Growing Together
Collectivity in the Construction of Local Agrifood Systems: Peasant Women’s Agricultural Knowledge and the Traspatios in the High Mixtec Region, Oaxaca
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Villalpando Paez
Mexican campesino agriculture is wealthy in terms of biocultural diversity, agroecological practices, and territorial relations. Yet, In the Hight Mixtec Region –in the Southern state of Oaxaca– socioeconomic vulnerability interacts with diverse threats to food self-sufficiency, such as loss of agrobiodiversity, gender inequality, and climate variability. Under the premise that the disappearance of peasant agriculture can lead to more efficient food production, the dominant development paradigm has impaired the survival and social reproduction of peasant communities. Yet, principles of reciprocity, social capital, and collective capacity remain pillars for local agrifood systems in the face of the liberalization of agrifood systems. This collaborative research project emphasizes the importance of recognizing ‘other’ forms of knowledge and science as crucial for co-imagining alternatives to strengthening food sovereignty in peasant communities. Focusing on the backyard as an object of study opens a window into rethinking alternatives for strengthening food sovereignty, communality, and maintaining the livelihoods of rural communities from a gendered perspective. Also referred to as solar or traspatio, this space promotes self-sufficiency in healthy foods and is commonly taken care of by women. Guided by the notion that transdisciplinarity and knowledge co-production are essential to developing and understanding principles applicable to today’s most pressing social and environmental issues, this project uses feminist and participatory research methods that offer a window into the interdependence of agrifood systems and communities’ socio-ecological elements.
The Impact of Food Review Vlogs on Regional Image : Taking ‘Axing's Chinese Food Tour’ as an Example
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Youyou Guitard Wu
With the rise of new media, food review vlogs have become one of the effective windows for regional image, stimulating viewers’ interest of unknown area. Food as a one of the most humane symbols in a society has become a core element for the public to understand and feel an unknown place. The symbol itself and the value it conveys together constitute a comprehensive impression of a region, shaping the place into a concrete space that is communicable, perceptible and experienceable. Through food, we peer into the close interactions and connections between people, thereby reach the profound humanistic connotation of the region. Indeed, people's emotions and behaviors can waken similar experiences in others, the viewers can condense their own emotions while watching and unconsciously develop empathy towards the people living in another corner of the world. Food vlogger AXing appears as a city wanderer (flâneur), through the medium of the “innocent object” - food, his vlogs, among others, deconstruct the stereotypes and prejudiced barriers that viewers have formed about unfamiliar regions due to ideology, making the originally invisible personal experience become the material for visibility and communicability, which encourages the real connections with regions while guiding viewers to think independently. Only by leveraging its unique advantage of connecting real space and virtual space, using video as a medium to lead viewers into a physical space to experience the worldly life, can the long-term development and positive impact of food vlogs on creating a genuine image of regions be achieved.
The Millet Food Revolution Led by Women Self-Help Groups in India: Harnessing Millet-Based Entrepreneurship to Revive Ancient Grains and Indigenous Foods of the Future
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Swasti Pachauri
Women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in rural India are emerging as key grassroots agents of change, working toward nutritional security, economic independence through millet-based cafés, and ecological resilience. Millets, once staple ancient grains in Indian diets that are drought-resistant and suitable for the Indian climate, were displaced in the 1960s by the Green Revolution’s emphasis on monocropping of wheat and rice. With the revolution of millet entrepreneurship gaining momentum, rural women, once fighting for economic independence, are now creating visible local food infrastructure and accessible spaces—women-run canteens, cafés, and community kitchens—in Indian states empowering themselves by generating livelihoods and preparing millet recipes that appeal to a wider urban palate. This paper explores how the hitherto invisibility of women in Indian agriculture is now being challenged by women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs), which are creating autonomous spaces within India's local food systems — despite contributing nearly 80% of agricultural work and lacking ownership of land, the key determinant of rural poverty. The recent push by the United Nations and the Government of India has brought millets back into focus, with 2023 commemorated as the International Year of Millets, thus bringing traditional Indian millets to global events like the G20. The paper explores how the revival of millets is recreating food spaces, with women emerging as successful millet entrepreneurs. As stewards of indigenous food systems, women are creating decentralized millet cafes and seed banks, while strengthening philosophies of seed-to-table, nurturing their political, social, and economic agency, and addressing concerns of food sovereignty.
