The Food Works Lab
I am the Founding Director of The Food Works Lab at UC Irvine which explores issues related to food production, consumption, security, and recovery to understand how to bring about a closed loop food system that is more localized, accessible, nutritious, and resilient. Through interdisciplinary applied research, the Lab seeks to cultivate the collaborative relationships that can serve as the foundation for a systems-approach to solving our biggest food challenges.
Experimental Design
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Household Food Waste: If you Build it, Will they Separate?
I collaborated with the Costa Mesa Sanitary District to conduct a longitudinal repeated-measure field experiment to examine how households are affected by new curbside organics collection programs and whether social innovations informed by social psychology effectively improve participation.
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Key Findings
The Natural Experiment indicated that after receiving the curbside bin, participants significantly increased food scrap separation behavior, support of the OCP program, and the belief that separating food waste is the right thing to do.
The Intervention Experiment indicated that the treatment group receiving norm communication significantly increased these variables compared to the control group. Importantly, the treatment group participants were also less likely to quit separating food waste if they were receiving descriptive norms about community participation.
The Intervention Experiment indicated that the treatment group receiving norm communication significantly increased these variables compared to the control group. Importantly, the treatment group participants were also less likely to quit separating food waste if they were receiving descriptive norms about community participation.
This project is supported by the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, the Lindley Haynes Dissertation Fellowship, the UCI Stanley Behrens Public Impact Distinguished Fellowship, the Data Science Initiative Summer Fellowship, and the UCI Graduate Dean's Dissertation Writing Fellowship. More information on the Curriculum Vitae page
Local Food Access and AdvocacyThis project sought to engage students and the community with food systems, access, and research in and around UCI. Inspired by the relocation of the most successful farmer's market in the county that serves the UCI community, components of this project included:
-conducting a stakeholder assessment before and after the move, -hosting a public forum about concerns and opportunities in the new location, -compiling a brief on how universities can link learning with federal programs to improve financial access to food at farmer's markets, -hosting a workshop on Cultivating Food Research Community at UCI. Major project goals:
1) Promote stakeholder participation,
2) Understand how relocation affects access to local food for students and community members and engage students with local food providers, and 3) Empower advocate scholars on food issues. This project was supported by the UC Global Food Initiative Fellowship.
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Processes to achieve goals:
A) A Public Forum engaging community members, and leadership in the university, farmer's market, and new market hosts on the impacts of and opportunities in the relocation of the farmer's market.
B) Conduct and Analyze a Market-Goer Survey before and after the relocation of the Irvine Farmer's Market. C) A Workshop creating an intimate space for contributing to the growing food discourse to understand the relationship between UCI food research and communities. Participants from across disciplines, including Informatics, Public Health, Criminology, Earth System Sciences, Anthropology, and Medicine, engaged in an edible marsh tour at the UCI Arboretum and learned about one of the country's largest aquaponics systems. |
Expanding Organics Recovery to On-Campus Apartment Communities
The inaugural project of the Food Works Lab sought to expand food scrap separation to on-campus apartment communities and explored the intersection of household behavior and pro-environmental infrastructure. In my capacity as Director of the Food Works Lab, I initiated a partnership between the Lab, UCI Facilities, and the Verano Housing Office to offer household organics recovery in the Verano Place Graduate Housing Community. Together, the collaborative recruited 30 households and established two community drop bins for the collection of household food scraps.
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Participants completed surveys on their environmental attitudes, knowledge, and behavior related to food purchasing, consumption, donation, and disposal before and after the pilot. They also tracked their separation behavior over the course of the 8 week pilot, and many participated in in-depth interviews with me The results suggest that simply participating in food scrap separation in the home may yield increased awareness about food and other kinds of waste, and the potential for spillover pro-environmental behavior.
The pilot yielded both exceptional landfill diversion gains (over half a ton of food waste per month) and, importantly, insight into how residents adapt to and experience food scrap separation in their home. The collaborative was able to identify cost-effective ways to double the number of community drop bins while incorporating critical lessons learned from the pilot. I have also compiled a synopsis in a journal article currently under review that includes Best Practices to be used in other apartment communities on campuses across the state and in cities as they develop curbside organics collection programs.
The pilot yielded both exceptional landfill diversion gains (over half a ton of food waste per month) and, importantly, insight into how residents adapt to and experience food scrap separation in their home. The collaborative was able to identify cost-effective ways to double the number of community drop bins while incorporating critical lessons learned from the pilot. I have also compiled a synopsis in a journal article currently under review that includes Best Practices to be used in other apartment communities on campuses across the state and in cities as they develop curbside organics collection programs.