I seek to understand the drivers and barriers of food system change at the neighborhood-community level in Hudson, Quebec. Through understanding individual qualities and the self-organization that is already occurring, I endeavor to encourage adaptive network building of food systems actors. The Hudson Food Collective.
I am a graduate student researching strategies for shifting toward sustainable food systems at the neighborhood-community and municipal scales. I work with the conviction that food is at the crux of a sustainability shift, addressing multiple issues* at multiple scales**. Food is also the daily, most direct point of engagement that humanity has with the environment. It is also the means through which direct action can be taken at the individual level that will simultaneously improve health at all scales**, biologically and ecologically, improving social-ecological relationships.
As a member of the Hudson community, and a concerned citizen of our shared ecological systems, I am determined to shift the way I engage in the food system and in community building. As a researcher I intend to include data collected through action research, as well as auto-ethnography, in my methods***. Out of my own personal interest, I aspire to grow my own food and be part of a growing network of food systems actors. Through the research I hope to document the community building and food engagement processes, tracking the drivers and the barriers for systems change. Network building patterns will also be tracked to assess the viability of food as an organizing principle for systems change.
The community scale is increasingly seen as the most viable level of deep re-engagement to re-embed social systems into ecological realities. I argue that the neighborhood-community and virtual communities are the most intimately connected and influential on human behaviours and decision-making that dictate personal environmental management practices. Together, collectively through our daily interactions with the environment (direct and indirect) we are engaging in global environmental management schemes. I argue that using gardening and food network strategies as organizing principles for environmental management practices would significantly catalyze a systems shift by changing the paradigms that govern social-ecological relationships to focus on resilience and sustainability.
*climate change, human environment, food toxicity, food security, food sovereignty/justice, centralized power, corporate-government partnerships, social disempowerment, spiritual disconnection/purposelessness, social-ecological disembeddedness.
**(individual, neighborhood, municipal, regional, provincial, national, international, global)
***also includes surveys and interviews
The objective of the Hudson Food Collective is to bring a local community of people together around sustainable food practices. Through a common interest in any part of the food system (from cultivation to transformation to nutrition to cooking, whether it be knowledge development, skill-sharing, or support) the goal is to build a network of food systems actors to catalyze a collective shift toward new resilience paradigms upon which to base food decision-making and toward sustainable social-ecological relationships.
The idea is to build projects based on the collective interests and skills of the people that come together, to engage in a self-organizing process, which is related to adaptive management. The social capital that becomes accessible through community development will be assessed through surveys.
The main goals of the Hudson Food Collective are..
Hudson provides an interesting context for this project. A small town, debatably turned suburb, Hudson is the first town in North America where pesticides have been banned from residential use (in 1991). It also has a rich agricultural and trade-post history. The residential areas are made up of ____ - ____ sized lots, many of which are connected by lawn, not fenced in. Through anecdotal information and observation there are already many residents who engage in food production through gardening, keeping chickens, or managing a bee hive.
I am a graduate student researching strategies for shifting toward sustainable food systems at the neighborhood-community and municipal scales. I work with the conviction that food is at the crux of a sustainability shift, addressing multiple issues* at multiple scales**. Food is also the daily, most direct point of engagement that humanity has with the environment. It is also the means through which direct action can be taken at the individual level that will simultaneously improve health at all scales**, biologically and ecologically, improving social-ecological relationships.
As a member of the Hudson community, and a concerned citizen of our shared ecological systems, I am determined to shift the way I engage in the food system and in community building. As a researcher I intend to include data collected through action research, as well as auto-ethnography, in my methods***. Out of my own personal interest, I aspire to grow my own food and be part of a growing network of food systems actors. Through the research I hope to document the community building and food engagement processes, tracking the drivers and the barriers for systems change. Network building patterns will also be tracked to assess the viability of food as an organizing principle for systems change.
The community scale is increasingly seen as the most viable level of deep re-engagement to re-embed social systems into ecological realities. I argue that the neighborhood-community and virtual communities are the most intimately connected and influential on human behaviours and decision-making that dictate personal environmental management practices. Together, collectively through our daily interactions with the environment (direct and indirect) we are engaging in global environmental management schemes. I argue that using gardening and food network strategies as organizing principles for environmental management practices would significantly catalyze a systems shift by changing the paradigms that govern social-ecological relationships to focus on resilience and sustainability.
*climate change, human environment, food toxicity, food security, food sovereignty/justice, centralized power, corporate-government partnerships, social disempowerment, spiritual disconnection/purposelessness, social-ecological disembeddedness.
**(individual, neighborhood, municipal, regional, provincial, national, international, global)
***also includes surveys and interviews
The objective of the Hudson Food Collective is to bring a local community of people together around sustainable food practices. Through a common interest in any part of the food system (from cultivation to transformation to nutrition to cooking, whether it be knowledge development, skill-sharing, or support) the goal is to build a network of food systems actors to catalyze a collective shift toward new resilience paradigms upon which to base food decision-making and toward sustainable social-ecological relationships.
The idea is to build projects based on the collective interests and skills of the people that come together, to engage in a self-organizing process, which is related to adaptive management. The social capital that becomes accessible through community development will be assessed through surveys.
The main goals of the Hudson Food Collective are..
- to create links (bonds and bridges) between food systems actors…
- to empower participation in the local food system.
Hudson provides an interesting context for this project. A small town, debatably turned suburb, Hudson is the first town in North America where pesticides have been banned from residential use (in 1991). It also has a rich agricultural and trade-post history. The residential areas are made up of ____ - ____ sized lots, many of which are connected by lawn, not fenced in. Through anecdotal information and observation there are already many residents who engage in food production through gardening, keeping chickens, or managing a bee hive.
