Research Spotlight: Agri-Food Analytics Lab

The Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) based at Dalhousie University aims to understand the future of agri-food systems through analytics. The bilingual institute provides a global knowledge hub and space for sharing intelligence, research and learning on food security, agriculture, aquaculture, agri-business and social aspects of food. They release a number of reports each year, and two major national reports on food security that were released this past year are: 

• The Canadian Food Sentiment Index: A comprehensive bi-annual report that captures Canadians' perceptions and attitudes towards food-related issues, including affordability, food security, and consumer trust. This report is based on insights from over 3,000 respondents across the country. 
• Canada's Food Price Report 2024: This marks the 14th edition of Canada’s Food Price Report, an annual collaboration between research partners Dalhousie University, the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of British Columbia. This cross-country research team uses historical data sources, machine learning algorithms, and predictive analytics tools to make predictions about Canadian food prices.

New Research on CORE

• [Resources] Healthy Aging Asset Index Tool (Healthy Aging Asset Index)
• [Resource] Food Banks Canada Releases Hunger Count 2024 (Food Banks Canada)
• [Article] What can be done to reduce food insecurity in Canada? (PROOF)

New Statistics Canada Research

Selected Quality of Life Indicators

Indicators in Canada's Quality of Life Framework have been updated to include Canadian Social Survey data collected from July to September 2024 (third quarter of 2024). These indicators include life satisfaction, sense of meaning and purpose, future outlook, loneliness, someone to count on, sense of belonging to local community, satisfaction with time use, satisfaction with local environment, discrimination and unfair treatment, confidence in institutions, and trust in others.

New Journal Articles

Mills, C. M., Keller, H., & Donnelly, C. (2024). Factors associated with high nutrition risk by 10-year age group: Data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Nutrition and Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/02601060241298348

In this analysis of 21,241 participants from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, the authors examined what factors are associated with high nutritional risk among community-dwelling older persons. They found that higher levels of social support, higher social standing, more frequent participation in community activities, not experiencing depression, and higher levels of self-rated general health, healthy aging, and oral health were consistently associated with lower odds of being at high nutrition risk.

Savoie, C., Voyer, P., Lavallière, M., & Bouchard, S. (2024). Transition from driving to driving-cessation: experience of older persons and caregivers: A descriptive qualitative design. BMC Geriatrics, 24(1), 219. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-024-04835-3

In this study the authors interviewed older persons (n = 8) and caregivers (n = 6) from Québec on their experiences with driving cessation. Many of the participants had never considered the potential need to cease driving and the process for driving assessments was not well understood by participants. Driving cessation was a difficult process both for older persons (e.g., loss of freedom and autonomy) and caregivers (e.g., assuming responsibility for transportation, supporting older persons in their grief)