Source: KANSAS STATE UNIV submitted to NRP
FOOD SYSTEMS, HEALTH, AND WELL-BEING: UNDERSTANDING COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS AND DYNAMICS OF CHANGE
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0226198
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
NC-_old1196
Project Start Date
Oct 1, 2011
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2016
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
KANSAS STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MANHATTAN,KS 66506
Performing Department
Sociology, Soc Work & Anthrop
Non Technical Summary
Change in knowledge: The first impact on existing knowledge and awareness will be on the PI and research assistant as we become more aware of the research and learning in this area. Moreover, through this project we hope to engage community leaders and citizens in our research endeavors. Through dissemination of findings in academic outlets, interviews with local leaders, and focus groups with citizens, we hope to have a broad impact within communities. The PI at Kansas State University has a track record for publication, so dissemination into the scholarly literature is not seen as problematic. More challenging will be engagement at the community level. We hope to reach out to the Latino community in this research, thus we will be developing linkages with this minority group through the research process, but also through any related engagement activities. Change in action and conditions: Given the uphill battle against obesity regarding the current food situation (agriculture subsidies, heavy investment in food advertising, the location of retail options, societal values on what is appropriate to eat, etc.), we must be realistic in setting goals while staying optimistic. We do believe that we can have an impact at the community level, as well as within the national discourse. One of the major outcomes we seek is to bring the structural and cultural aspects of the food system to the attention of community leaders and reporters. One of the avenues we hope to pursue to regionally is to partner with the Center for Engagement and Community Development at Kansas State University in order to develop a public forum in which to discuss these issues.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7036099308033%
7246099302033%
8026099308034%
Knowledge Area
703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior; 724 - Healthy Lifestyle; 802 - Human Development and Family Well-Being;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education; 3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
1. To identify, assess, and analyze key determinants of health and well-being within the context of food systems. 2. To identify, assess, and analyze individual, collective, and institutional strategies that address constraints and opportunities to achieving optimal health and well-being. 3. To work with communities of interest to develop and test interventions to enhance health and wellbeing. Activities to accomplish these objectives include: reviewing the relevant literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data (possibly interview, survey, or mapping data), and writing up results for dissemination in the form of reports, articles, book chapters and/or other outlets. Products will include project data (potentially including maps), networks and collaborative relationships fostered through this research, and graduate student training and experience. We plan to disseminate results and outputs to academic and policy-oriented audiences for the purpose of advancing knowledge, encouraging positive action, and changing conditions. We plan to accomplish this through participation in conferences and submitting results to academic journals.
Project Methods
The first phase of the project will involve identifying and reviewing the literature relevant to food systems, health, and well-being. A synthesis of the main substantive and theoretical issues will be developed from this. Then the design of the research approach and strategy will be finalized. The population of particular interest in this project is the Latino population in Kansas communities. The nature of this project will most likely require a case study approach, in which the case studies are spatially defined communities. Thus, it will be necessary to develop criteria for case study selection. To create baseline knowledge for the project, we will collect and analyze existing/available data on local food environments, food choices and patterns, and local population health indicators. Interviews with key informants will be carried out, and the interview data analyzed. If possible within the project timeframe and resource availability, a survey of the local population will be carried out and the survey data analyzed.

Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience: Local/regional agri-food system stakeholders, including producers, processors, retailers, nutritionists, food banks, food pantries, rural grocery stores, city planners, etc. Academicians, including researchers and teachers Practitioners, including agricultural educators, in agencies such as Extension, NRCS, FSA and NGOs. Nutrition educators. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and Professional development. Two Master's theses in Sociology resulted from this project. One project examined food deserts and the decline of rural grocery stores in Kansas. It is the project of a Master's thesis, therefore it also entails the training and development of a Master's student. Activities on this project include literature review, data collection, and writing the thesis. The MA degree was granted in December 2014. A second MA thesis project examined food availability in Topeka, KS, exploring the effects of neighborhood racial and income composition. This MA degree was awarded in 2012. Finally, a dissertation project is underway based on this multistate project. It is expected that this project will be completed in 2018. A second dissertation is underway, and although it is not funded directly by NC1196, the doctoral student was trained on this project (MA thesis, 2014). A PhD student worked with Kansas State Office for the Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering "GROW" (Girls Researching Our World) Feed the Future Activity to lead an interactive activity on healthy food availability with groups of 6th through 8th grade female students. Students participate in hands-on activities presented by the graduate student. This was a one-day event and a summer workshop held on the main K-State campus in Manhattan KS. All workshops focus on the role of scientists, engineers, and other STEM professionals in making the world a better place. Developing and implementing this activity was an excellent training and development opportunity for the PhD student. Following is a summary of graduate students and post docs who received training and professional development under this project. Current Graduate Students (who are working on projects related to the multi-state project) Carnes, Rebekah, PhD student. (exact topic TBD). Miller, Michael. PhD Candidate. Dissertation topic: "The Neoliberal Food System and Consumer Agency." (Expected degree date: May, 2018) Rissler, Patrick. MA student. Thesis topic: "Food Deserts and Rural Grocery Store Decline in Rural Kansas." Rissler is now a PhD student working on related work. Post-Doctoral Researchers supervised (by Middendorf) during this period Ramos Truchero, Guadalupe, PhD. Period of supervision: Fall 2014. Project: Comparative Food Systems Studies in the US and Spain, Food Deserts. Becerra, Terrie, PhD. Period of supervision: 2013-2016. Projects: "Resilience and vulnerability of beef cattle production in the Southern Great Plains under changing climate, land use and markets." Funded by the Nat'l Institute of Food and Agric.(NIFA). Other participants and their collaborating institutions include the following: Karen Chapman-Novakofski, University of Illinois; Philip Howard, Michigan State University; Chery Smith, University of Minnesota; Sandy Rikoon, University of Missouri; Ardyth Gillespie, Cornell University; Patricia Allen, California-Santa Cruz; William Alex McIntosh, Texas AgriLife Research; Raymond Jussaume, Washington State University, et al. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Activities to Disseminate Results to Communites of Interest: Activities to reach Target Audiences As a PI, I am involved in various and broad efforts to better reach target audiences with project-related information, research and training. Early in this evaluation period, I was a member of the Steering Committee of the Rural Grocery Initiative at K-State. This is an effort to identify problems faced by rural grocers to supply healthy food to local populations. I am also engaged in my profession, in order to help do a better job of communicating research and outreach information to both academic audiences and policy-oriented audiences (through, e.g., presentations). Certainly, one of our main activities to disseminate results is through pulbication of results. These have been listed above. Additional activities to disseminate results are included below. Presentations (related) Rissler, Patrick. "The Health of Food Access in Kansas." Abstract accepted for the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, Columbus, OH, July 2017 (pending) Miller, Michael. "The Neoliberal Food System and Agency." Abstract accepted for the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, Columbus, OH, July 27-30, 2017 (pending). Miller, Michael, Patrick Rissler, Gerad Middendorf, and Spencer Wood. "Food Deserts in the Breadbasket: A Rural-Urban Comparison." Abstract accepted for the annual meetings of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, Los Angeles, CA, June 2017 (pending). Miller, Michael. 2017. "The Neoliberal Food System, Agency, and Civic Engagement." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society in Milwaukee, WI, March 30 - April 2, 2017. Miller, Michael and Patrick Rissler. 2016. "Food Deserts in the Breadbasket: A Rural-Urban Comparison." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society in Chicago, IL, March 23-36, 2016. (and at the Graduate Research Symposium. March 12. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS). Miller, Michael.2016. "Food Deserts in the Breadbasket: A Rural-Urban Comparison." A Day of Learning: Food Security Engagement Symposium, hosted by the Center for Engagement and Community Development (CECD) at the Kansas State Alumni Center, Manhattan, Kansas.April 4, 2016. Becerra, Terrie and Gerad Middendorf. 2016. "Attitudes and Beliefs of Beef Producers Regarding Climate Change." Annual meeting of the Grazing CAP Project, NIFA/USDA, Stillwater, OK, June 2016. Middendorf, Gerad. 2016. "Treadmills and the Social Organization of Environmental Problems." Invited presentation in the spring 2016 capstone course of the Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), Kansas State University, February 25, 2016 (invited). Sutherland, Albert, Terrie Becerra, and Gerad Middendorf. 2015. "Extension Attitudes and Needs on Climate and Weather in Kansas and Oklahoma." Paper presented at the meetings of the National Association of Agricultural Extension Agents in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in July, 2015. Miller, Michael. 2015. "Exploring the Dynamics Between Food System Development, Hunger and Food Insecurity in the U.S." Sociology Graduate Research Symposium, March 7. KSU, Manhattan, KS. Becerra, Terrie and Gerad Middendorf. 2014. "Attitudes of Extension Educators Regarding Climate Change." Poster presented at the Kansas State University Research and Extension Annual Conference, October 21-23, 2014. Becerra, Terrie and Gerad Middendorf. 2014. "Attitudes Regarding Climate Change in Beef Production Systems in the Southern Great Plains." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in New Orleans, July 30 - August 3, 2014. Middendorf, Gerad. 2014. "Understanding Farmer Adoption: Conceptual Considerations." Invited presentation at the Grazing CAP Extension Meeting, Wichita, KS, July 16, 2014. Middendorf, Gerad. 2014. Invited panelist/discussant for Global Food Forum Panel. "Food and Nutrition Security: K-State Perspectives." Comments presented at Kansas State University, May 5, 2014. Middendorf, Gerad. 2013. Invited panelist/discussant for World Food Day Panel. "Meeting World Food Needs: Challenges and Opportunities." Comments presented at Kansas State University, October 16, 2013. Kharel, Arjun and Gerad Middendorf. 2013. "Is Fair Trade 'Fair'?: A Study of Handmade Paper Producers in Nepal." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in New York, August 6-9, 2013. Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, and Patrick Rissler. 2012. "Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Segregation." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Chicago, IL, July 26-29, 2012. Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, and Patrick Rissler. 2012. "Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Segregation." Poster and oral presentation delivered at the XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology in Lisbon Portugal, July 29?August 4th, 2012. Miller, Michael and Gerad Middendorf. 2012. "Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Segregation." Paper presented at the Kansas State University Rural Grocery Summit, Manhattan, KS, June 5 -6, 2012. Middendorf, B. Jan and Gerad Middendorf. 2011. "International & Cross-Cultural Partnerships: Understanding Relationships or Mutual Support and Value: Valuing our Partners: Lessons Learned Through Building Relationships with Kenya Partners." Paper presented at the American Evaluation Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA. I am also on the editorial boards of various journals in this field in order to improve the communication of research related to food systems and health outcomes (see below). Professional Service to Help Reach Target Audiences Editorial Boards Member, Editorial Board of the journal, Rural Sociology, 2011 - 2014. Member, Editorial Board of the Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy, 2006 - present. Member, Editorial Board of the journal, Investigación & Desarrollo (Research & Development), a Latin American social sciences journal, 2010 - present. Member, Editorial Board of the Journal of Land and Rural Studies, a journal of the Center for Rural Studies, National Institute of Administrative Research, India. Published by Sage-India. 2012 - present. Editorial Advisory Panel Member, Editorial Advisory Panel in Social Science and Policy for the journal Nature Plants, a journal from Nature Publishing Group, 2015- present. Manuscript Review (to help new knowledge reach target audiences Peer reviewer for the following journals: Agriculture and Human Values American Journal of Alternative Agriculture Food and Foodways International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food Investigación & Desarrollo Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics Journal of Human Sciences and Extension Journal of Land and Rural Studies Journal of Rural Studies Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy Public Understanding of Science Qualitative Sociology Rural Sociology Studies in Social Justice Peer reviewer of book proposals or full book manuscripts for the following publishers: Earthscan (reviewed book proposal) Oxford University Press (reviewed book proposal) Westview Press (reviewed full manuscript) Activities in Professional Societies (to help related work reach target audiences) Panel Organizer, "Food Systems, Health, and Well-being: Understanding Complex Relationships and Dynamics of Change." Panel organized for the annual meetings of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, Los Angeles, CA, June 2017. (accepted, pending). Panel Organizer, "Methodological Approaches in Food Systems, Health, and Well-being Research." Panel organized for the annual meetings of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, Los Angeles, CA, June 2017. (accepted, pending) Member, Development Committee, Rural Sociological Society, 2011 - 2014. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Activities and Accomplishments toward project goals Activities to accomplish these objectives include: reviewing the literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up results for dissemination in the form of reports, articles, book chapters and/or other outlets. Products include project data, research materials, networks, collaborative relationships fostered through this research, and graduate student training and development. We are disseminating results and outputs to academic and policy-oriented audiences for the purpose of advancing knowledge, encouraging positive action, and changing conditions. We accomplish this through participation in conferences and submitting results to academic journals. We have engaged in developing theoretical and empirical tools to study food environments. This effort was a literature review of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the food system. Key products related to this activity were: (1) a journal article published in Rural Sociology, which examines the relationships between availability of healthy foods and the racial/income composition of neighborhoods in Topeka, KS; (2) A journal article published in Investigación & Desarrollo exploring theoretical approaches to food systems. Also, two Master's theses in Sociology resulted from this project. One project examined food deserts and the decline of rural grocery stores in Kansas. It is the project of a Master's thesis, therefore it also entails the training and development of a Master's student. Activities on this project include literature review, data collection, and writing the thesis. The MA degree was granted in December 2014. A second MA thesis project examined food availability in Topeka, KS, exploring the effects of neighborhood racial and income composition. This MA degree was awarded in 2012. Finally, a dissertation project is underway based on this multistate project. It is expected that this project will be completed in 2018. A second dissertation is underway, and although it is not funded directly by NC1196, the doctoral student was trained on this project (MA thesis, 2014). Events Multi-state research project meetings were held in Columbia, MO (2012), Kansas City, MO (2013), Salisbury, MD (2014), Washington, DC (2015), and Atlantic, IA (2016). The meetings were all successful efforts. We brought new collaborators into the project, in particular from the field of public health and nutrition. A number of local visits were organized -- to organizations concerned with addressing issues of access and availability of healthy foods, school projects, community gardening projects, etc. The group reviewed our current work, and brainstormed about new proposals, and there was significant energy around the idea of a proposal for a comprehensive project on food pantries. I am working with a PhD student on a dissertation related to this project. Accordingly, he has: reviewed the literature, designed the research approach and strategy, and has written up the dissertation proposal, which will be defended later this summer. A PhD student worked with Kansas State Office for the Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering "GROW" (Girls Researching Our World) Feed the Future Activity to lead an interactive activity on healthy food availability with groups of 6th through 8th grade female students. Students participate in hands-on activities presented by undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. These are one-day events and a summer workshop held on the main K-State campus in Manhattan KS. All workshops focus on the role of scientists, engineers, and other STEM professionals in making the world a better place.April 9, 2016. Outcomes/Impacts (change in knowledge, actions, conditions) Synergistic Funding Efforts (to impact conditions) Another accomplishment of this project is synergistic funding efforts. KS1196 is also enabling other actions and a change in conditions. The project helped Middendorf participate in the grants/grant proposals below. Co-Principal Investigator (with David Engle (PD/PI), Jean Steiner, Charles Rice, et al. as Co-PIs. "Resilience and vulnerability of beef cattle production in the Southern Great Plains under changing climate, land use and markets." Funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA/USDA). Funded at $9,567,331 over five years. Co-Investigator, with Rice, Charles (PI), Daniel Devlin et al. (Co-Investigators). "Sustaining Agriculture through Adaptive Management Resilient to a Declining Ogallala Aquifer and Changing Climate." [This is a proposal to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA/USDA). Funding is for $4.99 million over five years (2015-2020)]. (not funded). Middendorf, Gerad (PI), with Terrie Becerra (Co-PI), et al. "Rancher identity and willingness to adopt practices to improve and protect water quality." Preproposal submitted to NCR SARE. Amount requested: $200,000 over three years. (not funded). Middendorf, Gerad (Principle Investigator. "Challenges and Successes: Access to Food, Community Engagement, Careers, and Environmental Well-being through Urban Agriculture in the Greater Kansas City Area." [Proposal to the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (NC SARE). Requested $9,996 over two years]. (under review).

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Becerra, Terrie A., Gerad Middendorf, Amber Campbell, and Peter Tomlinson. 2016. Attitudes of Extension Educators in Kansas and Oklahoma Regarding Climate Change. Journal of Extension 54(6).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, and Spencer D. Wood. 2015. Food Availability in the Heartland: Exploring the Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Composition. Rural Sociology 80(3): 340-361.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Kharel, Arjun and Gerad Middendorf. 2015. Is Fair Trade Fair? A Study of Handmade Paper Producers in Nepal. Journal of Land and Rural Studies 3(2): 253-273.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Steiner, J. L., Engle, D. M., Xiao, X., Saleh, A., Tomlinson, P., Rice, C. W., Cole, N. A., Coleman, S. W., Osei, E., Basara, J., Middendorf, G., Gowda, P., Todd, R., Moffet, C., Anandhi, A., Starks, P. J., Ocshner, T., Reuter, R. and Devlin, D. 2014. Knowledge and tools to enhance resilience of beef grazing systems for sustainable animal protein production. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1328: 1017.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Miller, Michael, Patrick Rissler, Gerad Middendorf, and Spencer D. Wood. (in progress). Food Deserts in the Breadbasket: A Rural-Urban Comparison.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Rissler, Patrick and Gerad Middendorf. (in progress) Understanding Rural Food Deserts: Coping Strategies for People Living in Low Access Food Areas in Rural Kansas.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Rissler, Patrick and Gerad Middendorf. (in progress) Food Deserts and Rural Grocery Store Decline in Rural Kansas.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Miller, Michael. PhD Candidate. Dissertation topic: The Neoliberal Food System and Consumer Agency (Expected degree date: 2018).
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Rissler, Patrick. 2015. Understanding Rural Food Deserts: Coping Strategies for People Living in Low Access Food Areas in Rural Kansas. M.A. thesis, Kansas State University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Miller, Michael. 2012. Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Composition. M.A. thesis, Kansas State University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2011 Citation: Monier, Janis. 2011. Community Development in Rural America: The Exchange of Capital Resources in Norton County, Kansas. Ph.D. Dissertation, Kansas State University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2011 Citation: Kharel, Arjun. 2011. Is Fair Trade Fair?: A Study on Fair Trade Paper Producers in Nepal. M.A. thesis, Kansas State University.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Middendorf, Gerad. 2013. Making the Case: An Actor Network Approach to Agricultural Development. Investigaci�n & Desarrollo 21(2): 513-544.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2011 Citation: Selfa, Theresa, Laszlo Kulcs�r, Carmen Bain, Richard Goe and Gerad Middendorf. 2011. Biofuels Bonanza? Exploring Community Perceptions of the Promises and Perils of Biofuels Production. Biomass and Bioenergy 35(4): 1379-1389.


Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Local/regional agri-food system stakeholders, including producers, processors, retailers, nutritionists, food banks, food pantries, rural grocery stores, city planners, etc. Academicians, including researchers and teachers Practitioners, including agricultural educators, in agencies such as Extension, NRCS, FSA and NGOs. Nutrition educators. Activities to reach Target Audiences As a PI, I am involved in various and broad efforts to better reach target audiences with project-related information, research and training. Since 2010 I have been a member of the Steering Committee of the Rural Grocery Initiative at K-State. This is an effort to identify problems faced by rural grocers to supply healthy food to local populations. I am also engaged in my profession, in order to help do a better job of communicating research and outreach information to both academic audiences and policy-oriented audiences. I am also on the editorial boards of various journals in this field in order to improve the communication of research related to food systems and health outcomes. These journals include Rural Sociology, the Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy, Investigación y Desarrollo, and the Journal of Rural Development. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project builds on previous work with NC1033. The current project builds on the vast efforts of the previous work focused on food deserts. This project examines how families make food decisions in order to deal with issues of access. The earlier approach emphasized structural barriers to food, including local foods. This project will tie these barriers to food decision making to both families and the retail and food assistance sectors of the local food systems. The current project focuses on identifying, assessing and analyzing key determinants of health and well being within the context of food systems. The analysis focuses on family decision making and the food system in various community contexts with an emphasis on the relationships between family and community food systems and the implications of these for health. The team uses focus groups and surveys of local populations. The project further draws upon consumer research on how families make purchasing decisions. Input from communities themselves is utilized using the participatory Action Research (PAR) and Collaborative Engaged Research (CER). The project will collect data from communities in North Eastern, Midwestern, South Western and West Coast states that enables comparisons about similarities and differences. The multistate project also attempts to capture food insecure populations contrasting them with the more traditional food assistant recipients. Goals/Objectives/Expected Outputs Objectives 1. To identify, assess, and analyze key determinants of health and well-being within the context of food systems. 2. To identify, assess, and analyze individual, collective, and institutional strategies that address constraints and opportunities to achieving optimal health and well-being. 3. To work with communities of interest to develop and test interventions to enhance health and wellbeing. Outputs (activities, events, products) Activities Activities to accomplish these objectives include: reviewing the literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up results for dissemination in the form of reports, articles, book chapters and/or other outlets. Products include project data, networks, collaborative relationships fostered through this research, and graduate student training and development. We are disseminating results and outputs to academic and policy-oriented audiences for the purpose of advancing knowledge, encouraging positive action, and changing conditions. We accomplish this through participation in conferences and submitting results to academic journals. We have engaged in developing theoretical and empirical tools to study food environments. This effort was a literature review of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the food system. Key products related to this activity were: (1) a journal article forthcoming in Rural Sociology, which examines the relationships between availability of healthy foods and the racial/income composition of neighborhoods in Topeka, KS. A second project examines food deserts and the decline of rural grocery stores in Kansas. It is the project of a Master's thesis, therefore it also entails the training and development of another Master's student. Activities on this project include literature review, data collection, and writing the thesis proposal. The thesis was successfully defended in 2014, and the MA degree was granted in December 2014. Events This year the multi-state research project meeting was held in Salisbury, MD. The meeting was very successful. We brought new collaborators into the project, in particular from the field of public health and nutrition. A number of local visits were organized -- to organizations concerned with addressing issues of access and availability of healthy foods in the area. The group reviewed our current work, and brainstormed about new proposals, and there was significant energy around the idea of a proposal for a comprehensive project on food pantries. Upon returning to K-State I am working with a PhD student who will develop a dissertation related to this project. Accordingly, he is currently working on: reviewing the literature, designing the research approach and strategy, and writing up the proposal.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Middendorf, Gerad. 2014. Understanding Farmer Adoption: Conceptual Considerations. Invited presentation at the Grazing CAP Extension Meeting, Wichita, KS, July 16, 2014. Middendorf, Gerad. 2014. Invited panelist/discussant for Global Food Forum Panel. Food and Nutrition Security: K-State Perspectives. Comments presented at Kansas State University, May 5, 2014. Miller, Michael and Patrick Rissler. 2014. Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Composition. Presented at the Graduate Research Symposium, Kansas State University, March 2014. Rissler, Patrick S. 2014. Coping Strategies for People Living in Low Access Food Areas in Rural Kansas. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in New Orleans, July 30 - August 3, 2014.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, and Spencer D. Wood. Forthcoming. Food Availability in the Heartland: Exploring the Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Composition. Rural Sociology. Steiner, J. L., Engle, D. M., Xiao, X., Saleh, A., Tomlinson, P., Rice, C. W., Cole, N. A., Coleman, S. W., Osei, E., Basara, J., Middendorf, G., Gowda, P., Todd, R., Moffet, C., Anandhi, A., Starks, P. J., Ocshner, T., Reuter, R. and Devlin, D. 2014. Knowledge and tools to enhance resilience of beef grazing systems for sustainable animal protein production. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1328: 1017. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12572
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Rissler, Pat. 2014. Understanding Rural Food Deserts: Coping Strategies for People Living in Low Access Food Areas in Rural Kansas. M.A. thesis, Kansas State University.


Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Local/regional agri-food system stakeholders, including producers, processors, retailers, nutritionists, food banks, food pantries, rural grocery stores, city planners, etc. Academicians, including researchers and teachers Practitioners, including agricultural educators, in agencies such as Extension, NRCS, FSA and NGOs. Nutrition educators. As a PI, I am involved in various and broad efforts to better reach target audiences with project-related information, research and training. Since 2010 I have been a member of the Steering Committee of the Rural Grocery Initiative at K-State. This is an effort to identify problems faced by rural grocers to supply healthy food to local populations. I am also engaged in my profession, in order to help do a better job of communicating research and outreach information to both academic audiences and policy-oriented audiences. I am Co-Editor of the Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy. I am also on the editorial boards of various journals in this field in order to improve the communication of research related to food systems and health outcomes. These journals include Rural Sociology, the Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy, Investigación y Desarrollo, and the Journal of Rural Development. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Activities to accomplish these objectives include: reviewing the literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data (InfoUSA data on food outlets in Topeka, KS, Census data, etc.), and writing up results for dissemination in the form of reports, articles, book chapters and/or other outlets. Products include project data, networks, collaborative relationships fostered through this research, and graduate student training and development. We are disseminating results and outputs to academic and policy-oriented audiences for the purpose of advancing knowledge, encouraging positive action, and changing conditions. We accomplish this through participation in conferences and submitting results to academic journals. We have engaged in developing theoretical and empirical tools to study food environments. This effort was a literature review of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the food system. Key products related to this activity were: (1) a journal article published in Investigación & Desarrollo, a Latin American social sciences journal; (2) a manuscript that examines the relationships between availability of healthy foods and the racial/income composition of neighborhoods in Topeka, KS. This is nearly ready for submission to a journal. This project had previously resulted in a Master’s thesis at K-State, for which I was chair. The Master’s student has now moved on to the PhD program, and will continue on a related project for his PhD. A second project examines food deserts and the decline of rural grocery stores in Kansas. It is the project of a Master’s thesis, therefore it also entails the training and development of another Master’s student. Activities on this project include literature review, data collection, and writing the thesis proposal. The thesis proposal will be defended in March, and the project will result in an MA thesis in 2014. Events This year I was the vice chair (i.e., local organizer) for the multi-state research project meeting. It was held in Kansas City, MO, and was attended by about 15 members of our group. The meeting was very successful. We brought new collaborators into the project, in particular from the field of public health and nutrition. I organized for the group local visits to the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition and KC Healthy Kids, both organizations concerned with addressing issues of access and availability of healthy foods in the KC metro area. We also visited the Juniper Gardens Training Farm, which is the home of Cultivate Kansas City’s Farm Business Development Program. Further, we had a conference call with our administrator at USDA, and had a visitor from Harvesters. The group reviewed our current work, and brainstormed about new proposals, and there was significant energy around the idea of a proposal for a comprehensive project on food pantries. Upon returning to K-State I am working with a PhD student who will develop a dissertation related to this project. Accordingly, he is currently working on: reviewing the literature, designing the research approach and strategy, and writing up the proposal.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Middendorf, Gerad. 2013. Making the Case: An Actor Network Approach to Agricultural Development. Investigaci�n & Desarrollo 21(2): 513-544.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Middendorf, Gerad. 2013. Invited panelist/discussant for World Food Day Panel. "Meeting World Food Needs: Challenges and Opportunities." Comments presented at Kansas State University, October 16, 2013.


Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities to accomplish these objectives include: reviewing the relevant literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data (InfoUSA data on food outlets in Topeka, KS, Census data, etc.), and writing up results for dissemination in the form of reports, articles, book chapters and/or other outlets. Products will include project data, networks and collaborative relationships fostered through this research, and graduate student training and experience. We plan to disseminate results and outputs to academic and policy-oriented audiences for the purpose of advancing knowledge, encouraging positive action, and changing conditions. We plan to accomplish this through participation in conferences and submitting results to academic journals. We have engaged in developing theoretical and empirical tools to study food environments. This effort was a literature review of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the food system. Key products related to this activity were: (1) a journal manuscript, which is currently under review Investigacion & Desarrollo, a Latin American social sciences journal; (2) a second paper examines the relationships between availability of healthy foods and the racial/income composition of neighborhoods in Topeka, KS. This paper was presented at two conferences, and is in preparation for submission to a journal. This project also resulted in a Master's thesis at K-State, for which I was chair. I attended the multi-state research project meeting in Columbia, MO in October of 2012. This meeting was extremely helpful, and was connected to a larger conference - Food Insecurity: Assessing Disparities Consequences, and Policies. Upon returning to K-State I worked with a graduate student to complete his MA thesis on the Food Availability project in Topeka, KS. He defended the thesis in the Fall, and is now continuing on to the PhD program. He will expand the food security work in his dissertation. Accordingly, we worked on the following toward accomplishing project objectives: reviewing the relevant literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data, and completing the project. Products include project data, networks and collaborative relationships fostered through this research, graduate student training and experience, presentations, an MA thesis, and a manuscript. Products will also include other publications. PARTICIPANTS: Middendorf, Gerad. Kansas State University was a PI on the project during the period. Miller, Michael. Masters (now PhD) student in Sociology, Kansas State University. Other participants and their collaborating institutions include the following: Karen Chapman-Novakofski, University of Illinois; Philip Howard, Michigan State University; Chery Smith, University of Minnesota; Sandy Rikoon, University of Missouri; Ardyth Gillespie, Cornell University; Patricia Allen, California-Santa Cruz; William Alex McIntosh, Texas AgriLife Research; Raymond Jussaume, Washington State University, et al. TARGET AUDIENCES: Local/regional agri-food system stakeholders, including producers, processors, retailers, nutritionists. Academicians, including researchers and teachers. Practitioners, including agricultural educators, in agencies such as Extension, NRCS, FSA and NGOs. Nutrition educators. Ultimately, under-served audiences, in particular including Latinos in the region. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
KS1196 is also enabling other actions and a change in conditions. The project helped Middendorf participate in the grant proposal below. Co-Principal Investigator (with David Engle (PD/PI), Jean Steiner, Charles Rice, et al. as Co-PIs. Resilience and vulnerability of beef cattle production in the Southern Great Plains under changing climate, land use and markets. Funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA/USDA). Funded at $9,567,331 over five years.

Publications

  • Miller, Michael. 2012. Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Composition. M.A. thesis, Kansas State University.
  • Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, and Patrick Rissler. 2012. Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Segregation. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Chicago, IL, July 26-29, 2012.
  • Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, and Patrick Rissler. 2012. Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Segregation. Poster and oral presentation delivered at the XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology in Lisbon Portugal, July 29 August 4th, 2012.
  • Miller, Michael and Gerad Middendorf. 2012. Food Availability in the Heartland: Effects of Neighborhood Racial and Income Segregation. Paper presented at the Kansas State University Rural Grocery Summit, Manhattan, KS, June 5 -6, 2012.


Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities to accomplish these objectives include: reviewing the relevant literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data (InfoUSA data on food outlets in Topeka, KS, Census data, etc.), and writing up results for dissemination in the form of reports, articles, book chapters and/or other outlets. Products will include project data, networks and collaborative relationships fostered through this research, and graduate student training and experience. We plan to disseminate results and outputs to academic and policy-oriented audiences for the purpose of advancing knowledge, encouraging positive action, and changing conditions. We plan to accomplish this through participation in conferences and submitting results to academic journals. We have engaged in developing theoretical and empirical tools to study food environments. This effort was a literature review of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the food system. Key products related to this activity were: (1) a journal manuscript, which is currently under review Investigacion & Desarrollo, a Latin American social sciences journal; (2) a second paper that reviews the recent theoretical approaches in agrifood and rural studies. An abstract of this paper has been submitted to two conferences for presentation; and (3) a new, empirical research project that examines the relationships between availability of healthy foods and the racial/income composition of neighborhoods in Topeka, KS. This project is the basis for a Master's thesis, for which I am chair, and an abstract has been submitted to two conferences for presentation (see publications for 1-3 above). I attended the multi-state research project meeting in Washington, DC in November of 2011. This meeting was extremely helpful, and got me on track with the project. Upon returning to K-State I worked with a graduate student to work with me on the Food Availability project in Topeka, KS. He is pursuing his Master's thesis related to the project, and has written up his proposal, which is ready to defend. Accordingly, we have working on the following toward accomplishing project objectives: reviewing the relevant literature, designing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing data. Products will include project data, networks and collaborative relationships fostered through this research, graduate student training and experience, and an MA thesis. Products will also include other publications. PARTICIPANTS: Middendorf, Gerad. Kansas State University was a PI on the project during the period. Miller, Michael. Master's student in Sociology, Kansas State University. Other participants and their collaborating institutions include the following: Karen Chapman-Novakofski, University of Illinois; Philip Howard, Michigan State University; Chery Smith, University of Minnesota; Sandy Rikoon, University of Missouri; Ardyth Gillespie, Cornell University; Patricia Allen, California-Santa Cruz; William Alex McIntosh, Texas AgriLife Research; Raymond Jussaume, Washington State University, et al. TARGET AUDIENCES: Local/regional agri-food system stakeholders, including producers, processors, retailers, nutritionists. Academicians, including researchers and teachers. Practitioners, including agricultural educators, in agencies such as Extension, NRCS, FSA and NGOs. Nutrition educators. Ultimately, under-served audiences, in particular including Latinos in the region. As a PI, I am involved in various and broad efforts to better reach target audiences with project-related information, research and training. Since 2010 I have been a member of the Steering Committee of the Rural Grocery Initiative at K-State. This was an effort to identify problems faced by rural grocers to supply healthy food to local populations. I am also engaged in my profession, in order to help do a better job of communicating research and outreach information to both academic audiences and policy-oriented audiences. I am Co-Editor of the Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy. I am also on the editorial boards of various journals in this field in order to improve the communication of research related to food systems and health outcomes. These journals include Rural Sociology, the Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy, and Investigacion y Desarrollo. In order to better train students interested in the project area, I am on the Steering Committee for the AREM (Agricultural Resources and Environmental Management), a Graduate Certificate program for students at K-State and abroad. I also help to team-teach the course. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
KS1196 is also enabling other actions and a change in conditions. The project helped Middendorf to write the grant proposal below. This grant seeks funding for us to study the opportunities and challenges related to developing urban agricultural systems in the Kansas City Metro area. Middendorf, Gerad (Principle Investigator). Challenges and Successes: Access to Food, Community Engagement, Careers, and Environmental Well-being through Urban Agriculture in the Greater Kansas City Area. [Proposal to the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (NC SARE).

Publications

  • Selfa, Theresa, Laszlo Kulcsar, Carmen Bain, Richard Goe and Gerad Middendorf. 2011. Biofuels Bonanza Exploring Community Perceptions of the Promises and Perils of Biofuels Production. Biomass and Bioenergy 35(4): 1379-1389.
  • Monier, Janis. 2011. Community Development in Rural America: The Exchange of Capital Resources in Norton County, Kansas. Ph.D. Dissertation, Kansas State University.
  • Kharel, Arjun. 2011. Is Fair Trade Fair: A Study on Fair Trade Paper Producers in Nepal. M.A. thesis, Kansas State University.