scholarly journals Leveraging Globalization to Revive Traditional Foods

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jena Trolio ◽  
Molly Eckman ◽  
Khanjan Mehta

<p>Traditional foods are important to the sustainability of their native regions because they are often keystone assets to food security, economic stability, and quality nutrition. Globalization of agricultural markets, changing lifestyles, and rural-to-urban migration has contributed to the gradual loss of traditional foods in developing countries. The transition from traditional foods to imported refined carbohydrates, sugars, and edible oils has promoted nutrient deficiency, economic instability, and food insecurity. While the effects of globalization have been largely negative for indigenous foods, globalization is inevitable and has potentially useful aspects. Local champions and international supporters can leverage specific technologies and market patterns brought about or influenced by globalization to revive culinary traditions, strengthen local food systems, and bolster indigenous livelihoods. Such approaches include helping farmers benefit from technological advances in efficiency and economy of scale, biotechnology, post-harvest processing, and smart infrastructure combined with ethically-conscious food sourcing. Trends such as human migration, exotic food fads, interest in nutritious and organic foods, the rise of social media, and agricultural extension and education can also support improvements in local agricultural products and their globalizing markets. Collectively, these efforts can help revive sustainable traditional food production and enhance the lives and livelihoods of indigenous communities.</p>

Author(s):  
Shailesh Shukla ◽  
Jazmin Alfaro ◽  
Carol Cochrane ◽  
Cindy Garson ◽  
Gerald Mason ◽  
...  

Food insecurity in Indigenous communities in Canada continue to gain increasing attention among scholars, community practitioners, and policy makers. Meanwhile, the role and importance of Indigenous foods, associated knowledges, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014) that highlight community voices in food security still remain under-represented and under-studied in this discourse. University of Winnipeg (UW) researchers and Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN) representatives began an action research partnership to explore Indigenous knowledges associated with food cultivation, production, and consumption practices within the community since 2012. The participatory, place-based, and collaborative case study involved 17 oral history interviews with knowledge keepers of FRCN. The goal was to understand their perspectives of and challenges to community food security, and to explore the potential role of Indigenous food knowledges in meeting community food security needs. In particular, the role of land-based Indigenous foods in meeting community food security through restoration of health, cultural values, identity, and self-determination were emphasized by the knowledge keepers—a vision that supports Indigenous food sovereignty. The restorative potential of Indigenous food sovereignty in empowering individuals and communities is well-acknowledged. It can nurture sacred relationships and actions to renew and strengthen relationships to the community’s own Indigenous land-based foods, previously weakened by colonialism, globalization, and neoliberal policies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2415
Author(s):  
Carla Johnston ◽  
Andrew Spring

Communities in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) are at the forefront of the global climate emergency. Yet, they are not passive victims; local-level programs are being implemented across the region to maintain livelihoods and promote adaptation. At the same time, there is a recent call within global governance literature to pay attention to how global policy is implemented and affecting people on the ground. Thinking about these two processes, we ask the question: (how) can global governance assist northern Indigenous communities in Canada in reaching their goals of adapting their food systems to climate change? To answer this question, we argue for a “community needs” approach when engaging in global governance literature and practice, which puts community priorities and decision-making first. As part of a collaborative research partnership, we highlight the experiences of Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation, located in Kakisa, NWT, Canada. We include their successes of engaging in global network building and the systemic roadblock of lack of formal land tenure. Moreover, we analyze potential opportunities for this community to engage with global governance instruments and continue connecting to global networks that further their goals related to climate change adaptation and food sovereignty.


2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Ishak ◽  
Antonio Carlos Rosário Vallinoto ◽  
Vânia Nakauth Azevedo ◽  
Marluísa de Oliveira Guimarães Ishak

HTLV was initially described in association with a form of leukemia in Japan and a neurological disease in the Caribbean. It was soon shown that HTLV-II was endemic among Amerindians and particularly among Brazilian Indians. The Amazon Region of Brazil is presently the largest endemic area for this virus and has allowed several studies concerning virus biology, the search for overt disease, epidemiological data including detailed demographic data on infected individuals, clear-cut geographic distribution, definition of modes of transmission and maintenance within small, epidemiologically-closed groups, and advances in laboratory diagnosis of the infection. A new molecular subtype named HTLV-IIc was further described on the basis of genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. This subtype is present in other areas of Brazil, indicating that the virus is additionally both a valuable marker for tracing past human migration routes in the Americas and a probable marker for social habits of the present human population. HIV, the other human retrovirus, is still not prevalent among indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon, but these groups are also easy targets for the virus.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Laura Deaconu ◽  
Geneviève Mercille ◽  
Malek Batal

Abstract Background: The displacement of traditional dietary practices is associated with negative nutritional consequences for rural Indigenous people, who already face the brunt of both nutritional inadequacies and excesses. Traditional food (TF) consumption and production practices can improve nutritional security by mitigating disruptive dietary transitions, providing nutrients and improving agricultural resilience. Meanwhile, traditional agricultural practices regenerate biodiversity to support healthy ecosystems. In Ecuador, Indigenous people have inserted TF agricultural and dietary practices as central elements of the country’s agroecological farming movement. This study assesses factors that may promote TF practices in rural populations and explores the role of agroecology in strengthening such factors. Methods: Mixed methods include a cross-sectional comparative survey of dietary, food acquisition, production and socioeconomic characteristics of agroecological farmers (n=61) and neighboring reference farmers (n=30) in Ecuador’s Imbabura province. Instruments include 24-hour dietary recall and a food frequency questionnaire of indicator traditional foods. We triangulate results using eight focus group discussions with farmers’ associations. Results: Compared to their neighbors, agroecological farmers produce and consume more TFs, and particularly underutilized TFs. Farm production diversity, reliance on non-market foods and agroecology participation act on a pathway in which TF production diversity predicts higher TF consumption diversity and ultimately TF consumption frequency. Age, income, market distance and education are not consistently associated with TF practices. Focus group discussions corroborate survey results and also identify affective (e.g. emotional) and commercial relationships in agroecological spaces as likely drivers of stronger TF practices. Conclusions: Traditional food practices in the Ecuadorian highlands are not relics of old, poor and isolated populations but rather an established part of life for diverse rural people. However, many TFs are underutilized. Sustainable agriculture initiatives may improve TF practices by integrating TFs into production diversity increases and into consumption of own production. Agroecology may be particularly effective because it is a self-expanding global movement that not only promotes the agricultural practices that are associated with TF production, but also appears to intensify affective sentiments toward TFs and inserts TFs in commercial spaces. Understanding how to promote TFs is necessary in order to scale up their potential to strengthen nutritional health.


Author(s):  
Bruno David ◽  
Ian J. McNiven

This Introduction to The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art highlights a number of conceptual themes and issues that go to the heart of rock art research. Rock art research in the early twenty-first century is daunting in its complexity and scope due largely to major technological advances in digital recording and chronometric dating, the increasing employment of sophisticated methods and theories harnessed not just from archaeology and anthropology but also from a wide array of disciplines, and greater awareness of Indigenous voices, ethical responsibilities, and political sensitivities of working collaboratively with Indigenous communities. As archaeological and anthropological approaches to rock art mutually inform each other’s research agendas, new methodological and theoretical ways of approaching, conceptualising, and historicising rock art symbolism, biography, authorship, gender, sexuality, spiritualism, agency, and relationality continue to develop to shape future research agendas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ainka A. Granderson

Abstract There is increasing recognition of traditional knowledge as an important store of information and practices for building adaptive capacity for climate change in the Pacific. However, empirical research and documentation of how Pacific Islanders experience climate change, identify relevant adaptation options, and mobilize their adaptive capacity, including traditional knowledge, remains limited. Given this context, indigenous islander perspectives on traditional knowledge and its role in building their adaptive capacity are examined in this article. The author draws on research with the Nakanamanga-speaking peoples of Tongoa Island, Vanuatu. This research documents traditional knowledge relating to weather and climate observations; resource use and management; social networks; local leadership; and values and beliefs in these indigenous communities and reveals differing perspectives about its potential to enhance local adaptive capacity. It highlights indigenous concerns about self-reliance, cultural continuity, and how the transition to a cash economy, the valorization of Western education and lifestyles, and rural–urban migration have had adverse implications for traditional knowledge and its retention. It further reveals potential trade-offs for indigenous communities on Tongoa Island, where traditional governance, tenure systems, and values enable flexibility and collective action that build adaptive capacity but can also promote conservative attitudes and limit uptake of new information and practices.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah T. Neufeld ◽  
Chantelle A. M. Richmond ◽  
Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre

<p>Processes of environmental dispossession have had dramatic consequences for dietary quality, cultural identity, and the integrity of traditional food systems (TFS) in many Indigenous populations. These transitions have not been documented among First Nation people in southwestern Ontario, and virtually no studies have investigated TFS in southern or urban regions of Canada. Nested within a larger community-centred project designed to better understand the social and spatial determinants of food choice and patterns of food security, the objective of this paper was to explore First Nation mothers’ knowledge about access, availability, and practices relating to traditional foods in the city of London, Ontario, and nearby First Nation reserves. In 2010, twenty-five women participated in semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed with input from community partners. Our results centre on the women’s stories about access, preferences, knowledge, and sharing of traditional foods. Those living on a reserve relied more consistently on traditional foods, as proximity to land, family, and knowledge permitted improved access. Urban mothers faced transportation and economic barriers alongside knowledge loss related to the use and preparation of traditional foods. Overall our results demonstrate uneven geographic challenges for First Nation engagement in TFS, with urban mothers experiencing uniquely greater challenges than those residing on a reserve.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tess Moeke-Maxwell ◽  
Rawiri Wharemate ◽  
Stella Black ◽  
Kathleen Mason ◽  
Janine Wiles ◽  
...  

Informal end of life caregiving will increase over the next 30 years in line with the anticipated increase in older Māori deaths. Of concern, New Zealand’s neo-colonial trajectory (loss of lands, cultural disenfranchisement, urban migration, ethnic diversity, global diaspora and changing whānau (family, including extended family) compositions) has restricted some indigenous whānau from retaining their end of life care customs. This article reports on a qualitative pilot study on Māori whānau end of life care customs undertaken to explore how those care customs contribute towards strengthening whānau resilience and bereavement. Five whānau, including thirteen individuals from diverse iwi (tribes), took part in one of six face to face interviews. Kaupapa Māori research methods informed the analysis. The findings report a high level of customary caregiving knowledge among older whānau carers as well as a cohesive whānau collective support system for this group. Tribal care customs were handed down via 1) enculturation with tribal principles, processes and practices 2) observing kaumātua processes and practices and 3) being chosen and prepared for a specific care role by kaumātua. Younger participants had strong cultural care values but less customary care knowledge. The pilot concluded the need for a larger systematic qualitative study of Māori tikanga (customs) and kawa (guidelines) as well as the development of participant digital stories to support a free online educational resource to increase understanding among whānau, indigenous communities and the health and palliative care sectors.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aishwarya Talluri ◽  
◽  

Food is vital for human survival. Food has had a significant impact on our built environment since the beginning of human life. The process of feeding oneself was most people’s primary job for the greater part of human history. Urban Migration moved people away from rural and natural landscapes on which they had been dependent for food and other amenities for centuries.1 Emergence of the cities leads to a new paradigm where the consumers get their food from rural hinterland where the main production of food products happens2 . In a globalized world with an unprecedented on-going process of urbanization, There is an ever reducing clarity between urban and rural, the paper argues that the category of the urban & rural as a spatial and morphological descriptor has to be reformulated, calling for refreshing, innovating and formulating the way in which urban and rural resource flows happen. India is projected to be more than 50% urban by 2050 (currently 29%). The next phase of economic and social development will be focused on urbanization of its rural areas. This 50 %, which will impact millions of people, will not come from cities, but from the growth of rural towns and small cities. Urbanization is accelerated through Government schemes such as JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission ) , PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana), 100 smart cities challenge, Rurban Mission are formulated with developmental mindset. The current notions of ‘development’ are increasing travel distances, fuels consumption, food imports, deterioration of biodiversity, pollution, temperatures, cost of living. The enormity of the issue is realized when the cumulative effect of all cities is addressed. Urban biased development becomes an ignorant choice, causing the death of rural and deterioration of ecological assets. Most people live in places that are distant from production fields have been observed as an increasing trend. Physical separation of people from food production has resulted in a degree of indifference about where and how food is produced, making food a de-contextualized market product as said by Halweil, 20023 . The resulting Psychological separation of people from the food supply and the impacts this may have on long term sustainability of food systems. Methodology : . Sharing the learning about planning for food security through Field surveys, secondary and tertiary sources. Based on the study following parameters : 1. Regional system of water 2. Landforms 3. Soil type 4. Transportation networks 5. Historical evolution 6. Urban influences A case study of Delhi, India, as a site to study a scenario that can be an alternative development model for the peri-urban regions of the city. To use the understanding of spatial development and planning to formulate guidelines for sustainable development of a region that would foster food security.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Laura Deaconu ◽  
Geneviève Mercille ◽  
Malek Batal

Abstract Background: The displacement of traditional dietary practices is associated with negative nutritional consequences for rural Indigenous people, who already face the brunt of both nutritional inadequacies and excesses. Traditional food (TF) consumption and production practices can improve nutritional security by mitigating disruptive dietary transitions, providing nutrients and improving agricultural resilience. Meanwhile, traditional agricultural practices regenerate biodiversity to support healthy ecosystems. In Ecuador, Indigenous people have inserted TF agricultural and dietary practices as central elements of the country’s agroecological farming movement. This study assesses factors that may promote TF practices in rural populations and explores the role of agroecology in strengthening such factors. Methods: Mixed methods include a cross-sectional comparative survey of dietary, food acquisition, production and socioeconomic characteristics of agroecological farmers (n=61) and neighboring reference farmers (n=30) in Ecuador’s Imbabura province. Instruments include 24-hour dietary recall and a food frequency questionnaire of indicator traditional foods. We triangulate results using eight focus group discussions with farmers’ associations. Results: Compared to their neighbors, agroecological farmers produce and consume more TFs, and particularly underutilized TFs. Farm production diversity, reliance on non-market foods and agroecology participation act on a pathway in which TF production diversity predicts higher TF consumption diversity and ultimately TF consumption frequency. Age, income, market distance and education are not consistently associated with TF practices. Focus group discussions corroborate survey results and also identify affective (e.g. emotional) and commercial relationships in agroecological spaces as drivers of stronger TF practices. Conclusions: Traditional food practices in the Ecuadorian highlands are not relics of old, poor and isolated populations but rather an established part of life for diverse rural people. However, many TFs are underutilized. Sustainable agriculture initiatives may improve TF practices by integrating TFs into production diversity increases and into consumption of own production. Agroecology may be particularly effective because it is a self-expanding global movement that not only strengthens productive pathways toward TF promotion, but also intensifies affective sentiments toward TFs and inserts them in commercial spaces. Understanding how to promote TFs is necessary in order to scale up their potential to strengthen nutritional health.


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