Rethinking farmer knowledge from soil to plate through narrative inquiry: An agroecological food systems perspective

This paper illustrates how farmer knowledge is generatively constructed and framed within an agroecological context to address the complexities of our food system more fully. For some, farmer knowledge is a hidden asset below the surface that acts as a reserve for sustaining and fortifying food system possibilities. We interviewed 12 self-identified smallholder farmers in Virginia using narrative inquiry as a dynamic methodology to explore the rhizomatic quality and mycorrhizal nature of smallholder farmers’ knowledge and experiences of soil, conservation, and place. The narrative inquiry method offered a participatory research approach to analyze how farmers perform their work in ways that extend across and are entangled with other domains of the food system that reflect agroecological values. Five primary themes were identified from the narrative inquiry data analysis by drawing upon the whole measures of community food systems as a values-based framework. Our findings illustrate how farmer praxis is reflective of and influenced by the ecological and sociopolitical ethos of land, food, health, and liberation. For scholar-practitioners, this research emphasizes the current claim for reevaluating and reconceptualizing research and outreach responses to mounting food system crises. The construction and expansion of farmer knowledge are not linear but rhizomatic and mycorrhizal in quality; therefore, scholar-practitioner responses to understanding and engaging with farmer knowledge systems should be amenable to a diversity of culturally dynamic sys­tems of knowing that embody socio-eco relations and networks. Like others, we argue that an over­emphasis on essentialist “best practices” and tech­nocratic problem-solving does not adequately help us see these generative possibilities from soil to plate. Thus, we recommend that food system practitioners and researchers emphasize engaged listening, storytelling, and generative—not extrac­tive—approaches as an epistemological frame for expanding our understanding of agroecology and food systems change.

Resilience of Community Food Systems (CFS): Co-Design as a Long-Term Viable Pathway to Face Crises in Neglected Territories?

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a global crisis, with impacts an ongoing food security and nutrition, exposing the vulnerabilities of our society. However, it can be a time for reflection and an opportunity to propose and stimulate initiatives that are ready to facilitate resilience within the food system. The food to fork must be shortened and diversified where it is viable and feasible, while made affordable for all societal levels. To face these challengers, the community food systems (CFS) approach has a crucial role, since it copes with relevant principles, including the necessities of low-income societies from areas particularly marginalized from mainstream food systems, of which those land areas also can pose as additional insurance just in case of occurrence of whatever crises. Systematizing the components and contributions of CFS can facilitate the advance of strategies to better deal with crises and increase resilience. Therefore, in this paper, through key elements of CFS, we propose a theoretical framework that can be applied by decision makers as a conceptual guide for combating threats to food systems in neglected territories.

Exploring Undergraduate Indigenous Students’ Experiences with Institutional and Community Food Systems in a Canadian Urban Setting

Objectives Due to the high prevalence rates of food insecurity among university students and Indigenous Peoples in Canada, a qualitative study was designed to investigate the experiences of self-identified Indigenous students accessing local food environments. Research objectives included: 1) exploring undergraduate Indigenous students' experiences with institutional and community food systems in an urban setting; and 2) examining programs in place or in development on and off-campus that address circumstances of food insecurity and the needs of Indigenous students. Methods Data collection included face-to-face semi-structured interviews with eight students who self-identified as First Nations, Inuit or Métis. A focus group was conducted with four service providers, including stakeholders from institutional and local urban communities. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Participants identified several themes that were organized into individual, interpersonal organizational and community levels according to the socio-ecological model. Themes included: food and nutrition knowledge, financial capacity, convenience, social influences, campus food environment, cultural and institutional support. A model was also created to represent the results based on the themes from the focus group data. Focus group participants discussed linkages of social support and connectedness to increase Indigenous student access to food systems beyond the parameters of the university institution. Barriers to local food systems for students were lack of awareness of local resources and stigma associated with emergency food assistance. Conclusions Results suggest that Indigenous students are primarily focused on individual food and interpersonal social environments at the university and have limited awareness and exposure to the services available in the wider community and local food environment. Indigenous students and community members require an increased level of organizational and community awareness to support urban Indigenous food security programming across food environments to sustainably address circumstances of food insecurity experienced by Indigenous university students. Funding Sources The Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, The University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.