Exploring Food Safety & Food Security Tensions

Wanda Martin, RN, PhD(c) School of Nursing, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Background: Tensions have arisen between food security and food

safety public health core programs in British Columbia due to policy

changes that have highlighted different perspectives on safe food

production. The food safety core program is highly regulated under the

Public Health Act, with Environmental Health Officers focused on

inspection, education, and surveillance. The food security core program

is primarily community-based with a Food Security Coordinator

providing support through resources, advocacy, and leadership. The

food programs share a common goal of access to a safe food supply,

but finding the right balance between full access and full safety is

challenging due to the different disciplinary perspectives operating

across sub-sectors within the public health system.

Context of work: Using a complexity lens on food security cases

(community kitchens, raw milk, urban chickens, and farmers’ markets) I

am using Social Network Analysis (SNA), Situational Analysis (SA), and

Concept Mapping (CM) to explore the tensions between food security

and food safety.

Importance of work: Intersectoral collaboration is crucial to effective

public health programs. Addressing tensions between the sectors of

food safety and food security can help achieve closer alignment

between the programs, and contribute to a safer, more accessible and

healthy food supply in British Columbia.

Cases

Social Network Analysis

Urban Chickens – Urban agriculture is the production of crops and

livestock within cities and towns1. Keeping farm animals on city lots

offers challenges for animal by-law enforcement and environmental

health officers.

Community Kitchens – These are community-based cooking programs

consisting of small groups of people pooling labour and resources to

make one or more meals2. Typically, they meet twice per month: once to

plan the menu and the shopping list, and once to do the cooking and

divide it among themselves to take home3.

Farmers’ Markets – This is where growers or producers from a local

area are present in person to sell their own product directly to the

public4. Farmers’ Markets are thought to increase access to healthier

food choices and a wider variety of food5.

Raw Milk – It is well established that cow’s milk provides a protective

health effect such as improving bone density. People who prefer raw

milk argue that the pasteurization process decreases the flavour and

nutritional quality6. The sale of raw milk is illegal in Canada, but should

raw milk be available to people who understand the potential risks?

I am using SNA , done at a local level, to look at how food safety

information flows among and between the four cases, including between

food safety and food security professionals working in the health

authority. SNA allows for the description of social structures as networks

and helps to interpret the behaviour of actors in light of their position

within the social structure7. Early interviews show that those who

consume raw milk are getting food safety information from each other

and the internet, not from professionals.

Situational Analysis

SA is an approach to research using a grounded theorizing

methodology to frame basic social processes and by representing

complexity through mapmaking8 Clarke has taken grounded theory

in a new direction that is situation-centred and focused on a “social

worlds/arenas/negotiations” framework8 SA is beneficial as it

provides explanatory maps for knowledge translation activities, and

to provide additional views of the data that may be unique to the

situation. SA is substantive theorizing and story-telling through the

use of maps with a goal of critical analysis to produce a ‘truth’ or

possible ‘truths’8. SA provides a means to specify and map all the

important human and nonhuman elements of a situation,

emphasizing relationships, positions, social worlds, and discursive

positions8. Clarke identifies three main types of maps to help

understand the situation: 1) Situational maps, 2) Social world/arenas

maps, and 3) Positional maps.

Concept Mapping

Importance of Intersectoral Collaboration Research

References

1. Zezza, A., & Tasciotti, L. (2110). Urban agriculture, poverty, and food security: Empirical evidence from a sample of developing

countries. Food Policy, 35(4), 265-273.

2. Engler-Stringer, R., & Berenbaum, S. (2006). Food and Nutrition-Related Learning In Collective Kitchens in Three Canadian Cities.

Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 67(4), 178-183.

3. Tarasuk, V., & Reynolds, R. (1999). A qualitative study of community kitchens as a response to income-related food insecurity.

Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 60(1), 11-16.

4. Worsfold, D., Worsfold, P. M., & Griffith, C. J. (2004). An assessment of food hygiene and safety at farmers' markets. International

Journal of Environmental Health Research, 14(2), 109-119.

5. Larsen, K., & Gilliland, J. (2009). A farmers' market in a food desert: Evaluating impacts on the price and availability of healthy

food. Health & Place, 15(4), 1158-1162.

6. Adams, D. C., Olexa, M. T., Owens, T. L., & Cossey, J. A. (2008). Deja Moo: Is the return to public sale of raw milk udder

nonsense? Drake Journal of Agriculture Law, 13, 305-346.

7. Marsden, P. V. (1990). Network Data And Measurement. Annual Review of Sociology, 16(1), 435-463.

8. Clarke, A. E. (2005). Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

9. Trochim, W. M. (1989). An introduction to concept mapping for planning and evaluation. Evaluation Program Planning, 12, 1-16.

10. Trochim, W. M., Cabrera, D. A., Milstein, B., Gallagher, R. S., & Leischow, S. J. (2006). Practical challenges of systems thinking

and modeling in public health. American Journal of Public Health, 96(3), 538-546.

11. Dowling, B., Powell, M., & Glendinning, C. (2004). Conceptualising successful partnerships. Health & Social Care in the

Community, 12(4), 309-317.

Funding

Financial support has been provided by the Canadian Institutes of

Health Research Frederick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral

Award. Contact: wmartin@uvic.ca June 8, 2011

CM is a type of structured conceptualization that consists of six

phases9. This method enables a group to describe ideas in response to

a focused question, which translates to maps for visual

representation10. Focusing on the national level, CM can contribute to

the exploration of redesigning the relationship between those working

in food security and in food safety. CM will assist with the knowledge

translation of study results by identifying ways to move intersectoral

collaboration forward. It can offer a unique view of the primary question

in this study and is a method specifically geared for systems thinking10.

4.09 3.19 4.88 2.81

4.38

Importance

Fe

asib

ili

ty

3.56

6 15

19

25

39

43

58

62

73

83

95

97

105

r = .29

Example of a cluster

Go-Zone Map

Tensio

n

Raw milk

producers

Market

consumers

Chick Suppliers

Community

Kitchen Leaders

Mea

t Bake

d

goods

Who and what are in this situation?

PRELIMINARY MAP OF SOCIAL

WORLDS / ARENAS

KEY

Arenas

Negotiations

Organizations

Social Worlds & Subworlds / Segments

Enhance Communication

Respond to Community Priorities

Ensure Quality And Accountability

Implement Integrated Professional Training

Promote Evidence Based Practice

Share Findings in the Context of Practice

Change Educational Culture and Structure

Develop Participatory/Action Research Strategies

Fund and Facilitate Integration Activities

Provide Incentives to Integrate Various Opinions

“A way to maximize understanding and collaboration between those working in food safety and food security is…”

Intersectoral collaboration is a joint working arrangement through which

those working in different sectors unite to address an issue or to achieve

a common goal11. As different sub-sectors within public health, food

security is a highly community driven program with health authority staff

working to support community activities, while the food safety program is

highly regulatory, with health authority staff more often seen as

enforcers, than as professionals working with community members.

Forming a new coalition between food security and food safety will

balance perceived power differentials. Benefits of an alliance include

increasing networks, sharing information, accessing resources,

participating in decision-making, and experiencing a sense of

accomplishment. There is an advantage to early identification of

problems and developing interventions together. An important aspect of

intersectoral collaboration is maintaining positive relationships with a

focused goal – in this case, safe accessible food for all.

Health

Authority

Dieticia

n

Intern

et

Farm

er

Food

Security

Food

Safety