from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
|
|
JAFSCD is the world’s only community-supported journal. JAFSCD content is open access (free) thanks to the generous support of our shareholders: the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium, Library Shareholders, a growing number of Individual Shareholders, and our six JAFSCD Partners: |
|
|
The cover image represents the University of Kentucky's innovative employee-benefit community supported agriculture (CSA) program, which provides a voucher to offset the cost for employees and retirees. |
| |
|
JAFSCD article by Sonja Mydels (Minnesota Department of Health, MDH), Liana Schreiber (MDH), Hannah Colby (Aitkin County Public Health), Taylour Blakeman (Healthy Northland Statewide Health Improvement Partnership), Hilary Gebauer (MDH), and Sadie Gannett (MDH)
Produce Prescription programs (PPRs), in which healthcare providers prescribe no or low-cost produce, have shown promise in improving food security, health outcomes and produce consumption. However, research on essential implementation components is limited especially across all sectors involved and in rural settings.
In a new JAFSCD article, Using implementation science to understand the implementation factors in a rural Produce Prescription program, authors Mydels et al. present findings from a case study using the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation and Sustainment (EPIS) framework to examine factors that facilitate and hinder implementation of a rural PPR from the perspective of partners from food systems, healthcare, and public health sectors.
Corresponding author Sonja Mydels can be contacted at mydel001@gmail.com. KEY FINDINGS
Three key themes emerged that shape the success and sustainability of PPRs: resources and support; processes and infrastructure; and staffing and roles.
Key factors that influenced successful PPR implementation included adequate staffing, collaboration within sectors and across sectors, funding and implementation sustainability, unique factors related to the rural geography, and the local economy.
Common challenges included transportation, space, staffing, and environmental factors, like drought. The EPIS framework can serve as a practical framework for public health or other convening organizations to design and adapt PPRs across sectors in rural areas.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH
Through applying this framework, the researchers gained valuable insights into the critical organizational characteristics and processes necessary to successfully implement a rural PPR. The findings highlight the importance of cross-sector partnerships and sustained collaboration among healthcare, public health, and food systems in successfully implementing rural PPR.
Policymakers should consider PPRs not only as an evidence-based strategy to reduce food insecurity but also as a means to support local food systems and rural economies. We strongly encourage practitioners to invest in developing partnerships and clear communication across sectors to support planning, address barriers, and find solutions to create resilient produce prescription programs. We also recommend that future research explore implementation factors in diverse settings, as well as long-term impacts on participants and communities.
SHARE ON YOUR SOCIALS
Produce Prescription programs (PPRs), in which healthcare providers prescribe no or low-cost produce, have shown promise in improving food security, health outcomes, and produce consumption. However, research on essential implementation components is limited, especially across all sectors involved and in rural settings. Read the entire @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.143.028
|
Photo above: A filled "prescription" for a Produce Prescription program recipient consists of a variety of fresh vegetables and other produce. Photo provided by the authors. |
|
|
JAFSCD article by Emma Brinkmeyer (North Carolina State U), Gabrielle Roesch-McNally (American Farmland Trust), Hannah Dankbar (North Carolina State U), Maritza Pierre (Ohio State U), Erin Upton and Nicole Gwishiri (American Farmland Trust), Ebonie Alexander and Carrie Martin (Black Family Land Trust), and Grace Summers (Virginia State U)
Black and Indigenous women farmers face a complex set of challenges in their farming operations such as a changing climate, institutional discrimination, and a historic wealth gap. The compounding nature of these issues presents an opportunity for agricultural technical assistance providers to develop innovative educational approaches that build capacity and resilience.
In a new JAFSCD article, Seeding resilience: Building knowledge and capacity through relationships among Black and Indigenous women farmers, authors Brinkmeyer, Roesch-McNally, Dankbar, Pierre, Upton, Gwishiri, Alexander, Martin, and Summers share findings from a pilot training program, “Get Climate Smart: Food and Agricultural Systems’ Resilience Training,” led by American Farmland Trust, NC Extension, and Black Family Land Trust. This program engaged 30 Black and Indigenous women farmers in North Carolina and focused on climate-smart, conservation-focused agricultural practices. Using a collaborative learning circle model, the program supported participants in strengthening technical, economic, and leadership skills while facilitating a peer-to-peer learning network to bolster individual, farm, and community resilience.
Corresponding author Emma Brinkmeyer can be contacted at eebrinkm@ncsu.edu. KEY FINDINGS -
Almost all program participants discussed how the cohort model enabled peer-to-peer learning inside and outside of the program, thus forming a learning network, an initial step in building social sustainability.
-
Producers made changes in their land production practices to improve climate resilience and deepen their legacy for future generations and their broader community.
-
Along with providing technical knowledge, the program aimed to encourage participants to build relationships within their local community. Participants reported connecting their farm with local markets and organizations and expressing interest in bringing their community to their farm/garden.
-
Several participants also expressed that this program helped them see a larger community movement in which there is “a rebirth of Black people being connected to the land.”
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH - Relationships are an element of social sustainability and climate resilience\
- Facilitate participatory design of program curriculum (don’t forget the coffee!)
- Assess impacts in qualitative and quantitative ways
-
Be knowledgeable about local history
- Emphasize belonging and mattering alongside technical content
SHARE ON YOUR SOCIALS
Relationships are an element of social sustainability and climate resilience. A pilot program in North Carolina facilitated by @farmland, @localfoodncstate, and @BFLT aimed to build a network of Black and Indigenous women farmers who are managing land and local food systems to be climate resilient. Read the full @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.143.025
Photo above: Get Climate Smart learning circles encouraged peer-to-peer learning. Photo by Rebecca Drobis. |
|
|
Film and Books Available for Review
Interested in documentaries and like to review one and share your thoughts with JAFSCD’s readers? Or need some summer reading? Fill out this quick review query form. You can also use the form to suggest other films, books, or reports for review. The selected reviewer will receive free access to the film or the book (hard copy or ebook).
|
|
|
|
Farming While Black: As the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, Leah Penniman finds strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism — agricultural practices that can heal people and the planet. Influenced and inspired by Karen Washington, a pioneer in urban community gardens in New York City, and fellow farmer and organizer Blain Snipstal, Leah galvanizes around farming as the basis of revolutionary justice. The film chronicles Penniman and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. Collectively, their work has a major impact as leaders in the sustainable agriculture and food justice movements.
|
|
|
|
The Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop, by Emma McDonell
From the publisher:
"Quinoa rose to global stardom pitched as an unparalleled sustainable development opportunity that heralded a bright future for rural communities devastated by decades of rural-urban migration, civil war, and state neglect. The Quinoa Bust is based in a longitudinal ethnography centered around . . the main quinoa production area in the world’s chief quinoa exporting country. This book traces the social, ecological, technological, and political work that went into transforming a humble Andean grain into a development miracle crop and also highlights that project’s unintended consequences. . . . At a time when so-called forgotten foods are increasingly positioned as sustainable development tools, The Quinoa Bust offers a cautionary tale of fleeting benefits and ambivalent results."
|
|
|
|
Urban Food Mapping Making Visible the Edible City, edited By Katrin Bohn and Mikey Tomkins
From the publisher:
"With cities becoming so vast, so entangled and perhaps so critically unsustainable, there is an urgent need for clarity around the subject of how we feed ourselves as an urban species. Urban food mapping becomes the tool to investigate the spatial relationships, gaps, scales and systems that underlie and generate what, where and how we eat, highlighting current and potential ways to (re)connect with our diet, ourselves and our environments. . . . This book identifies urban food mapping as a distinct activity and area of research that enables a more nuanced way of understanding the multiple issues facing contemporary urbanism and the manyfold roles food spaces play within it."
|
|
|
Be part of a sustainable solution!
Our food system is not sustainable and must be transformed. Climate change, corporate control, resource depletion, and food insecurity threaten communities worldwide. Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Sustainable Food Systems & Security (SFSS) graduate certificate equips you with the knowledge and perspectives to make an impact as a sustainable food system leader.
This six-course online program critically examines contemporary food systems through a sustainability lens, systems thinking, and real-world change. Explore food systems reform, grassroots movements, and community engagement, culminating in an applied community capstone course to help shape a more sustainable future where you live.
Explore KPU’s SFSS program | |
|
This email is sent to you as a notification of the newest JAFSCD articles and other occasional JAFSCD news. |
|
JAFSCD is an open access, community-supported journal! Your library, program, or organization can become a shareholder to help keep JAFSCD's content available to all, regardless of their resources. We welcome anyone to become an individual shareholder; donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
|
|
|
|
