Category Archives: Food

Food Sovereignty conference Yale University – papers online available

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The Yale University Program of Agrarian Studies and Journal of Peasant Studies jointly organized the International conference on Food Sovereignty: a critical dialogue, 14-15 September in Yale, celebrating both the 20th anniversary of La Via Campesina and the 40th anniversary of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

Various reknown scholars in peasant studies will present a paper and discuss the food sovereignty concept as advocated by the La Via Campesina movement. Conference papers are online available and a selection will be published in the Journal of Peasant Studies. See for more information also the Food First weblog of the Institute for Food and Development Policy. Eric Holt-Giménez is the executive director of FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy.

Also Prof. dr ir Jan Douwe van der Ploeg,  former chair of Rural Sociology and currently Professor Transition Studies at Wageningen University,  presents a paper titled ‘Peasant driven agricultural growth and food sovereignty‘ with the following abstract:

The concept of food sovereignty represents an important theoretical and practical challenge. The political economy of agriculture can only take this gauntlet by developing a better understanding of the processes of agricultural growth. Without such an understanding it is difficult to address the issue of food sovereignty. Developing such an understanding involves a (re-) combination of the political economy of agriculture with the Chayanovian approach. This paper gives several explanations (all individually valid but stronger in combination) as to why peasant agriculture results in sturdy and sustainable growth – it also identifies the factors that undermine this capacity. The paper also argues that peasant agriculture is far from being a remnant of the past. The different peasantries of the world are shaped and reproduced by today’s capital (and more specifically by current food empires), and equally, they help to shape and contribute to the further unfolding of forms of capital related to food and agriculture. It is important to understand this two-way interaction between capital and peasant agriculture as this helps to ground the concept of food sovereignty. This article is underpinned by three assumptions. First, the debate about enlarging total agricultural production is very real. Although this debate is currently used to assess the hegemony of food empires and imperial science, we cannot throw away the baby with the bathwater. Secondly, the capacity to produce enough (at different levels, distinguishing different needs, etc.) needs to be an integral part of food sovereignty discourse. Thirdly, I am convinced that peasant agriculture has the best credentials for meeting food sovereignty and has the capacity to produce (more than) sufficient good food in a way that can satisfy the (many) objectives of producers themselves as well as for society at large.

New report: Revaluing Public Sector Food Procurement in Europe: An Action Plan for Sustainability

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RPPThe Revaluing Public Food Procurement CoP of the Foodlinks project has published a new and innovative report: “Revaluing Public Sector Food Procurement in Europe: An Action Plan for Sustainability”. This is the outcome of a unique collaboration between policy-makers, practitioners and scientists working together during the FOODLINKS project.

A selection of inspiring best practice – case studies from Malmö (Sweden), Rome (Italy), East Ayrshire (Scotland), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Vienna (Austria) – is presented, with the aim of providing an overview of what change is happening across Europe. Continue reading →

Live video stream SUPURBFOOD seminar

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The SUPURBFOOD project team is currently meeting in Vigo (Spain). Today and tomorrow morning (26-27 June), experts from all over the world discuss issues of waste recycling, short food supply chains and multifunctional land use in urban areas. You can follow part of the seminar through live video stream.

vigo

Voedseltuinen: local food for the low income in the Netherlands?

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The Rural Sociology Group is looking for a Master student.

Local and organic food is hip in the Netherlands nowadays though it is often seen as being quite exclusive and not accessible for people with low income. Are there examples in the Netherlands of local, healthy food for low income people?

The voedseltuin (food garden) is a recent phenomenon (since 2011) that seems to be doing just that. In general, the voedseltuin can be described as a place where mostly low income volunteers collectively grow food for themselves and for the food bank. Hence, the voedseltuin is different from an allotment garden.

Why are these gardens popping up in different cities in the Netherlands? The aim of this research will be to explore the voedseltuinen: What are their aims, who are behind it? What are their ideas about food? Is it about having enough food, cheap food or healthy food or is it about something else? And how do these initiatives work out in practice? Are they able to merge their aims with their actual activities?

The student is expected to interview initiators and participants of voedseltuinen in the Netherlands which can become part of a Master thesis research.

Interested students can contact Femke Hoekstra, Rural Sociology Group
femke.hoekstra@wur.nl

Tip of the iceberg

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This weekend I gave a lecture twice in ‘Het Klooster’ (The Convent) at Oerol, a famous week-long festival with theatre, performance and music at 63 locations on the Wadden Island Terschelling. Het Klooster features at Oerol this year and in its full capacity next year. The Dutch State Forestry Commission (Staatsbosbeheer) Firma Rieks Swarte and Peergroup will remove the topsoil of lines drawn at a field this year. The lines represent the layout of the Convent of St Gall, a detailed model from the 8th C for a monastery that was never built but nevertheless served as a ‘roadmap’ for many convents all over Europe in the middle-ages. Removal of top soil will give older seeds of rare species a chance while the map will be visible from a tower in the middle of the field and will be part of a theatre show at next year’s Oerol.

IMG_0208What if the monastery was built at Terschelling? The geometric beauty and symbolism of the design is what fascinates Rieks, how man organises man is what fascinates the PeerGroup, and in line with that, what did they eat? That’s where I came in. Food culture before the invention of the printed book in the 15th C is always surrounded with many doubts and insecurities for lack of evidence. But in the case of Convent of St Gall, everything within the walls (a village almost) was detailed to the point of which herbs were grown in the herbal medicine garden. It was fascinating to see the books in which the plan has been studied. My earlier doubts based on other historical sources about how realistic this design would be in practice were confirmed.

One small example; the vegetable garden was divided in 2 x 9 beds of equal size with 1 vegetable planned for each bed. This then meant that cabbage received equal space to dill and that unions were occupying one bed whereas chervil a complete other. While the vegetable garden as a whole was far to small to feed the approx 200 people who would live there (where did we hear that discussion lately?), it seems highly impractical to have as many lettuces as poppy, unless they had a good use for poppy of course……..