Cultural Food Security Research Articles

Conceptualisation, experiences and suggestions for improvement of food security amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and carers in remote Australian communities

This study aimed to determine perceptions of the lived experience of food insecurity and suggestions to improve food security in four remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and Queensland. Participants were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander pregnant and breastfeeding women, and parents/carers of children aged six months to five years. Semi-structured interviews (n=17) were conducted between June–July 2021 and the data thematically analysed using a four stage process. No specific term was used by participants to describe being either food secure or insecure. Descriptions of food security were centred in food sharing, food sufficiency, and family activities. Elements describing food insecurity were physical pain and emotional stress, adults going without food, seeking family help and managing without food until payday. Factors contributing to food insecurity were reported to be: (i) Low income and unemployment, (ii) Cost of living remotely, (iii) Resource sharing, and (iv) Impact of spending on harmful commodities and activities. Three themes were conceptualised: (1) Cultural practices buffer food insecurity, (2) Coping with food insecurity, (3) People accept a degree of food insecurity as normal. Findings suggest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practices such as sharing food buffer episodic food insecurity and constitute ‘cultural food security’. Despite use of cultural practices (e.g., procuring traditional food) and generic coping strategies, regular episodes of food insecurity often aligned with the off week of social assistance payments. Household energy (electricity) security was coupled to food security. Suggestions for improving food security included better transport and food access, extending electricity rebates, increases in the regularity of social assistance payments, and computer access and training in budgeting. Policies to advance food security should embody deeper Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descriptions and experiences. Community-derived policy suggestions which aim to increase access to adequate, regular, stable household income are likely to succeed.

United States: Orion – carbon black

The world food system was developed under the auspices of free trade. Very quickly though free trade was countered with protectionism in the form of policies favoring national and cultural food security. The traumas of World War led to the introduction of international commitments on individual rights with respect to labor and the right to freedom from hunger. From the seventies, the pendulum swung back in favor of free trade, this time provoking a response in the form of fair and ethical trade. The introduction of new food markets promoted by social movements as from the eighties where values were attached to the conditions and processes of production rather than the product itself led to agriculture and food markets becoming imbued with ethical attributes. At the same time, an increasingly holistic concept of food security became adopted in international forums pointing to the need for policies which were no longer reducible to food aid. While for a period, broader ethical values were identified only with alternative food networks, as from the turn of the new millennium, under the collective umbrella of economic, social and environmental sustainability, they became adopted by the global agri-food players as the triple bottom line for all agricultural and food markets. Although a new consensus has been achieved on the centrality of sustainability and food security a range of tensions and conflicts persist over the relation between food security and trade, investment, biofuels, producer and consumer rights, animal welfare, nature and the environment.

Cultural Dimensions of Food Insecurity among Immigrants and Refugees

Household food insecurity is experienced by many immigrants and refugees. Though culture strongly influences food and eating, little is known about the interaction between culture and immigrant food insecurity. Following Power's (2008) concept of “cultural food security,” we investigate three pillars of food security (food availability, access, and use) for immigrants and refugees living in a medium-sized city in Canada. Multiple perspectives on the challenges of obtaining and eating nutritious and culturally satisfying food were gathered through interviews with service providers and immigrants. Many immigrant participants identified issues that service providers did not, including a lack of availability of high quality, fresh, less processed, and chemical-free foods. Immigrant participants also expressed forms of food nostalgia. All participants identified low income and high food prices as barriers to accessing desired food. Also significant is the fact that immigrant participants experience difficultie...

Food Sovereignty for Cultural Food Security

The Cinta Vermelha-Jundiba (CVJ) village represents a unique case in Brazil. For the first time in history, an indigenous group composed of individuals from different ethnic backgrounds (Pankararu and Pataxó) united and proposed to buy land. The singularity of the case is not that different indigenous peoples got together to create a new life, but that they decided to purchase land. Exploring the concept of “cultural food security,” this paper addresses issues of settlement and belonging using indigenous views of food relations and practices as the members of the CVJ village work towards “re-grounding” their homes in a new environment. It proposes that, in this unique experiment in indigenous community building, the decision to purchase land led the way for the CVJ people to assert their food sovereignty, preserve their identity and achieve food security.

Conceptualizing Food Security for Aboriginal People in Canada

Food insecurity is an urgent public health issue for Aboriginal people in Canada because of high rates of poverty; the effects of global climate change and environmental pollution on traditional food systems; and high rates of diet-related diseases. However, to date, public health has operated with conceptualizations of food security that were developed in non-Aboriginal contexts; they do not take full account of the traditional food practices of Aboriginal people or Aboriginal conceptualizations of food security. In this paper, I argue that there are unique food security considerations for Aboriginal people related to the harvesting, sharing and consumption of country or traditional foods, which impact the four pillars of food security: access, availability, supply and utilization. Thus food security conceptualizations, policies, and programs for Aboriginal people must consider both the market food system and traditional food system. Given the centrality of traditional food practices to cultural health and survival, I propose that cultural food security is an additional level of food security beyond individual, household and community levels. Conceptualizations of food security for Aboriginal people will be incomplete without qualitative research to understand Aboriginal perspectives; such research must take account of the diversity of Aboriginal people.