025-01-29T12:58:02Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171339 en Open Access IOP Publishing Bell, Andrew Reid; Roberts, Mari A.; Grace, Kathryn L.; Morgan, Alexander; Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque; et al. 2021. How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security. Environmental Research Letters16(4): 041002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe674
spellingShingle food security
food consumption
diet
calories
nutrition
smartphones
surveys
Bell, Andrew Reid
Roberts, Mari A.
Grace, Kathryn L.
Morgan, Alexander
Tamal, Md. Ehsanul Haque
How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
title How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
title_full How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
title_fullStr How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
title_full_unstemmed How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
title_short How high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
title_sort how high frequency food diaries can transform understanding of food security
topic food security
food consumption
diet
calories
nutrition
smartphones
surveys
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171339
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