Food during the Covid-19 pandemic research

Team member Jan Vávra participates in the international research Our relationship with food during the Covid-19 pandemic. Led by Danish Technological Institute and Copenhagen Bussiness School, the project captures important aspects of households’ behaviour and attitudes to food during the time of pandemic. Online questionnaire was realised in Summer 2020 in 16 European languages, including Czech.

Czech part of the research is realised as collaboration of Barbora Duží (Institute of Geonics, Czech Academy of Sciences), Zdeňka Smutná (Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem) and Jan Vávra (University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice).

For more information about the project in Enghlish see the website. Most of the following outputs of the research in Czechia were released in Czech language.

General information about the research can be found in the first press release, summary of the results in the second press release, detailed results in the report.

Barbora Duží presented the the research on Czech Radio Plus on 15. 6. 2020, short interview starts at 15:41:25.

Jan Vávra talked about the research on Czech Radio Karlovy Vary & Plzeň on 3. 9. 2020, listen here.

Two articles summarising the results, by Zdeňka Smutná, Barbory Duží and Jan Vávra, were published in October and November issues of magazine Zahrádkář [Gardener], read here and here.

Barbory Duží gave lecture “Our relationship to food during Covid-19 pandemic” on 3. 11. 2020 as a part of the Week of Science and Technology organised by Czech Academy of Sciences, online here.

An article about the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on food habits and gardening, quoting the researchers, was published on 9. 11. 2020 in newspapers MF Dnes. Can be read online on the website, in Pressreader or in PDF.

November issue of journal Retail News includes article “How were the households doing during Covid-19 pandemic” by Barbora Duží, Jana Vávra and Zdeňka Smutná. The issue can be downloaded as PDF or read online.

Zdeňka Smutná presented results of the research in November 2020 within the series of video lectures Geography Days 2020, here.

Barbora Duží talked about the research in the lecture “Resilience of Czech households in times of crisis: Focused on food” which was a part of the Academy of Sciences webinar Viruses around us and in us on 14. 4. 2021. Video here, the lecture starts in 3:07:20.

Zdeňka Smutná presented paper “Pandemic on a plate: Crisis as an opportunity for the development of alternative food networks?” at online Postgraduate Forum Mid-Term Conference organised by Royal Geographical Society on 19.-23. 4. 2021, presentation here. (in English)

Zdeňka Smutná presented paper “Effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the Czech households’ relationship to food” in special section Sustainability of Food Systems in Sociological Perspective at the conference of Czech Sociological Society 23.-25. 6. 2021, presentation here.

Jeremy Millard presented paper (co-authored by Jan Vávra) “The regional and inequality manifestations of European household food behaviour: a comparative study of the effects of Covid-19” focused on regional comparions of data from 12 EU countries. Presentation shown on 1. 9. 2021 at online conference of Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers can be downloaded here.

A joint research paper led by Jeremy Millard and co-authored by Alberto Sturla, Zdeňka Smutná, Barbora Duží, Meike Janssen and Jan Vávra has been published in Frontiers of Sustainable Food Systems in April 2022. The paper uses data from 12 European countries to compare different types of regions regarding the relationship of food and Covid-19. Open access available here, summary of main findings here.