Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Teaching the Food System
Session Abstract or Summary
People speak about the global food system as if it were one discrete unit when, in fact, the global food system is an imagined whole comprised of the connected and overlapping food systems of the world. This reality poses challenges for individuals attempting to understand their participation in the food system and the effects of their participation. This makes teaching the food system difficult and that much more important. This interdisciplinary panel brings together perspectives of practitioners and academics who are teaching the food system in various communities of western North Carolina. The goal of this panel is to share information about projects aimed at educating people about the food system and ways that they can act as agents of change within it. The session will also serve as a gathering for brainstorming about how to better teach the food system in Appalachia to promote a politics of possibilities defined by equitable alternatives to current unsustainable and unjust conditions.
Presentation #1 Title
Festival of Dionysus in the Mountain South: Melding Local and Ancient Foodways
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In Winter 2017, an interdisciplinary faculty team hosted the 4th Festival of Dionysus in the Mountain South at UNC Asheville featuring a feast for the commons prepared by students from a course on Ancient Foodways. Festival feasts in ancient Greece would have used nearly all local or regional ingredients - fresh foods available seasonally and those that could be stored. (Beer, 2010) In designing the menu, students had to navigate using a list of ingredients available locally in December, ancient (or traditional) Greek dishes, cost, modern palates and individual food preferences, while keeping true to an ancient, simple but celebratory, menu that could be made for, and enjoyed by, the masses. The resultant menu included traditional Kalitsounia - Cretan Spinach Pies and adapted Kalitsounia – Southern Sweet Potato Pies, as well as ancient Homeric olive relish. (Dalby & Grainger, 1996) In an effort to assess the festival’s impact on participants’ interest and knowledge of ancient Greek food and culture, student researchers collected participant emails (n = 136) and emailed them a survey addressing their interest in local food, food preparation, and ancient Greek culture and cuisine. Survey respondents (n = 41) indicated that as a result of their participation, they would be very likely to want to learn about the history of food cultures (41%), and nearly all respondents (98%) indicated that they would be somewhat or very likely to attend similar events in the future. The impact of experiential learning through planning and cooking was explored using reflection papers.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D., is chair and professor of health and wellness and the executive director of the North Carolina Center of Health and Wellness for the University of North Carolina Asheville. Her research interests include nutrition for the prevention of chronic disease, the impact of experiential food education on what individuals know, think and do with respect to dietary choices and engaged interdisciplinary ways of teaching and learning.
Presentation #2 Title
Teaching Diversity and the Food System in K-12 Settings
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
More and more people in the U.S. are realizing that the food system is an important topic for public education. Not only does the food system largely determine the food that people in the U.S. have access to at grocery stores and other markets, but it also creates—and renders obsolete—livelihood options for particular people. With consumption as king in this public debate, class process and racism found in the production and distribution realm are often left unaddressed. This presentation shares an “Anthropology in Schools” project that teaches social studies skills—defined by the NC Essential Standards—to sixth grade students via data from an ethnographic study in southern Appalachia. This project models how we can celebrate diversity in agricultural education. Working against implicit bias, the aim is to counter-construct racialized and gendered social constructs in the realm of fresh fruit and vegetable farming where Latinx are assumed to be temporary and itinerant farmworkers. The presentation will share how one cultural anthropologist is working with public school teachers to create lesson plans that teach farming families’ global migration histories and show how Latinx families act as important contributors to the food system in southern Appalachian as farming enterprise owner-operators.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Mary Beth Schmid, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist currently teaching at Western Carolina University. Her research focuses on the interwoven issues of the agri-food system, globalization, migration, and family relations in and across the Americas. Her dissertation explored livelihood strategies of binational farming families in and between the foothills of the Mexican Bajío and southern Appalachia. She is currently researching changes to the SNAP program and their impacts on food security organizations in rural areas.
Presentation #3 Title
Experience as Education: Teaching the Food System through Place-Based Engagement with Food and Farms
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
Since 2000, local food system organizers at Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) have been leading a campaign to build food systems in the Southern Appalachians grounded in the region’s farms and farmland, in the creativity and skills of local people, and in local relationships. Strategies designed to engage members of the public directly with local farming and food permeate ASAP’s work and are grounded in the belief that estrangement from food and food production is at the root of a largely unsustainable and unjust food system. This paper will focus on ‘teaching the food system’ through engagement in place-based food and farm experiences, and it will discuss research that is examining the role of place-based food and farming experiences for activating in participants a curiosity and a desire to deepen their connection with food and agriculture. The paper will draw on social movement theory and on the idea of food democracy to frame the impact of place-based food and farm experiences and to explore their significance for creating the conditions needed to mobilize action.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Allison Perrett is an applied anthropologist and the director of the research program at Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP). She has been involved in the local food movement in the Southern Appalachians as both a practitioner and scholar since 2007. In her role at ASAP, she guides applied research to evaluate the impacts of specific strategies and actions and to further inform ASAP’s work.
Presentation #4 Title
(Re-)Teaching and (Re-)Learning Food Systems in Western North Carolina
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Although some would say that the current food system is broken, others assert that it is operating exactly as it is intended. Communities of color and people living with lower wealth are increasingly disenfranchised from land and agricultural practices. As we consider food justice, food sovereignty, and other frequently-used terms when talking about equity in food systems, how do we meaningfully engage with students and community members, and manage the conflicts inherent in wanting to to make change? This presentation will focus on ways that equity models, garden/agriculture experiences, examples of community resistance and resilience, and community-engaged projects can inspire others and each other to examine local and global food systems through third- and first-person lenses and to respond reflectively. We will present community, organization, and campus perspectives in this presentation.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Ameena Batada, DrPH is associate professor of health and wellness at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Ameena engages in community-driven research to inform program and policy action, on topics such as nutrition policy, food marketing to children, health disparities, and others. She teaches courses on community health promotion, health communication, and health justice.
Kathleen Wood is the Executive Director of Dig In!, a nonprofit community garden and just food system catalyst based in Yancey County, NC. Kathleen brings experience as a farmworker, community organizer, political advocate, and social scientist to her work. In her role with Dig In!, she oversees organic food production, the development of food distribution and education programs, and organizes place-based collaborations to create community food security.
Festival of Dionysus in the Mountain South: Melding Local and Ancient Foodways
In Winter 2017, an interdisciplinary faculty team hosted the 4th Festival of Dionysus in the Mountain South at UNC Asheville featuring a feast for the commons prepared by students from a course on Ancient Foodways. Festival feasts in ancient Greece would have used nearly all local or regional ingredients - fresh foods available seasonally and those that could be stored. (Beer, 2010) In designing the menu, students had to navigate using a list of ingredients available locally in December, ancient (or traditional) Greek dishes, cost, modern palates and individual food preferences, while keeping true to an ancient, simple but celebratory, menu that could be made for, and enjoyed by, the masses. The resultant menu included traditional Kalitsounia - Cretan Spinach Pies and adapted Kalitsounia – Southern Sweet Potato Pies, as well as ancient Homeric olive relish. (Dalby & Grainger, 1996) In an effort to assess the festival’s impact on participants’ interest and knowledge of ancient Greek food and culture, student researchers collected participant emails (n = 136) and emailed them a survey addressing their interest in local food, food preparation, and ancient Greek culture and cuisine. Survey respondents (n = 41) indicated that as a result of their participation, they would be very likely to want to learn about the history of food cultures (41%), and nearly all respondents (98%) indicated that they would be somewhat or very likely to attend similar events in the future. The impact of experiential learning through planning and cooking was explored using reflection papers.
