NSF Convergence Accelerator Track J: Network Of User-engaged Researchers building Interdisciplinary Scientific infrastructures for Healthy food (NOURISH)

University Of California-San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

Low-income communities in the US have food systems saturated with ultraprocessed, hyperpalatable foods, industrially produced "fast foods" that are cheap, convenient, and habit-forming. Meanwhile, fresh food is hard to find. The proliferation of these "food swamps" is a national challenge that is driving twin epidemics of obesity and chronic disease, as well as significant environmental harms and profound health challenges. The urgent need to address this national concern has been recognized by the National Academy of Medicine, the US Food Department of Agriculture, and the National Science Foundation. The Network Of User-engaged Researchers building Interdisciplinary Scientific infrastructures for Healthy food (NOURISH) will develop technical solutions that help people transform food swamps into healthy food systems. Ultraprocessed and hyperpalatable foods comprise about two-thirds of the US food supply, leaving most Americans to encounter them daily. But food swamps leave their residents with few food options other than these unhealthy products. To solve the problem of food swamps, we must equip responsible business entrepreneurs situated within these communities with data and information for developing and marketing healthy, sustainable foods. This includes information on what consumers in their markets want in terms of taste, convenience, and affordability, as well as information on how to source fresh produce affordably and open a small business. Bringing high technology and advanced data to a cell phone application and online dashboard, NOURISH will enable local food entrepreneurs to grow businesses that produce, prepare, and market food that is naturally appealing, without the industrial production processes used to make hyperpalatable foods. There already exists a large, national network of community-based nonprofit food justice groups seeking this transformation. There is also a vibrant community of philanthropists, investors and social enterprise firms who want to invest in, and support, healthy food businesses in under-resourced communities. NOURISH brings these groups together with scientists to innovate technical solutions that work for everybody. The NOURISH system will connect local food entrepreneurs and investors, equipping them with a high-technology system that accelerates their efforts to transform food swamps. Features of the system will include: - a national food swamp map, - crowdsourced data on local consumer food preferences and affordable pricing, - access to supply chains for fresh foods, - resources for launching a small food business, and - a social networking feature that builds and connects stakeholders in healthy food nationwide. NOURISH advances a novel scientific perspective that is grounded in research, one that points to profound market failures in our current food system as a key factor in both the existence of food swamps and their eradication. The NOURISH team expands upon an existing community-academic partnership, bringing together expertise in public health nutrition, food chemistry, foodsheds, community engagement, agriculture, regional planning, business, addiction, and data science/AI. This team will prototype a dynamic, reusable, place-based cyberinfrastructure developed via community engagement. The NOURISH system will combine publicly available data and crowdsourced information using a heterogeneous information integration platform. It will have an updatable, ontology-based knowledge graph that provides users with information on regional supply chains in fresh foods and local market data on consumers' preferences. The system will include specific recommendation algorithms and visual analytics tools that allow end users to explore the efficacy of different recommended solutions. A series of three workshops will gather insights and feedback from stakeholders in the food system and investment communities, exploring different use cases. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.