Aligning evidence generation and use across health, development, and environment

A research vision for food systems in the 2020s: Defying the status quo

“…Food systems is often viewed as a source of problems needing innovative solutions ( Béné et al, 2019 ). This view belies the fact that food systems themselves can be a source of innovations, and that many of the fundamental food security and nutrition problems facing the world are behavioral and require systemic change, including the perspective of the social sciences ( Tallis et al, 2019 ). Embracing this more inclusive perspective on solutions to food security and nutrition challenges requires a fundamental cultural shift on the part of researchers, funders and business and policy decision-makers, and shifts in incentives ( Karp et al, 2015 ).…”

Intended and Unintended Consequences of a Community-Based Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Dietary Intervention on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

“…Study participants found Eat Fresh moderately challenging to adhere to with barriers of access to ingredients, time constraints to cook, lack of financial resources to procure ingredients, cooking knowledge, and cooking skills. The shortcomings and unintended consequences of Eat Fresh are attributed to the lack of a systems approach (39) where a focus on one part of the diet may pose risks to other parts of the diet and food system more broadly. The shortcomings of Eat Fresh provide insight on designing future dietary interventions that take a systems approach aimed at improving dietary quality (16,40,41).…”

“…Findings highlight both intended and unintended consequences of a dietary intervention that can be applied to design future community-based programs for improving dietary quality and plant-based diets while addressing health disparities in tribal and rural communities. The unintended consequence of Eat Fresh is primarily attributed to the lack of a systems approach ( 39 ). As plant-based diets are increasingly recommended for supporting human and planetary health ( 28 ), several key lessons can be adapted from Eat Fresh to inform the co-design of evidence-based interventions in communities for supporting public health: (1) it is important for dietary interventions to be holistic and focus on the whole diet instead of only focusing on the consumption of healthy foods such as FVs; (2) interventions should measure multiple parameters to assess their effectiveness including both objective dietary and health outcomes as well as subjective measures such as participant perceptions of well-being; (3) it is important to collaborate with a Community Advisory Board of food and nutrition stakeholders in co-designing dietary interventions to help ensure the intervention questions, design, outcomes, analysis, and dissemination are place-based and culturally relevant.…”

Prioritizing actions: spatial action maps for conservation

“…Relevant impacts may have been identified in earlier conservation planning steps focused on setting goals. If not already chosen, likely impacts can be identified using logic models, which describe causal pathways from actions to environmental and human impacts 12,110,111 . They can also reveal possible negative unintended consequences, which may be chosen as part of the mapping exercise to identify areas where tradeoffs can be minimized 90,91,93 .…”