REU Site -- Feeding the Family in Troubled Times: A Biocultural Study of Patterns of Work, Consumption, and Nutrition at the Household Level in Three Communities in Central Mexico

这个国际REU站点将包括每年夏天带15名学生去墨西哥为期8周。学生们将进行的核心研究是对墨西哥农民自1994年北美自由贸易协定以来的营养变化和健康状况的跨学科研究。特别是，玉米的经济发生了戏剧性的变化。现在，墨西哥农民购买进口玉米比自己种植玉米要便宜。此外，越来越多的玉米饼是用购买的面粉(由杂交的、通常是转基因的玉米和磨碎的玉米芯组成)和水制成的，而不是用当地种植的玉米粉和石灰石制成的传统工艺，石灰石提供了至关重要的钙营养。鉴于钙对妇女生殖和整体健康的核心作用，以及钙水平对胎儿发育的影响，REU的研究重点将放在妇女的营养上。这一主题也为个别研究项目提供了丰富的基础。学生们将在库埃纳瓦卡市工作，在墨西哥导师的指导下，将在莫雷洛斯的三个地点与家庭合作：瓦特拉山脉和北部高地，这是两个自然和地理条件以及边缘化程度截然不同的自给自足的农业社区；以及埃米利亚诺·萨帕塔市，那里的主要商业是外资拥有的组装厂。在每个地点，学生将收集社会数据(问卷、营养人种学、劳动组织、时间分配研究)和生物数据(身体成分、骨密度、钙摄入量)的组合，这些数据将被用来在比较的社会背景下评估营养和健康状况。学生将完成关于他们的研究项目的论文，并为现场社区准备关于他们的发现的演讲。这个奖项有助于基金会继续努力通过活跃的本科生研究经验吸引有才华的学生进入科学职业生涯。

This international REU Site will involve taking 15 students to Mexico for eight weeks each summer. The core research the students will conduct is an interdisciplinary study of nutritional transformations and health status among Mexican farmers since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. In particular, the economy of corn has changed dramatically. It is now less expensive for Mexican peasants to purchase imported corn than to grow their own. Also, tortillas are increasingly being made with purchased flour (consisting of hybrid, often transgenic corn and ground cobs) and water, rather than the traditional process using locally grown corn ground with limestone, which provides the vital nutrient of calcium. The focus of the REU research will be on women's nutrition, given the centrality of calcium to women's reproductive and overall health and the impact of calcium levels on fetal development. This subject matter provides a rich basis for individual research projects as well. Students will be based in the city of Cuernavaca and, with Mexican mentors, will work with families in three sites in Morelos: the Sierra de Huatla and the Northern Highlands, two subsistence farming communities with very different physical and geographical conditions and levels of marginality; and the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, where the main commerce is foreign-owned assembly plants. At each site, students will collect a combination of social data (questionnaires, nutritional ethnographies, labor organization, time allocation studies) and biological data (body composition, bone density, calcium intake) that will be used to evaluate nutrition and health status in a comparative, social context. Students will complete papers on their research projects and prepare presentations for the field site communities on their findings.This award contributes to the Foundation's continuing efforts to attract talented students into careers in science through active undergraduate research experiences.