Sovereignty at What Scale? An Inquiry into Multiple Dimensions of Food Sovereignty

Abstract

Food sovereignty has struggled to make inroads into changing the structures and processes underlying the corporate food regime. One reason is that scale is still underspecified in the politics, strategies, and theories of food sovereignty. We suggest that much can be learned from examining the multiple dimensions of scale inherent in ongoing food sovereignty struggles. A gap exists between these in vivo experiments and the maturing academic theory of scale. The concept of ‘sovereignty’ can be opened up to reveal that movements, peoples, and communities, for example, are creating multiple sovereignties and are exercising sovereignty in more relational ways. Relational scale can aid movements and scholars to map and evaluate how spatial and temporal processes at and among various levels work to reinforce dominant agri-food systems but could also be reconfigured to support progressive alternatives. Finally, we apply relational scale to suggest practical strategies for realizing food sovereignty, using examples from the Potato Park in the Peruvian Andes.     

Return to Freedom: Anti-GMO Aloha ‘Āina Activism on Molokai as an Expression of Place-based Food Sovereignty

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of food sovereignty on the island of Molokai, where the Hawaiian value of aloha ‘āina, or love for the land, guides local efforts to preserve and promote local food production. This organizing concept also has political undertones—food sovereignty requires access to land and resources, both of which Native Hawaiians have historically been dispossessed of since colonial contact. In the paper, I examine current anti-genetically modified organism (GMO) activism as one example of the uniquely Hawaiian food sovereignty efforts taking place on Molokai. I present two key arguments. First, I show how the anti-GMO platform, which has garnered support from both native Hawaiians and more recent settlers, reflects a strategic alliance that gives greater momentum to Hawai‘i's food sovereignty movement, which in turn is viewed by a growing number of Native Hawaiians as a pathway toward Indigenous sustainable self-determination. I also draw from the Molokai case to illustrate a perceived tension between community-based work and political engagement that exists within both the food sovereignty paradigm and the contemporary Indigenous sovereignty framework. I argue that aloha ‘āina as a cultural and political praxis suggests ‘ways out’ of this apparent paradox, by showing how Hawaiians have historically engaged simultaneously in both community-based practices and political activism as a means to care for their land and people. While food sovereignty on Molokai calls for the privileging of place-based knowledge, there are lessons to be learnt for social movements elsewhere that are also struggling internally to deconstruct and define what is meant by food sovereignty, and how best to achieve it.     

Chinese Vegetarian Food

ONCE in a restaurant specializing in vegetarian food in Hubei Province, I saw some dishes on the menu which did not sound like vegetarian food, such as chicken, duck, fish and pork. Only after I ordered and tasted did I understand that these were all made of bean products. Simply speaking, the Chinese vegetarian diet is comprised of grains, vegetables, bean products and fruits. It also includes bamboo shoots, mushrooms, edible fungus, aquatic plants and dried fruit. This kind of diet boasts a long history. As early as the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) and the early Han     

Western Food in China

AS the Chinese saying goes, "Ask for local custom when you enter a foreign country." Western food's first introduction to China in the 17th century was accompanied with its adoption to Chinese dining habits. Western food was introduced into China in large scale during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. However, as early as the 17th century Western missionaries and envoys were introducing food from their homeland to upper-class Chinese as a means of paying tribute or     

Famous Food in Beijing

MORE than 3,000 years have passed since Shao Gongshi was granted territory at Yon (Beijing) by the King of Zhon in 1045 B.C. Ever since,Beijing has had a long and glorious history as the capital for five Chinese feudal dynasties--the Liao (907-1125), Jin (1115-1234),Yuan (1206-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing(1644-1911). As a political, cultural and economic centre,Beijing has formed a unique taste on food with many long-lasting, wellknown eateries.     

Flour Food in Yangzhou

YANGZHOU is a place of profound cultural traditions. Early in the periods before the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C. ). Yangzhou connected with the Huaihe River at the north, the sea at the southeast and Jinzhou at the west. By the Sui Dynasty (581-618). Jiangdu, today's Yangzhou, at the juncture of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, was its capital.     

How I Love Home-Cooked Food!

Both my husband, Gao Hongyi and I work at the Beijing Xiyuan Hotel. He is the head chef of the hotel's Health Maintenance Restaurant and I work in a dining room where I've worked for seven years. At the hotel, we deal with chickens, ducks, fish and pork everyday. Some people think that we have the restaurant dishes on our own dinner table. To the     

Western Fast Food Comes to China

IT'S common knowledge that the Chinese have opened many restaurants outside their own country. Now fast food from the West can be had in the big cities of China. Western fast-food restaurants dot the streets of Beijing. And the food is not the only thing that attracts people. "They are clean and well-lighted and decorated in bright colors," said one scholar in Beijing. "They are not like Chinese restaurants that are often decorated in heavy and solemn colors or use old furnishings." The American fast food giant McDonald's is one of the most visible     

"Green Food" Stamp Ensures Quality

AT a shop in Shanghai, a middle-aged woman said she shops there regularly because she could find "Green Food" all the time. An elderly man with white hair and a ruddy complexion is also a regular customer at this shop. "Green Food is great! You can set your mind at rest when you eat it, because it is not polluted," he said.     

Guangzhou's Baozai Meal a Popular Fast Food

IN Guangzhou, where restaurants are plentiful and food from many places is served, the baozai meal, a kind of traditional Chinese fast food, has retained its place in the hearts of Guangzhou's caterers. The history of the baozai meal starts at least from the beginning of this century. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou was the largest trading port in south China with a developed, commodities-based economy. There were many dockworkers and porters living in the city at the time. They worked very hard and were often too busy to eat their meals at home. As a result, different kinds of meals were invented to meet their needs, such as the botou meal (bo is kind of earthen bowl), the dietou meal (die is small plate) and the baozai meal     

Food for Thought Man Ponders Life at the Market

IN the past, Chinese food markets were frequented only by housewives. Today, however, it is not strange to see men buying food for the household. I am one of those men. Actually, I often eat ready-made food. My wife never asks me to buy the vegetables. I have only occasionally helped her with that. At the food market, you can observeall kinds of people within a short distance. The food market provides sights hard to come by in cities. When you first go into the market, it seems like you've entered another world Greenery is everywhere in the form of Chinese chives, lettuce and peas, mingled with violet eggplants, red     

Food Security: An Ecological–Social Analysis to Promote Social Development

Coupled with the obesity epidemic, food insecurity presents a public health and social crisis. The United States' industrialized food system embodies an unsustainable network of production and unequal distribution of food creating threats to both the natural environment and human development. Ecological, economic, and social systems are interdependent and their relationships to food security are complex and dynamic. Social workers have a unique set of community practice knowledge and skills that can help communities achieve greater access to affordable, healthy food. Building interdisciplinary networks to change food policies and develop sustainable and equitable food systems can address food insecurity.     

Obesity and Food Choices Among Faculty and Staff at a Large Urban University

Abstract

Objective: In order to address increasing health care costs associated with obesity, this study sought to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity and examine eating behaviors, food choices, health beliefs, and attitudes of university employees. Participants and Methods: An online survey was distributed to > 3,800 faculty and staff at a large public metropolitan university in Winter 2008. Results: Almost half (48%) of 806 respondents were classified as overweight or obese. Compared to those with normal weights, overweight and obese respondents consumed fewer fruits and vegetables (p < .05), were less confident in making healthful food choices (p < .001), and were more influenced by food choices available in on-campus dining facilities (p < .05). Conclusions: Obesity among university employees warrants attention. Because these employees have less self-efficacy and consume less healthful diets than their normal weight colleagues, universities need to improve on-campus access to healthful foods.     

How are drugs approved? Part 1: the evolution of the Food and Drug Administration

The discovery, development, and marketing of drugs for clinical use is a process that is complex, arduous, expensive, highly regulated, often criticized, and sometimes controversial. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the governmental agency responsible for regulating the development and marketing of drugs, medical devices, biologics, foods, cosmetics, radiation-emitting electronic devices, and veterinary products, with the objective of ensuring their safety and efficacy. As part of a broad overview of the drug development process, this article will describe the historical evolution of the FDA. This will provide background for two subsequent articles in this series, which will describe the ethical foundations of clinical research and hethe stages of drug development.     

‘A Direct Act of Resurgence,a Direct Act of Sovereignty’: Reflections on Idle No More,Indigenous Activism,and Canadian Settler Colonialism

Abstract

In the winter of 2012, the Canadian political scene was shaken by the emergence of ‘Idle No More', a collection of protests directed by and largely comprised of Indigenous peoples. Originally, a response to a variety of legislation that was being passed through the Canadian government at the time, Idle No More spread across the country and around the world. In this paper, I argue that, drawing from Indigenous nationhood movements that extend back through five centuries, Idle No More represents a renewed assertion of Indigenous sovereignty in opposition to settler colonisation. Through transgressive actions, Idle No More has brought online activism into alignment with embodied defences of land and place, challenging Canadian sovereignty and Settler identity in multiple and creative ways. However, settler colonial tendencies in Canadian politics have sought to reinscribe Idle No More within established, generic political binaries. This paper positions Idle No More as a ‘movement moment’ that reveals significant insights about Indigenous activism, conservative politics, leftist resistance, and persistent settler colonialism in Canada.     

Food Basin from the State of Xi Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.)

The State of Xi was a small kingdom in ancient times located between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. It was overturned by leaders from the State of Chu in 680 B.C. This bronze basin, the only unearthed relic from the State of Xi, is 21 centimeters in girth, has a lid with a bugle-shaped handle and two symmetrical handles on the sides. The bottom of the basin is engraved with the characters meaning "Xing, the king of the State Xi has this as his food basin."