Kelvin D.

Vasquez

March 7, 2015

BSA-IV

Synthesis

Topic: Related Literature and Studies about Environment Accounting

of FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS
A food establishment is an operation that stores, prepares,
packages, serves, or otherwise provides food for human
consumption. The review of related literature and studies were undertaken to provide
the researchers knowledge and background of the subject under study.
The Food Culture Studies Caucus of the American Studies
Association serves as a network for scholars working on projects
that engage the production, consumption, and representation of
food across the many disciplines that cohere in American Studies.
This caucus views the study of food and eating culture as offering
the possibility of a radically cross-disciplinary and transnational reengagement of key topics in studies of the Americas. While
intersecting with other Food Studies communities, this caucus
differs in that it offers a space for those that see food and eating
culture as central to the themes that are at the forefront of
American Studies, including race, class, gender and identity,
immigration, community and Diasporas, social and labor history,
empire, globalization and state formation. While members of this
caucus work in the diverse fields of literature, geography, history,
cultural studies, urban studies, ethnic studies, postcolonial studies,
identity studies, gender studies, visual culture, affect theory, bodily
theory, and agriculture studies, among numerous others, this
Caucus actively encourages collaboration across subfields and
historical periods in order to develop new directions for
teaching and researching food in all of its contexts.
The culture of food and eating in its many contexts, including but
certainly not limited to:
-The Pedagogy of Food and Eating
-New Methodologies, The Archive and Food
-Empire, Immigration, Diaspora and Foodways
-The Globalization of Food Cultures
-Food, Sexuality and Gender
-Eating, Digestion and Food through Affective, Sensory and Bodily
Theory
-Food and the Study of Race
-Food and Urban Space
-Restaurants and Food in Public Space
-Social Class, The Economic Crisis, Debt and Food

-Food, Representations and Visual Culture

-Food and Material Culture Studies
-Reading Food, Food in Literature and Literary Theory
-Critical Reading of Cookbooks
-Agricultural Policy and The Study of Food
-Food-Related Activism including food and social justice, urban
agriculture, alternative food movements, etc.
In 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that the food
industry spends almost $10 billion per year marketing food and
beverages in the U.S. that appeal to children and adolescents,
including $1.6 billion to target children and adolescents directly
with soft drinks, fast-food, and cereal promotions. In 2005, the
Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that food marketing
contributes to unhealthy diets and risk of poor health among
American children and youth.
Despite this widespread recognition of the negative impact of
marketing unhealthy foods, the practice continues unabated. One
recent study found that, from 2006 to 2008, food companies
increased the use of licensed cartoon and other entertainment
characters targeting young children, and that most foods marketed
with such characters failed to meet IOM standards for snack food
suitable for school children. Food marketers are increasingly using
sophisticated digital marketing techniques to target youth across a
host of platforms, including cell phones, video games, social media,
and immersive virtual worlds, prompting public health advocates
to call for stronger government regulation and industry selfregulation.
In March 2010, the Center for Science in the Public Interest issued a
report card grading the strength of the voluntary food marketing
policies of 128 food and entertainment companies. Two-thirds of
these companies had no policy whatsoever on marketing to
children. Of the existing policies, a majority applied only weak
nutrition standards to their marketing efforts. Even companies that
have pledged to self-regulate advertising during childrens
television shows have been using other means to market
unhealthful foods and drinks, such as product placements during
prime-time television shows. Meanwhile, in the U.S., FTC efforts to
develop voluntary, uniform nutrition standards for foods and drinks
marketed to children have met strong resistance from industry and
have been stymied by Congress.

According to Saelans and Glanz provide three challenges to the

instruments used for measuring food and physical activity
environments:
1). Balance between new and old instruments: fewer instruments
have been created for
measuring the food environments, but researchers should be aware
of their existence.
This is the main crux of their argument. Information should be
shared freely and some
sort of depository should be created that promotes this sharing.
2). Research should respond to community involvement and be
sensitive to changes in
the environment.
3). Scale: In relation to food access, the biggest issue is what a
neighborhood is? Also,
They suggest that more than a single environmental unit should be
utilized in studies.
They offer common guidelines for reporting research that provides:
a rationale for the
instrument used, the constructs purported to be measured,
reliability and validity testing,
detailed protocols on the use of the instrument, scoring and scaling,
modifications added to the instrument, the setting of the research,
and ways to access the instrument.
A few other suggestions are to keep environmental and individual
measurements separate and not concentrate only on obesity in food
studies. sources of quality, affordable food.
In the past 30 years, the price of fruit and vegetables rose much
faster than the prices of all other consumer goods in the U.S. At the
same time, the price of sugar, sweets, and carbonated drinks
declined relative to other products, and people began consuming
more sugar and other sweeteners, reaching 151 pounds of caloric
sweeteners every year per person by 1999. In recent years, per
capita sweetener consumption has declined to 142 pounds per year,
still significantly higher than the 123 pounds consumed in 1966. A
2014 study offered further evidence that inexpensive food is a key
factor in rising obesity rates.
Changes in food prices have been linked to changes in how much we
eat and our risk of obesity. One study that followed more than 5,000
young adults for 20 years found that lower prices on soda and pizza

were associated with higher caloric intake and increased weight.

Another found that higher fruit and vegetable prices were
associated with greater weight gain over time in young children.
There has been much debate about why the price of sweeteners has
dropped. Some researchers have argued that subsidies to corn
growers have led to an oversupply of cheap high-fructose corn
syrup, which drives higher sweetener consumption. Economic
evaluations of this argument have found that direct subsidies
currently play a limited role in lowering sweetener prices, although
their historical impact on development of the sweetener market may
be more important.
According to Jago R. Baranowski, a micro environmental mediating
variable fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption as it relates to
availability, mostly from a household level. The majority of studies
have found that consumption is most greatly influenced by the
amount of, and availability of vegetables in homes. This reflects the
idea that food environments are nested and distance to stores is
only one aspect of availability.
While, According to Macintyre, she argues through research that has
been done in the UK that food access should be cautiously
approached. Theory should be more evidence-based and broad
assumptions
such
as
supermarkets
provide
better
food
environments should be avoided without empirical evidence.
She claims that "there does not seem to be any consistent pattern
in whether or not resources are located to the disadvantage of
households in poorer communities. However, she cites Morland
2002a, Zenk et al 2005a, and Chung & Meyers 1999, where it is
found that socio-economic status factors, most notably race, do
reflect access to supermarkets and other outlets of healthy food.
She does claim that there are differences between countries, but
ignores the consistency of US studies. Her only example from the US
that strengthens her argument is from 1991.
In Food Safety and Food Defense Studies, Building Capacity to
Control Viral Food borne Disease: A Translational, Multidisplinary
Approach
According to NoroCOREthe USDA-NIFA Food Virology Collaborative
that focuses on outreach, research, and education in the field of
food virologyRTI is working with North Carolina State University
and other researchers to translate the research findings into

practices
targeting
audiences
in
work
environments.
RTI conducted separate
surveys
of
food
safety/health
care
professionals and consumers to characterize current awareness and
knowledge of viral foodborne diseases; conducted an extensive
literature review to inform the design of an educational intervention
for food service workers; and conducted an evaluation to assess the
impact of the intervention on changes in food workers' practices
and the work environment.