Search

A substantial body of literature points to the necessity of a ‘Great Food Transformation’ requiring an urgent shift towards sustainable food systems across multiple levels. A key part of this transition is the need to reduce food waste and food loss by 50 percent and where charitable surplus food redistribution is regarded as making an important contribution to this target. Surplus driven charitable food provisioning is now part of the food environment in many countries and is influencing the diets of a significant number of people. Its proponents argue that such work contributes to a more sustainable food system by reducing food waste and food insecurity. However, few studies have examined the factors influencing the governance of food within the charitable food system. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature through an examination of recent developments in charitable food provisioning in the Republic of Ireland. Using Cork city as a case study we explore Ireland’s charitable food system by examining the motivations, ideas, and practices of key organisations. The paper highlights the growing role of surplus-driven charitable food systems and argues that the redistribution of surplus products for the purpose of reducing food waste and improving economic efficiency requires re-evaluation within a wider appreciation of sustainable diets, and, ultimately, with regard to strengthening the right to food for all., The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, Vol. 27 No. 1 (2021): Special Issue

A substantial body of literature points to the necessity of a ‘Great Food Transformation’ requiring an urgent shift towards sustainable food systems across multiple levels. A key part of this transition is the need to reduce food waste and food loss by 50 percent and where charitable surplus food redistribution is regarded as making an important contribution to this target. Surplus driven charitable food provisioning is now part of the food environment in many countries and is influencing the diets of a significant number of people. Its proponents argue that such work contributes to a more sustainable food system by reducing food waste and food insecurity. However, few studies have examined the factors influencing the governance of food within the charitable food system. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature through an examination of recent developments in charitable food provisioning in the Republic of Ireland. Using Cork city as a case study we explore Ireland’s charitable food system by examining the motivations, ideas, and practices of key organisations. The paper highlights the growing role of surplus-driven charitable food systems and argues that the redistribution of surplus products for the purpose of reducing food waste and improving economic efficiency requires re-evaluation within a wider appreciation of sustainable diets, and, ultimately, with regard to strengthening the right to food for all.

The issue of food insecurity has moved to the forefront of social policy debates, with inadequate diets affecting one in three people globally (IFPRI, 2016) and with low income persons carrying the largest burden. The impacts of food insecurity on health are extensive and resonate throughout a lifetime which positions issues of food insecurity as a central social justice concern. An increasingly normalized response to food insecurity, more commonly referred to as food poverty in Ireland, is the redistribution of surplus food. In the decade following the economic crisis of 2008-10 Ireland has witnessed a rapid expansion of charitable food services and the establishment of what would become Ireland’s first national system of surplus food redistribution. This growth was also facilitated by multiple co-existing factors and circumstances. These include the historical precedence and primacy afforded to charitable responses, the withdrawal of significant third sector funding post economic crash, Ireland’s persistently high rates of poverty, and a protracted homelessness crisis. An additional critical factor in this trajectory has been the deepening neoliberal ideology promoting novel, business led solutions and Corporate Social Responsibility responses to issues of social inequality. These features of Irish society combined with an increasing awareness of the problem of food waste positioned surplus food as a legitimate and distinguished approach to tackling poverty more generally. This thesis focusses on the contemporary charitable food system in Ireland and is set against the backdrop of increasing diet-related poor health, rising inequality, wider food system trends, and the experiences of charitable food assistance in other high-income countries. Using critical realism as a metatheory and Cork city as an embedded case study, several aspects of Ireland’s contemporary charitable food system are explored. This includes the organisations providing charitable food assistance, the surplus food flowing through it, the circumstances and level of food insecurity and ill-health experienced by its users, and the representation of food poverty at the national level. The overarching goal is to identify the factors influencing food governance within the charitable food system and its impact at the local level. The findings suggest that several dominant ideas and practices influence the governance of food within the charitable food system and work to indirectly support, and legitimize, the use of any surplus food as a response to poverty. This includes the conceptualisation of food poverty and nutritional poverty as separate issues which in turn supports the idea that health concerns are outside the remit and responsibility the organisations responding to food poverty. The local impacts of surplus food redistribution include redistribution beyond demand, in some instances the replacement of food vouchers with surplus and the loss of charity-based support for local food businesses. The findings highlight that the growing role of the charitable sector as a key food waste reduction strategy means that surplus food redistribution is influencing the diets, the health, and food cultures of low income populations using these services. Aligning these concerns with surplus food redistribution would prevent further deepening Ireland’s inequalities. A practical first step in this regard would be the introduction of a healthy food policy across the charitable food. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that the ideological framing surrounding food poverty have changed little since the early 20th Century where the focus was on the ‘personal’ rather than ‘economic or social reform’ (Miller, 2014), on providing food rather than addressing the causes of food poverty and with the local community as duty bearer. This thesis ultimately argues that a more critical reflection on food charity in Ireland is required with questions of social justice and the human right to good food in a socially accepted manner, taking centre stage.

Additional file 1: Table S1. List of exclusion list masses commonly observed hemoglobin peptides.

Additional file 1. Â Supplementary tables and figures.

ObjectiveTo determine if chikungunya virus persists in synovial fluid after infection, potentially acting as a causative mechanism of persistent arthritis.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study of 38 Colombian participants with clinical chikungunya virus infection during the 2014-2015 epidemic who reported chronic arthritis and 10 location-matched controls without chikungunya virus or arthritis. Prior chikungunya virus infection status was serologically confirmed, and the presence of synovial fluid chikungunya virus, viral RNA, and viral proteins was determined by viral culture, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and mass spectrometry, respectively. Biomarkers were assessed by multiplex analysis.ResultsPatients with serologically confirmed chikungunya arthritis (33 of 38 [87%]) were predominantly female (82%) and African Colombian (55%) or white Colombian (33%), with moderate disease activity (mean ± SD Disease Activity Score in 28 joints 4.52 ± 0.77) a median of 22 months after infection (interquartile range 21-23 months). Initial symptoms of chikungunya virus infection included joint pain (97%), swelling (97%), stiffness (91%), and fever (91%). The most commonly affected joints were the knees (87%), elbows (76%), wrists (75%), ankles (56%), fingers (56%), and toes (56%). Synovial fluid samples from all patients with chikungunya arthritis were negative for chikungunya virus on qRT-PCR, showed no viral proteins on mass spectrometry, and cultures were negative. Case and control plasma cytokine and chemokine concentrations did not differ significantly.ConclusionThis is one of the largest observational studies involving analysis of the synovial fluid of chikungunya arthritis patients. Synovial fluid analysis revealed no detectable chikungunya virus. This finding suggests that chikungunya virus may cause arthritis through induction of potential host autoimmunity, suggesting a role for immunomodulating agents in the treatment of chikungunya arthritis, or that low-level viral persistence exists in synovial tissue only and is undetectable in synovial fluid.

OBJECTIVE. Determine if chikungunya virus (CHIKV) persists in synovial fluid post-infection, potentially serving as a causative mechanism of persistent arthritis. METHODS. This is a cross-sectional study of 38 Colombian participants with clinical CHIKV infection during the 2014–2015 epidemic who reported chronic arthritis and ten location-matched CHIKV- and arthritis-negative controls. Prior CHIKV infection status was serologically confirmed and the presence of synovial fluid CHIKV, viral RNA, and viral proteins was measured by viral culture, quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR), and mass spectrometry. Biomarkers were assessed by multiplex analysis. RESULTS. Serologically confirmed CHIKV arthritis patients (33/38, 87%) were predominantly female (82%) and Afro-Colombian (55%) or White-Colombian (33%) with (Median 22-months (IQR 21–23) post-CHIKV infection) moderate disease activity (Disease Activity Score-28 of 4.52 ± 0.77). Initial symptoms of CHIKV infection included joint pain (97%), swelling (97%), stiffness (91%), and fever (91%). The most commonly affected joints were knees (87%), elbows (76%), wrists (75%), fingers (56%), and toes (56%). Synovial fluid analysis of all CHIKV arthritis participants was CHIKV qRT-PCR negative, showed no viral proteins by mass spectrometry, and was culture negative. Case versus control plasma cytokine/chemokine concentrations did not differ significantly. CONCLUSIONS. This is one of the largest observational studies involving synovial fluid analysis of chikungunya arthritis patients. Synovial fluid analysis revealed no detectable CHIKV. This finding suggests that CHIKV may cause arthritis through induction of potential host autoimmunity suggesting a role for immunomodulating medications in the treatment of CHIKV arthritis or that low-level viral persistence exists in synovial tissue only that is undetectable in synovial fluid.

Additional file 4: Figure S3. LC-MS/MS protein identification of coomassie blue stained bands. (A) SDS-PAGE analysis using reducing conditions derived from a 5 Âľg aliquot of the eVLP lot â Bâ . The 10 highest intensity bands from a coomassie stained 4-12% NuPAGE Novex Bis-Tris gel were excised and digested with Trypsin/Lys-C. Each sample was analyzed on a 60 minute LC-MS/MS survey MS run and searched with MASCOT (v. 2.4) against the SProt (2014_02) database with human and Ebola zaire taxonomy specified. Locations of the 5 most prominent peptides are indicated as well as the total number of GP1 peptides observed for each sample (GP1 peptide counts). A minimum Expect score of 0.005 with an FDR of 1% was used for peptide validation. No N-terminal peptides downstream of AA 192 were observed in gel bands 7 thru 10. These data indicate that while the majority of the GP1 protein appears to be full-length, a significant number of N-terminal GP1 fragments are present. (B) An identical sample was analyzed via western blot using the H3D5 antibody showing immune-reactive bands of lower molecular weight.

Introduction: An athlete's bone mineral density reflects their cumulative history of energy availability, physical activity, genetic predisposition for bone health, and menstrual status, as well as nutritional, behavioral, and environmental factors. Purpose: To determine if bone mineral density (BMD) and nutritional factors in bone health are different in two groups of female athletes who have comparable body size/weight requirements, but who engage in qualitatively different training regimens. Methods: Participants were female collegiate athletes who were members of the UNLV Dance team (n=10) or Cheer team (n=9), ages 18-22. Participants vitamin D status was assessed by obtaining a finger prick sample of blood (< 1 ml). BMD for full body, spine and dual femur was assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). A calcium and vitamin D intake questionnaire was also completed. Results: There was no significant difference between the groups for total body BMD (1.23 g/cm2 dance vs 1.22 g/cm2 cheer, p=0.70), spine BMD (1.39 g/cm2 dance vs 1.36 g/cm2 cheer, p=0.72) or dual femur BMD (1.20 g/cm2 dance vs 1.11 g/cm2, p=0.23). Age matched z- scores for total body BMD were also not significantly different (1.46±1.23 dance vs 0.83±0.52 cheer, p=0.19). However there was a significant difference between age-matched z-scores of the dance team vs. non-athlete female controls (1.46±1.23 dance vs 0.19±1.22 control, p=0.033). Serum vitamin D status was found to be insufficient (10-29 ng/mL) in 74% of the athletes (27 ± 4 ng/mL dance and 25 ± 8 ng/mL cheer). Daily calcium intake was 504 ± 723 mg for dance and 531 ± 236 mg for cheer versus the RDA of 1,000mg/day. Daily vitamin D intake was 256 ± 335 IU for dance and 228 ± 145 IU for cheer versus the RDA of 600 IU/day. Conclusion: BMD was not significantly different between the low impact dance team and high impact cheer team. These results suggest that the type of activity (low impact dance vs. high impact cheerleading) was not as important for BMD as participating in 20+ hours a week of physical activity. Although the low levels of calcium and serum vitamin D are of concern, the amount of physical activity in these athletes could have counteracted the negative effects of these nutrient insufficiencies on their bone health.