The Loss of Local Livelihoods and Local Knowledge: Implications for Local Food Systems

Abstract

For 99% of our time on Earth, humans have been hunter-gatherers, intricately connected to and reliant upon our local lands and waters for food, materials, medicines and shelter. In this time we have evolved a unique and in-depth knowledge base, termed local ecological knowledge or ecoliteracy, which has been essential to sustaining human and ecosystem health over thousands of years. However with livelihood diversification towards non-resource dependent strategies, the emergence of local markets as a consequence of globalisation, and global patterns of economic development, our collective local knowledge is now being lost. With the loss of local livelihoods and knowledge comes a departure from traditional food systems as hunters, fishers, and gatherers and cultivators lose the skills needed to locate, collect, preserve, prepare, consume and manage indigenous foods. Traditional food systems have provided nutritional health and food security for indigenous and marginalised communities for generations, and play a critical role in cultural continuity, social systems and ecosystem biodiversity. The current phenomenon of local knowledge erosion with economic development, and its effect 66on local food systems, is discussed. There has been a global shift from traditional and local foods to industrialised marketed foods, most notable in indigenous and marginalised communities. This shift has consequences for human health (in terms of nutrition and physical health), cultural health (in terms of community identity, ceremonies and social networks) and ecosystem health (in terms of resource management and biodiversity) in both industrialised and developing countries across the world.