Introduction to Special Issue on Food Security in a Changing World

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19000795
AutoresJ M Nolan (0000-0002-8667-5628, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, autor correspondente), Andrea Pieroni (0000-0002-2302-6380, University of Gastronomic Sciences)
Ano2014
Volume34
Fascículo1
Páginas4-6
Data de publicação2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Ethnobiology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0278-0771 • E-ISSN: 2162-4496
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2993/0278-0771-34.1.4
OpenAlexW2012801434
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas3

Food security, or access to sufficient, healthy, and nutritious foods, presents aserious challenge for scholars committed to the advancement of human healthand well-being. Food insecurity poses a multifaceted biocultural problem thatincludes chronic malnutrition, metabolic and degenerative diseases, and thehastening decline of sustainable food production and subsistence practices.Despite numerous advances made by food scholars, anthropologists, folklorists,ethnobiologists, and others who seek to improve human nutrition and itsconstituent cultural and natural resource bases, food security remains relativelyneglected in studies of the ecology of food procurement, preparation, preserv-ation, consumption, and distribution.Many local and indigenous communities worldwide are presently facingnew and dramatic challenges linked directly to climate change and concomitantfood shortages and inequalities, including health problems associated withhypernutrition and malnutrition (e.g., Lawrence et al. 2010; Lobell and Burke2010; McDonald 2010). Intellectually, ethnobiologists are uniquely situated toexamine human access to foods in ways that may strengthen food security for thebenefit of present and future generations. Traditional ecological knowledge(TEK) is increasingly important among international stakeholders committed tothe systematic improvement of food security and shaping culturally sensitiveapproaches to public health and nutritional policy development. The study oftraditional knowledge of foodways necessarily entails understanding howcommunities protect, procure, prepare, and consume local foods sustainablywithin ecological systems (e.g., DeSoucey and Te ́choueyres 2009; Turner 2008;Mirsky 1981). Taken in concert, these findings can in turn promote innovativecollaborative strategies to strengthen food security effectively and lastingly inother regions of the world (Hinrichs and Lyson 2007).The contribution of ethnobiology to food security is furthermore crucial toadvancing current discussions and debates surrounding food sovereignty(Declaration of Nye ́le ́ni 2007). This dialogue stresses the rights of localcommunities to define their own food systems, including the agency of the localcommunities which produce, distribute, and consume their own foods at thecenter of decisions regarding food systems and policies (Wittman et al. 2010).Ethnobiologists have a special opportunity to establish innovative, collaborativeplatforms together with local communities a nd indigenous groups, environmentalists,food activists, and NGOs for implementing sound strategies of ensuring food

Agriculture · Biology · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnobiology · Food security · Food systems · Foodways · Geography · Indigenous · Malnutrition · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Anthropology · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Ecology