iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

As always, feel free to get in touch if paywalled...

Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My hope is that this bibliography offers a balanced and useful portrait of the state of the evidence. I come away pretty unconvinced that all UPFs are bad, but also firmly convinced that we should work hard to promote access to healthy and affordable minimally processed foods.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The UPF topic is highly contested and often intense. The initial reviews for this accused me of bias -- but in two completely opposite directions! One basically accused me of being a shill for the processed food industry, the other of not knowing anything about food science.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Just published -- the largest and most thorough annotated bibliography on ultra-processed foods and the NOVA classification system known to humankind! By yours truly, for the @oupacademic.bsky.social Bibliographies on Food Studies. academic.oup.com/reference/62...

academic.oup.com

Oxford Bibliographies in Food Studies

Abstract. Oxford Bibliographies in Food Studies provides authoritative guides to the key scholarship in the field of Food Studies. Curated by area editors

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Alexander J. Stein @ajstein.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The EU depends on imported #fertiliser, as shown again by the war in Iran. But manure—suggested by some as solution—cannot replace mineral fertiliser because the #livestock sector itself is a net consumer of it. Scaling up #manure “production” would increase fertiliser use: doi.org/10.1111/1746... +

Figure 2: Balance of nitrogen (N) flows from mineral fertiliser into animal production and from manure out of it (EU27, 2017/18). An illustrated bar chart shows that 5.1 million tonnes of N from mineral fertiliser are used to produce animal feed, but only 2.5 million tonnes of N from manure are provided to the rest of agriculture -- meaning animal production is a net consumer of 2.6 million tonnes of N from mineral fertiliser.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

A community-based research collaboration, partners included New Jersey Food Democracy Collaborative, CATA Farmworkers & C.R.O.P.S. NJ, with valuable funding from the South Jersey Institute of Population Health. Many thanks to my co-authors! www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fs...

foodsystemsjournal.org

View of Understanding caregiver perspectives to improve food security screening in healthcare settings

JAFSCD: Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Publication of the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Our research explored low-income parents experiences and developed recommendations to improve outreach and resource connection. Findings emphasize the importance of trusted organizations, community-focused media, and shared community spaces as key to improving communication and building trust.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Healthcare institutions increasingly screen patients for food insecurity and connect households to supportive resources as part of "Food Is Medicine" initiatives. Despite good intentions, however, patients report that screenings and follow-ups can be inadequate, restrictive, or inaccessible.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

NEW PUB: Plant-based meat brands like Impossible Foods said their INNOVATIVE TECH would change the world. As the market stalled, a big question lingered -- do consumers want to EAT innovation? Our focus group study aimed to find out more. OPEN ACCESS 1/ www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

frontiersin.org

Frontiers | Consumer perceptions of plant-based meat innovation: a focus group study on food technology

Novel plant-based meat products that aim to mimic the taste and texture of conventional meat have been proposed as a key tool to encourage sustainable dietar...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Ultimately, consumers will embrace food technology IF AND ONLY IF: benefits are clear, downsides addressed, social networks supportive, and access is easy and affordable. A big challenge for plant-based meats, but possible with hard work across the value chain! 4/4

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

What influences people to adopt (or not adopt) plant-based meat alternatives? A range of micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors all play a role. Resistance at any level makes it tough, but resistance across all three makes it basically impossible. 3/

TABLE 2 Levels of influence, key influences, and operative questions.
Level of influence Key influences Operative questions
Micro-level Knowledge, attitudes, and values; food preferences and previous
experience; assessment of innovation’s qualities, risks, and benefits;
close social network ties; media diet; demographic, cultural, and
financial characteristics.
What do I and the people I trust think about PBMAs?
Does my everyday life promote positive, negative, or no
engagement with PBMAs?
Meso-level Social norms; community food environment; innovation
accessibility; extended social network ties; information ecosystem;
community demographics, culture, and financial characteristics.
What do the people in the communities that matter to me think
about PBMAs?
Do my communities promote positive, negative, or no
engagement with PBMAs?
Macro-level Dominant ideologies; economics and public policies; food system
supply chains; innovation and technology infrastructures;
environment and climate; societal demographics, culture, and
financial characteristics.
What does society think about PBMAs?
Does society promote positive, negative, or no engagement with
PBMAs?

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

We explored how people think about innovation across sectors; within food specifically; and in relation to plant-based meats. Big takeaway: perceptions are complex and often contradictory, shaped through a mix of ideology, tastes, social networks, culture & environment. 2/

TABLE 1 Overview of thematic findings.
Thematic focus area Core insights Prominent sub-themes
Innovation Differentiation: Domains,
Categories, Products
Innovation perceptions and adoption are contingent,
with assessments shaped by perceived characteristics of
the innovation, adopter preferences and heuristics, and a
range of environmental factors.
General rejection of blanket “pro” or “anti” innovation identity.
Intersecting influences of direct experience, interpersonal
networks, media, finances, and contextual settings.
Contradictions and discontinuities in rationales, both across
and within innovation sectors.
Considering Food Innovation Consumers’ level of involvement with food, combined
with their openness to innovativeness versus tradition,
tends to structure perceptions of novel foods, but
adoption behaviors remain conditional and subject to
classic influences on food choice.
Ideological commitments exist on a continuum from firmly
held to backgrounded.
Realities of food availability, price, and family preferences often
prove determinative.
Conflicted feelings about modern food systems, with
appreciation for scale and consistency but concerns about
ultra-processing.
Plant-Based Meat Innovation Perceptions and adoption behaviors emerge through the
interaction of micro-level preferences, meso-level norms,
and macro-level discourses, with product-specific
assessments often disconnected from general ideological
stances on food system innovation.
Widespread concerns about ultra-processing, but brushed
aside by consumers who endorse gustatory, social, or ethical
value of PBMAs.
Rejection of PBMAs from consumers of varied eating
behaviors, with strongest expressions from those who object to
the politics of veganism or economics of food tech.
Confusion and lack of familiarity with technologies and
terminologies across the alternative protein and meat
production sectors.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

frontiersin.org

Frontiers | Consumer perceptions of plant-based meat innovation: a focus group study on food technology

Novel plant-based meat products that aim to mimic the taste and texture of conventional meat have been proposed as a key tool to encourage sustainable dietar...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

"For the most part, the only statistically meaningful ill health effects come from ultra-processed foods that contain the things we already know are bad for us: too much salt, sugar, and fat."

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Who hates cultured meat?? I wrote about the diverse coalition opposed to cellular agriculture, from reasonable critics to outright conspiracists. It's part of a book on "Cell-Based Meat in the European Union and Beyond" - OPEN ACCESS! link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

link.springer.com

Who Hates Cultured Meat? Examining Public Opposition to Cellular Agriculture

Despite its limited availability as a consumer product, recent years have witnessed significant scepticism, concern, and outright rejection regarding the emerging science and industry of cultured meat...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

link.springer.com

Who Hates Cultured Meat? Examining Public Opposition to Cellular Agriculture

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Waking up thinking about this headline for no particular reason...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

My whole aim was to provide a balanced and interdisciplinary look at a topic that is contentious and evolving. Apparently not something the reviewers were interested in. Editors still seem supportive though!

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

One reviewer said I didn't understand nutrition science and focused too much on social science issues. The other reviewer said I didn't understand social science and focused too much on nutrition science issues.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Just got back reviews for a comprehensive annotated bibliography on "Ultra-Processed Foods" I was invited to write for Oxford. Paraphrasing: R1: "The author is biased -- he clearly supports the UPF concept." R2: "The author is biased -- he clearly opposes the UPF concept."

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Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Totally agree with @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social that we should stop demonizing industrial food. Demonize crap food, by all means! But not all industrial, or even ultra-processed food is crap, and some crap has only ingredients your grandmother would recognize.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

I didn't know Dan personally but felt like I knew Dan pretty well. His knowledge of offbeat Philly sports culture minutiae was unmatched, and his hoagie mouth landed like ASMR in my ears. He will be missed.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

"Slashing regulations, firing federal workers, and wrecking the basic capacities of government officials to do their jobs guarantees the bad government it purports to fix and creates the conditions for the fraud and corruption that tough-talking politicians pretend to abhor."

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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Quick little exchange here about one of the changes bsky.app/profile/wait...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

The 2005 MyPyramid was then followed by MyPlate, which had pretty similar portions as this New Food Pyramid. The shift is mostly rhetorical + meatier. myplate-prod.azureedge.us/sites/defaul...

myplate-prod.azureedge.us

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Worth noting that the "Food Pyramid" with grains at the base has not been part of the Dietary Guidelines since 2005 (despite what the admin's flashy new site seems to imply)! realfood.gov

realfood.gov

America's New Dietary Guidelines

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans reset U.S. nutrition policy by restoring science, common sense, and real food as the foundation of national health.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Despite the characteristic bluster from the Trump/RFK admin, the new dietary guidelines are really not that different from the last 20+ years. Biggest shift is definitely more positive emphasis on meat and full-fat dairy. But otherwise pretty status quo...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Married a Buffalonian so will be "outside" at the Eagles/Bills game next week. If I still have fingers and toes hope to drop by for some crab fries.

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Sentient @sentientmedia.org · 16/12/2025

Since launching in 2013, Falling Fruit has mapped over 4,000 different species of edible mushrooms and plants across almost 2 million publicly accessible foraging spots in cities around the world. @gracehussain.bsky.social reports:

buff.ly

Urban Foragers Are Mapping Edible Plants Around the World

The nonprofit Falling Fruit’s interactive, crowdsourced map helps communities find food-bearing plants in cities around the world.

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Sentient @sentientmedia.org · 11/12/2025

We’re joining other newsrooms in the Climate News Task Force to offer a shared place to sign up for all our newsletters. It’s a new way to make climate coverage easier to find — and to support the reporting that holds powerful industries accountable. buff.ly/IrWLrrX

buff.ly

Get the Climate News Task Force newsletter bundle

Twelve climate newsrooms joined forces in 2025 to create the Climate News Task Force, to increase and improve climate journalism collaborations and innovate new solutions to current challenges.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Included in that definition is a note that there are possible exceptions to the claim that all UPFs are inferior to their non-UPF counterparts, noting the examples of infant formula and plant-based meats. It concludes that these exceptions don't "invalidate the general rule." Why not? Because.

Nova group 4 is a broad range of products that vary widely in composition, processing, and nutrient profiles. Some UPFs (eg, yoghurts, breakfast cereals, and packaged breads) might be superior than others (eg, soft drinks, cookies, and reconstituted meat products). However, within each category of food, the composition and processing characteristics of ultra-processed versions make them inferior to their non-ultra-processed counterparts. For instance, ultra-processed yoghurts—often made from skimmed milk powder, modified starches, sugar or non-sugar sweeteners, emulsifiers, flavourings, and colourings—are inferior to plain yoghurts with fresh fruits. Ultra-processed breakfast cereals, made from sugar, extruded starches, and additives, are inferior to minimally processed steel-cut oats. Ultra-processed wholewheat breads, made with refined flour, added bran and germ, and emulsifiers, are inferior to processed breads made with wholewheat flour and without emulsifiers. Soft drinks are clearly less healthy than water or pasteurised, 100% fruit juices; cookies less healthy than fruits and nuts; and reconstituted meat products less healthy than freshly prepared meat dishes. Possible exceptions—such as ultra-processed infant formulas compared with minimally processed cow's milk (although not human milk), or ultra-processed plant-based burgers compared with processed meat burgers (though not processed tofu or tempeh)—do not invalidate the general rule that ultra-processed versions of foods are inferior to their non-ultra-processed counterparts. This rule is what supports the hypotheses that the displacement of dietary patterns based on Nova groups 1–3 by the ultra-processed pattern is linked to worsening diet quality and an increased risk of multiple diseases.

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

The UPF literature is a mess. bsky.app/profile/garr...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

The concept of "ultra-processed foods" (UPFs) was supposed to IMPROVE conversations about food systems, nutrition, & the environment. I wrote about why that has NOT been the case -- for the 25th anniversary issue of @gastronomica. 1/ online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

"At no other point in human history could someone opt for the meat of their choice for three meals every day, without getting any blood on their own hands, and then post about it on social media to claim they are living like their ancestors."

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

But efforts to make food systems healthy need to be based in 1) good nutritional evidence, 2) good environmental evidence, and 3) realistic social contexts. To this point, the UPF/NOVA frameworks are not cutting it. 8/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

It can be hard to argue against the UPF concept without sounding like a shill for processed foods. To be clear, we should be supporting efforts to help people eat minimally processed whole foods! And the food industry has done some bad stuff to get people hooked on junk food! 7/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Just as important, the rhetoric of the anti-UPF brigade is deeply alarmist, often disconnected and elitist, and frequently selling you something. In the case of RFK Jr/MAHA, it's also a distraction from the ways they are undermining effective public health approaches. 6/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

The idea that UPFs are uniquely bad for the environment is upended by the fact that lots of animal-sourced foods with demonstrably poor environmental impacts are granted a non-UPF halo while lots of environmentally sound plant-based foods are deemed destructive UPFs. 5/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

The NOVA system is just not good! The categories are confusing and unreliable. Some UPFs are actually good for you. Some non-UPFs are clearly unhealthy. Evidence connecting UPFs to poor health is mostly explained by a few categories -- especially sugar-sweetened beverages. 4/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

But as UPFs have permeated nutritional discourse, it's proven to be just as reductionist as its predecessors -- just in different ways. Now, whether a food is "good" or "bad" gets decided by its place within the 4 categories of NOVA. But here's the problem... 3/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

When I first learned about UPFs and the NOVA system, I was optimistic. I agree that the "goodness" of a food should not JUST be about its nutritional composition. Reductionism can be bad! We should consider food's impacts on culture and ecology too! 2/

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

If it comes down to late-breaking undecideds, I think Ciattarelli will be the next governor. At the very least, he comes across as authentically FROM HERE, whereas she seems like she was made in a lab by highly-paid Democratic consultants. I hope I'm wrong...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Prediction markets have Sherrill at around 85% to win NJ governor, but I gotta say it feels much more like a toss-up/lean Ciattarelli based on my unscientific observational drives through South Jersey. Absolutely no enthusiasm for Sherrill...

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Garrett Broad @garrettbroad.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

A useful rejoinder to the Consumer Reports study on lead in protein powders...

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