Sustaining local food webs: insights from Kenya and the UK

The release of genetically modified organisms into the environment and food chain in the UK has produced one of the most visible and enduring controversies of recent times. Amid ongoing claim and counter-claim by actors on either side of the GM ‘debate’ over the salient ‘facts’ or balance of risks and benefits associated with the technology, this controversy can be fruitfully seen as a struggle between contested networks of knowledge. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during recent PhD fieldwork, I focus on those, loosely defined as members of ‘local food networks’ in SW England, who perceive their values and cultural projects to be at risk from the deployment of this technology. In scrutinizing how distinctly ‘oppositional’ knowledge is created, exchanged and transformed particularly in relation to the construction and maintenance of cultural and historical boundaries, I suggest that in this arena a key vehicle of knowledge transfer is the narrative or story. A successfully deployed narrative can resolve uncertainties, or equally, dissolve undesirable certainties. Knowledge transfer thus becomes a matter of rhetoric, of persuasion, whereby skilfully deployed narratives can be viewed as analogical networks of associations - enrolling culturally appropriate characters, values and concepts - to move the targeted audience in the desired manner. I argue that such transfers must be seen not only as exchanges of networks of knowledge but also of networks of ignorance, for as the ethnographic data reveals, when the stakes are perceived to be so high, ideological coherence often outweighs empirical evidence and logical consistency. This raises a critical dilemma for the ethnographer. What should he/she do when confronted in the field by exaggerated claims or misinformation?

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Does eating local food reduce the environmental impact of food production and enhance consumer health?

Proceedings of The Nutrition Society ◽

10.1017/s0029665110002004 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 69 (4) ◽

pp. 582-591 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Gareth Edwards-Jones

Keyword(s):

Food System ◽

Local Food ◽

Local Level ◽

Qualitative Assessment ◽

Small Scale ◽

Quantitative Evidence ◽

Self Sufficiency ◽

Non Local ◽

The Uk ◽

The Impact

The concept of local food has gained traction in the media, engaged consumers and offered farmers a new marketing tool. Positive claims about the benefits of local food are probably not harmful when made by small-scale producers at the local level; however, greater concern would arise should such claims be echoed in policy circles. This review examines the evidence base supporting claims about the environmental and health benefits of local food. The results do not offer any support for claims that local food is universally superior to non-local food in terms of its impact on the climate or the health of consumers. Indeed several examples are presented that demonstrate that local food can on occasions be inferior to non-local food. The analysis also considers the impact on greenhouse gas emissions of moving the UK towards self-sufficiency. Quantitative evidence is absent on the changes in overall emissions that would occur if the UK switched to self-sufficiency. A qualitative assessment suggests the emissions per item of food would probably be greater under a scenario of self-sufficiency than under the current food system. The review does not identify any generalisable or systematic benefits to the environment or human health that arise from the consumption of local food in preference to non-local food.

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Exploring the relationship between local food environments and obesity in UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand: a systematic review protocol

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018701 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. e018701 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Andrea Fuentes Pacheco ◽

Gabriela Carrillo Balam ◽

Daryll Archibald ◽

Elizabeth Grant ◽

Valeria Skafida

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Local Food ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Food Environments ◽

Longitudinal Case Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Cross Sectional Studies ◽

The Uk ◽

The Relationship

IntroductionObesity is a global pandemic that affects all socioeconomic strata, however, the highest figures have been observed in the most disadvantaged social groups. Evidence from the USA and Canada showed that specific urban settings encourage obesogenic behaviour in the population living and/or working there. We aim to examine the evidence on the association between local food environments and obesity in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.MethodsSix databases from 1990 to 2017 will be searched: MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Scopus, The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) and Web of Science. Grey literature will also be sought by searching Opengrey Europe, The Grey Literature Report and relevant government websites. Additional studies will be retrieved from the reference lists of the selected articles. It will include cohort, longitudinal, case study and cross-sectional studies that have assessed the relationship between local food environments and obesity in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand regardless of sex, age and ethnicity of the population. Two researchers will independently select the studies and extract the data. Data items will incorporate: author names, title, study design, year of study, year exposure data collected, country, city, urban/rural, age range, study exclusions, special characteristics of study populations, aims, working definitions of food environments and food outlets, exposure and methods of data collection, outcomes and key findings. A narrative synthesis and a summary of the results will be produced separately for children and adults, according to the type of food exposure–outcome. All the selected studies will be assessed using The Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies.Ethics and disseminationThis study will be based on published literature, and therefore ethical approval has not been sought. Our findings will be presented at relevant national and international scientific conferences and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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Prelims – Sustaining Local Food Webs

Sustaining Local Food Webs ◽

10.3362/9781780448800.000 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. i-vii

Author(s):

Ben Murphy

Keyword(s):

Food Webs ◽

Local Food

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Nutrition intervention with populations

Oxford Handbook of Nutrition and Dietetics ◽

10.1093/med/9780199585823.003.0018 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 349-377

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Nutritional Status ◽

Local Food ◽

Nutrition Policy ◽

Nutrition Intervention ◽

Policy Options ◽

Nutrition Interventions ◽

Food And Nutrition ◽

National Public Health ◽

The Uk

National food and nutrition policy 350 National bodies influencing UK food and nutrition policy 352 National public health nutrition strategies 354 Surveys to monitor nutritional status in the UK 358 Policy options for preventing obesity 360 Local food and nutrition policy 364 Conducting nutrition interventions ...

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