Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief Summary of minutes of annual meeting: The annual meeting was held at the Radisson Hotel in Denver, Colorado. At the meeting current work and future plans were discussed. The meeting began with a brief presentation of the years accomplishments by each participating member. Discussion then turned to the future of the project; namely, should the group seek project renewal or not. The group voted to seek project renewal. This led to a discussion regarding a new project title and of new objectives. It was decided the new projects overall goal is determine the impact of food systems on population health including place based population with the following objectives: Objectives: 1. Access and use conditions within the food environment influence food consumption patterns and obesity rates controlling for individual dietary patterns. Alex McIntosh was assigned the task of fleshing out this objective for the new proposal. 2. Retail options within the food environment influence food consumption patterns and obesity rates controlling for individual dietary patterns. Alex McIntosh and Patricia Allen were assigned this task 3. Consumer perceptions of food within the food environment influence food consumption patterns and obesity rates controlling for individual dietary patterns. Toby Ten Eyck took responsibility for this objective. Each objective was fleshed out so that the responsible parties could develop a narrative for each objective in preparation for submission of a project extension. New officers were elected: Toby Ten Eyck will serve as chairperson, Chery Smith as vice chairperson, and Alex McIntosh as secretary. Atlanta, GA was selected as the site of the next annual meeting. The choice of this site was dictated by the desire of project members to meet with obesity experts in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Accomplishments: These were discussed in terms of the projects objectives. Regarding objective 1, during the past year a proposal to NIH was submitted to study the influence of the food environment surrounding work out side the home and how that work environment contributed to obesity and risk of diabetes. This proposal was not funded. Project members reported on individual research project results that relate to this objective. Ten Eyck reported on a nation-wide telephone survey which measure perceptions of obesity. Seventy-five percent of respondents considered themselves overweight. Smith reported that a paper she had written on the utility of community gardens as a place to teach values about diversity (see Agriculture and Human Values vol. 20:177-183). McIntosh reported on his recent study of 300 families in Houston Texas. The study found, after controlling for parents age, education, income, BMI, and sociodemographic characteristics of the parents children, that the more time mothers spent with children, the lower the percent energy from fat in their childrens diet and the less likely those children were obese. The opposite was found for fathers time with children. A final report containing these and other findings has been submitted to USDA-ERS-FANRP. Objective 2 and 3. Proposals were submitted to both USDA and to NRI for studies of community food systems. Thompson reported that she had done analysis of newspapers using keywords related to biotechnology. Patricia Allan began data collection on fruit and vegetable consumption by low income persons in California as well as projects on CSAs and farmers markets and on school food programs that provide fruits and vegetables. Objective 4. A research proposal to NIH was re-written; however, it was not resubmitted. The proposal called for collaboration between the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and 4 participating universities (Cornell University, Iowa State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M University). The proposal called for the linking of NHANES data with the economic census, using zip codes as the common variable across the two data sets. Because zip code data in NHANES are considered confidential, NCHS would link the data and conduct the analysis team members would request. The group intends to resubmit this proposal, once a closer relationship with NCHS is developed. Morton reported on a paper she recently published in the journal Rural Sociology in which she examined the effect of civic structure on food insecurity. Found that many respondents had problems with transportation in accessing food. She also looked at the effects of the presence of large box stores such as Wal-Mart and supercenters. She also continued her examination of mortality rates by residents finding that residents of rural-isolated counties have mortality rates that differ significantly from those found in other county types. Rural location explains about 15% of the mortality rate in an equation that controls for age, race, poverty, and income inequality. Finally, Morton reported receiving a $2 million grant to study water quality issues. Impacts. During the past year project members have received over $50,000 in grants; over the life of the project these exceed $7 million. The grants are for research in the areas of food, agriculture, and community related systems and associations with health. Additional grant proposals related to the issues described above are currently under review. During the past year 19 journal articles by project members were published or accepted for publication, with another 15 currently under review. Project members also made over 20 presentations on topics related to this project. Project members have also continued partnerships with public health, community groups, and university researchers from other states. One such partnership is with the Iowa Department of Health, which has recognized the importance of the link between local food environments and food security. This has led to not only additional funding for research on this issue, but also to the development of educational materials dealing with hunger. At Texas A&M University, an Obesity Research Center has been established. One of its goals is to examine the impact of the national and local food environments on obesity. Submitted by Alex McIntosh, Secretary