Selena Ahmed

• PhD in Biology
• Professor (Associate) at Montana State University

Climate change is impacting the sustainability of food systems through shifts in natural and human dimensions of agroecosystems that influence farmer livelihoods, consumer choices, and food security. This paper highlights the need for climate studies on specialty crops to focus not only on yields, but also on quality, as well as the ability of agro...

The food environment in markets constrains and signals consumers what to purchase. It encompasses availability , affordability, convenience, and desirability of various foods. The effect of income on dietary consumption is always modified by the food environment. Many agricultural interventions aim to improve incomes, increase food availability and...

Climate change is impacting agro-ecosystems, crops, and farmer livelihoods in communities worldwide. While it is well understood that more frequent and intense climate events in many areas are resulting in a decline in crop yields, the impact on crop quality is less acknowledged, yet it is critical for food systems that benefit both farmers and con...

The Chinese government initiated one of the world's largest conservation programs involving agricultural ecosystems with the implementation of the ‘Grain for Green’ (Tui Geng Huan Lin) forest policy between 1999 and 2003. This is the first study to systematically quantify multiple dimensions of biodiversity, phytochemical quality and economic benef...

Appearance does not easily identify the dried plant fragments used to prepare teas to species. Here we test recovery of standard DNA barcodes for land plants from a large array of commercial tea products and analyze their performance in identifying tea constituents using existing databases. Most (90%) of 146 tea products yielded rbcL or matK barcod...

Background Food environments are rapidly changing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), leading to dietary shifts. Many gaps exist in the measurement of food environments in LMICs making it difficult to characterize the linkages between food environments and diets. Objective The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of impl...

Food insecurity among U.S. college and university students surpasses respective levels in the general population. Previous research has primarily focused on demographic and economic explana­tions, neglecting other risk factors such as student place of residence and specific food environments. In addition, most studies have been conducted before the...

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted health systems and exposed disparities in access to health care among underserved populations. We examined how the pandemic shaped social, mental, and physical health among Native American and Latino communities in rural and underserved areas. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Using Theory of Planned Behavio...

Climate change is impacting forest-based agricultural systems with implications for producer decision-making and livelihoods. This article presents a case study on the observations, perceptions, knowledge, and adaptation strategies of maple syrup producers in the United States to climate change. We carried out two semi-structured surveys with maple...

Background: Home-based testing for COVID-19 has potential to reduce existing health care disparities among underserved populations in the United States. However, implementation of home-based tests in these communities may face significant barriers. This study evaluates the acceptability, feasibility, and success of home-based testing and the poten...

Food environments are a critical point for reorienting the food system towards sustainable diets, as they are directly where consumers make decisions about which foods to acquire. Using global data, we examined shifts in food environments, and the availability, affordability, convenience, and quality of foods within them, over time on the basis of...

Wild foods are primary components of traditional and Indigenous food systems that are valued for food security while being vulnerable to global change. This case study examines practices, experiences, and perceptions associated with wild food environments through a household survey in the rural American state of Montana. Findings highlight that wil...

The COVID-19 pandemic has globally jeopardized food security, with heightened threats for the most vulnerable including smallholder farmers as well as rural, indigenous populations. A serial cross-sectional study was conducted to document effect of COVID-19 pandemic on food environment, agricultural practices, diets and food security, along with po...

The initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed unique vulnerabilities of the global food system with notable societal consequences, calling for the need to implement resilience strategies to support food security for all. The objective of this study was to elicit perceptions, experiences, and responses of producers of diversified farms in the...

Sustainable food systems education (SFSE) is rapidly advancing to meet the need for developing future professionals who are capable of effective decision-making regarding agriculture, food, nutrition, consumption, and waste in a complex world. Equity, particularly racial equity and its intersectional links with other inequities, should play a centr...

Elementary education can equip future consumers and leaders with the systems thinking skills, real-world experiences, and knowledge to make decisions and lead progress toward sustainability transitions. The implementation of learning standards that focus on sustainability is one approach for integrating sustainability and food systems content into...

Climate change is impacting crop performance and agricultural systems around the world with implications for farmers and consumers. We carried out a systematic review to synthesize evidence regarding the effects of environmental factors associated with climate change and management conditions associated with climate adaptation on the crop quality o...

Background The onset of COVID-19 pandemic increased demand for emergency food assistance and caused operational shifts in the emergency food system. Objective This research explored how the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the food supply of two food pantries. Methods A case study approach was applied to collect data during the i...

Understanding consumer knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards food waste is critical for informing evidence-based programs to advance sustainable food systems. A lack of knowledge regarding consumer food waste at the local level limits the ability to inform place-based solutions that are locally relevant. We administered an online survey to ex...

Bio-fertilizers are biological amendments containing living microorganisms that, when applied to seed, soil, or substrates, colonize the rhizosphere or the interior of a plant and stimulate crop growth and resistance by synthesizing substances that essentially enhance the soil microflora, stimulate root growth, or increase mineral nutrient uptake,...

Background A large portion of preschool-aged children in the United States (US) do not consume enough fruits and vegetables (FV). It is important for childcare providers to know what food choices children in their care are making at mealtime and how to encourage them to eat more FV. The objective of this pilot study was to examine the relationship...

The industrialization of agriculture, which has occurred asynchronously in different parts of the world, goes hand in hand with a constant agrobiodiversity decline. The loss of a numerous edible crops and animals, as well as of landraces of still produced species, is not only harming the environmental sustainability of farming systems but has also...

Achieving food security is a critical challenge of the Anthropocene that may conflict with environmental and societal goals such as increased energy access. The “fuel versus food” debate coupled with climate mitigation efforts has given rise to next-generation biofuels. Findings of this systematic review indicate just over half of the studies (56%...

We find ourselves at a time when climate change is impacting almost every facet of society, including the sustainability of agricultural and food systems. The science is clear that climate change is happening and its impact will worsen without efforts to reverse the trend with more sustainable and eco-friendly approaches (IPCC, 2014). As scholars,...

Background Traditional bamboo weaving has been practiced for centuries in Sansui, a county dominated by the Miao people, in Guizhou province of Southwest China. Sansui bamboo weaving represents an intangible cultural heritage as defined by UNESCO, but, like many other traditional handicrafts in China, it has suffered a downfall in this period of ra...

Background Indigenous food systems have been displaced with the emergence of colonization, industrialization, and cultural, economic, political, and environmental changes. This disruption can be seen in marked health and food environment disparities that contribute to high obesity and diabetes mellitus prevalence among Native American peoples. Met...

Higher education institutions are increasingly offering Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) degree programs in response to societal demand for training a professional food systems workforce. As a relatively young field, there is a need for clearly articulated learning outcomes (LOs) for SFS education to define student learning through degree programs, d...

Tribal communities in the United States face disparities to accessing healthy foods including high-quality produce. A six-week fresh fruit and vegetable (FV) dietary intervention, Eat Fresh, was co-designed with a Community Advisory Board of local food and nutrition stakeholders on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tr...

Fermented foods have unique microbiota and metabolomic profiles that can support dietary diversity, digestion and gut health of consumers. Laowo ham (LWH) is an example of an indigenous fermented food from Southwestern China that has cultural, ecological, economic and health significance to local communities. We carried out ethnobiological surveys...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated mitigation measures are highlighting resiliency and vulnerability of food systems with consequences for diets, food security, and health outcomes. Frameworks and tools are called for to evaluate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as identify entry points for implementing preparedness effo...

Insect herbivores have dramatic effects on the chemical composition of plants. Many of these induced metabolites contribute to the quality (e.g., flavor, human health benefits) of specialty crops such as the tea plant (Camellia sinensis). Induced chemical changes are often studied by comparing plants damaged and undamaged by herbivores. However, wh...

The food environment is a critical place in the food system to implement interventions to support sustainable diets and address the global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change, because it contains the total scope of options within which consumers make decisions about which foods to acquire and consume. In this paper, we build on...

Understanding environmental impacts on crop growth and quality is essential in developing sustainable agricultural practices with climate change. Shifts are expected in precipitation, an essential component of agriculture, including increased intensity of rainfall. We examined the effect of extreme precipitation intensity on spinach (Spinacia olera...

Diet-related chronic disease is among the most pressing public health issues and represents a health disparity among Native American communities. A community-based participatory approach was taken to evaluate dietary quality of adult residents of the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes in Montana (the Flathead Nation)....

The impacts of climate change are having negative consequences on agricultural communities in the United States and other regions of the world. More specifically, these impacts are expected to increase in both scale and complexity and will continue to pose challenges both in terms of agricultural production and capacity. The purpose of this study w...

In our recent article, we use in situ ecophysiological data from individual sugar maple trees across the species’ range to identify climate conditions that maximize the volume and sugar concentration of sap. Houle and Duchesne present a critique of our research that hinges on their own analysis of industry aggregate data on syrup production, from w...

Background: Wild edible and medicinal plants were an important component of traditional diets and continue to contribute to food security, nutrition, and health in many communities globally. For example, the preparation and consumption of soup made of medicinal plants for promoting health and preventing disease are a key component of the tradition...

Climatic conditions affect the chemical composition of edible crops, which can impact flavor, nutrition and overall consumer preferences. To understand these effects, we sampled tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) grown in different environmental conditions. Using a target/nontarget data analysis approach, we detected 564 metabolites from tea grown...

Wild foods are recognized to contribute to diet and food security through enhancing the availability of local, diverse, and nonmarket food sources. We investigated the contribution of wild foods to diet, food security, and cultural identity in a Native American[1] community in the context of climate change. Structured interviews were conducted with...

Food production and consumption are among the largest drivers of global change. The adoption of lentil in production systems and in plant-based diets is a food system solution that can support the environmental, socio-economic, and human health dimensions of sustainability. The purpose of this study is to evaluate producer and consumer perceptions...

This case study describes a methodological approach to evaluating and improving food environments in an indigenous community in the United States of America. A community-research partnership was developed to support healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Our team implemented complementary methodologies to evaluate multiple dimensions of the f...

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice col...

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental and social impacts of their purchases. Prior research has assessed willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental and ethical attributes on foods and beverages such as locally grown, fairly traded, and organically produced. However, few studies have examined WTP for agricultural greenhouse ga...

Climate change is affecting the benefits society derives from forests. One such forest ecosystem service is maple syrup, which is primarily derived from Acer saccharum (sugar maple), currently an abundant and widespread tree species in eastern North America. Two climate sensitive components of sap affect syrup production: sugar content and sap flow...

The food system is responsible for some of society's most pressing sustainability challenges. Dietary guidelines are one policy tool to help address the multiple sustainability challenges associated with food systems through dietary recommendations that better support environmental and human well-being. This article develops and applies a sustainab...

Climate change is impacting food and beverage crops around the world with implications for environmental and human well-being. While numerous studies have examined climate change effects on crop yields, relatively few studies have examined effects on crop quality (concentrations of nutrients, minerals, and secondary metabolites). This review articl...

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice col...

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice col...

Objective: To determine barriers, motivators, and perspectives regarding plate waste reduction of early adolescents. Design: Trained interviewers conducted audio-recorded individual interviews with adolescents. Setting: Elementary schools implementing the National School Lunch Program in Hawai'i, Montana, and Virginia. Participants: Early ad...

Evaluating the availability and affordability of breastfeeding and formula-feeding supplies are critical for building food environments that support healthy infant development. This study details the development and implementation of the Infant Feeding Resource Tool (InFeed) in retail settings across Montana (n = 21). Interrater reliability was tes...

Background Beverages prepared by fermenting plants have a long history of use for medicinal, social, and ritualistic purposes around the world. Socio-linguistic groups throughout China have traditionally used plants as fermentation starters (or koji) for brewing traditional rice wine. The objective of this study was to evaluate traditional knowledg...

Food processing is used for transforming whole food ingredients into food commodities or edible products. The level of food processing occurs along a continuum from unprocessed to minimally processed, processed, and ultra-processed. Unprocessed foods use little to no processing and have zero additives. Minimally processed foods use finite processin...

Plant-climate interactions affect the edible crop composition, impacting flavor, nutrition, and overall consumer liking. In this study, principal components analysis was used to assess the macro- and micronutrient metal concentrations in pre-monsoon (spring), monsoon (summer), and post-monsoon (autumn) tea (Camelia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) from Yunnan...

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues for tea systems with major implications for farmer livelihoods. Changes in climate variables outside of the thresholds for tea production can impact both tea quality and productivity. It is thus critical to implement strategies for minimizing the forecasted trajectory of climate change and its impac...

Tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide, and the production of tea is of economic importance in over 50 countries. As a woody perennial, tea plants are cultivated in production systems for numerous decades and thus experience the multiple decadal effects of climate change including influences on tea yields and quality. Changes in tea yie...

The sustainability of agriculture depends as much on the natural resources required for production as it does on the stakeholders that manage those resources. It is thus essential to understand the variables that influence the decision-making process of agricultural stakeholders to design educational programs, interventions, and policies geared tow...

The sustainability of agriculture depends as much on the natural resources required for production as it does on the stakeholders that manage those resources. It is thus essential to understand the variables that influence the decision-making process of agricultural stakeholders to design educational programs, interventions, and policies geared tow...

Purpose Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food waste while serving as models in championing sustainability solutions. An experiential learning project was implemented as part of two university courses in a buf...

This study explored whether Montana agricultural stakeholders’ perceptions and observations of climate change vary according to four socio-ecological variables: income, political view, agricultural occupation, and production region. A survey including 27 questions was developed into five sections: (1) agricultural background information; (2) percep...

Climate effects on crop quality at the molecular level are not well-understood. Gas and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry were used to measure changes of hundreds of compounds in tea at different elevations in Yunnan Province, China. Some increased in concentration while others decreased by 100’s of percent. Orthogonal projection to latent st...

Rationale: While breastfeeding is well recognized as beneficial, rates of breastfeeding among American Indian women are below average and contribute to health inequities. Culturally specific approaches to breastfeeding research are called for to inform appropriate interventions in American Indian communities. Specifically, a grandmother's role in b...

Carbon dioxide must be removed from the atmosphere to limit climate change to 2°C or less. The integrated assessment models used to develop climate policy acknowledge the need to implement net negative carbon emission strategies, including bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), to meet global climate imperatives. The implications of BEC...

The main objective of this study is to present a food environment measure, the Produce Desirability (ProDes) Tool, to assess consumer desirability of fruits and vegetables (FVs) based on generalizable sensory characteristics that can be applied in diverse socio-ecological contexts. We implemented the ProDes Tool in rural and urban built food enviro...

Organic tea production has increased in China over the past decade because of the perceived higher quality of the tea as well as the benefits for environmental and human wellbeing. The present study compared the functional quality components of tea harvested from organic and conventional management systems in adjacent fields within the same farms a...

While crop genetic diversity supports ecological processes and food security, there have been few cross-cultural studies evaluating the influence of cultural and dietary factors on the conservation of genetic resources. This study examines genetic diversity patterns of tartary buckwheat in 18 smallholder farming communities across five regions of C...

Camellia reticulata is an arbor tree that has been cultivated in southwestern China by various sociolinguistic groups for esthetic purposes as well as to derive an edible seed oil. This study examined the influence of management, socio-economic factors, and religion on the genetic diversity patterns of Camellia reticulata utilizing a combination of...

While daily consumption of fruits and vegetables (FVs) is widely recognized to be associated with supporting nutrition and health, disparities exist in consumer food environments regarding access to high-quality produce based on location. The purpose of this study was to evaluate FV quality using total phenolic (TP) scores (a phytochemical measure...

Undergraduate courses provide valuable opportunities to train and empower students with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to advance society in more sustainable directions. This article emphasizes the value of bridging primary scientific research with undergraduate education through the presentation of an integrated experiential learning and pr...

Food production globally has a greater impact on water, soil, biodiversity, and greenhouse gases (GHG) than any other human activity (MA 2005; IPCC 2007 and 2013; IAASTD 2009; Rockström et al. 2009; Foley et al. 2011; West et al. 2014). Overall, food production, together with other activities of the food system including food processing, distributi...

Concerns are growing over the ability of the modern food system to simultaneously achieve food security and environmental sustainability in the face of global change. Yet, the dominant tendency within university settings to conceptualize and address diverse food system challenges as separate, disconnected issues is a key barrier to food system tran...

Urban agriculture on green roofs has tremendous potential to enhance food security, economic opportunities, and community-building in cities yet faces unique ecological challenges including limited soil moisture content for crops. We compared the effects of two green roof soil moisture management practices, sedum (Sedum album) groundcover versus wa...

Farmers in China’s tea-growing regions report that monsoon dynamics and other weather factors are changing and that this is affecting tea harvest decisions. To assess the effect of climate change on tea production in China, this study uses historical weather and production data from 1980 to 2011 to construct a yield response model that estimates th...

Farmers in China’s tea-growing regions report that monsoon dynamics and other weather factors are changing and that this is affecting tea harvest decisions. To assess the effect of climate change on tea production in China, this study uses historical weather and production data from 1980 to 2011 to construct a yield response model that estimates th...

The way humans acquire food, through agriculture and food systems, is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and agrochemical pollution of ecosystems (MA 2005; IPCC 2007, 2013; IAASTD 2009). Human nutrition, in turn, is highly dependent on multiple services provided by these ecosystems—for example, nutrient...

Here we present 10 principles to promote synergies between environmental and human health followed by metrics to track progress of principles.

To assess the nutritional quality of food packages offered in the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) using the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010). Data were collected from the list of the food products provided by the US Department of Agriculture���s Food and Nutrition Handbook 501 for FDPIR. Nutritional quality was measured...

We assessed the consumer food environment in rural areas by using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores (NEMS–S) to measure the availability, price, and quality of fruits and vegetables. We randomly selected 20 grocery stores (17 rural, 3 urban) in 12 Montana counties using the 2013 US Department of Agriculture's rural–urban continuu...

Shui communities of southwest China have an extensive history of using wild plants as starters (Xiaoqu) to prepare fermented beverages that serve important roles in interpersonal relationships and cultural events. While the practice of using wild plants as starters for the preparation of fermented beverages was once prevalent throughout China, this...