Food Leadership: Leadership and Adult Learning for Global Food Systems Transformation (International Issues in Adult Education)

So much more than a human necessity, food is an entry point into a range of different topics: culture and tradition, health and well-being, small and large-scale business, ecology and politics, science and the arts, poverty and social justice, land use and civil society, global trade, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and more. From seed to table, the policies and practices related to all aspects of the food cycle create rich sites for learning and multiple opportunities for leadership. Although the topic of food has been gaining momentum in the field of Adult Education over the past decade, food has been relatively underexplored in the field of Leadership Studies. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to deepen our understanding and knowledge about leadership and adult learning in food-related movements worldwide. With contributing authors representing four countries and various Indigenous groups, this book examines the diverse ways in which food activists, scholars, students, and practitioners are already demonstrating, debating, and documenting leadership and learning in the context of global food systems transformation. Furthermore, it documents how these actions are supporting the innovation needed to address the increasingly complex and interconnected socio-economic and environmental challenges associated with food and agriculture. Whereas much leadership theory continues to be developed from cases in business, social movements, or other, more traditional leadership sectors, this book invites leaders and educators to look to their plates and, by extension, to local, small-scale farmers and to nature itself as sources of inspiration in their work. TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 FOREWORD 8 REFERENCES 9 INTRODUCTION: Leadership and Adult Learning for Global Food Systems Transformation 10 THE CALL FOR GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION 11 FOOD LEADERSHIP AND ADULT LEARNING 12 Food and Adult Learning 12 Food Leadership 13 OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS 15 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 17 REFERENCES 17 SECTION 1: INDIGENOUS FOOD SYSTEMS 20 1. LONGHOUSE TO THE GREENHOUSE: The Path to Food Security at Six Nations 21 OVERVIEW OF THE ‘OUR SUSTENANCE’ PROGRAM 21 WHAT FOOD SECURITY MEANS IN SIX NATIONS 22 Food Security and Haudenosaunee Traditional Knowledge 24 Food Options and Choice in Six Nations 24 The role of Policy and Concern about Genetically Modified Foods 26 THE PATH TO FOOD SECURITY AT SIX NATIONS 27 The Three Sisters 27 Mound Agriculture 28 The Haudenosaunee Teaching of Interdependence 29 BRINGING THE PAST AND THE PRESENT INTO THE FUTURE 30 CONCLUSION 32 REFERENCES 33 2. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE: Informal Learning and Food Security Practices among the Acholi People of Northern Uganda 35 WHO ARE THE ACHOLI PEOPLE OF NORTHERN UGANDA AND THEIR FOODS 36 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 36 Knowledge Democracy 37 Community-based Research 37 Indigenous Knowledge 38 Informal Learning 39 Food Security 40 Integration of Five Concepts 41 THE ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH APPROACH 42 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 42 Intergenerational Informal Learning 43 Food Production Methods 43 Food Processing and Preservation Methods 44 Wild Food Harvesting 45 Wild Animal Hunting 45 Domestic Fruit Growing for Food 46 Domestic Animal and Poultry Rearing 46 Fishing 48 Food Sharing Practices 48 Food and Spirituality 49 CONCLUSION 50 REFERENCES 51 3. FISHING FOR CHANGE: A Pedagogy of Native Food Sovereignty 54 FORGETTING HOW TO FISH: EDUCATION, HISTORICAL TRAUMA, AND THE LOSS OF INDIGENOUS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY 54 Attitudes Toward Education 55 Education, Historical Trauma and the Loss of Cultural Vitality 55 Education and the Loss of Food Sovereignty: The Tohono O’odham Example 56 A Common Indigenous Experience and the Need for Food Sovereignty Education 59 A MODEL OF INDIGENOUS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY EDUCATION: NEW GENERATION OF O’ODHAM FARMERS 59 TEACH A MAN TO FISH: TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICAL SKILLS 60 DOES FISHING MAKE SENSE?—CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND EMPOWERMENT 61 WHAT IF THE POND IS POLLUTED OR RUNS DRY?—SYSTEMS THINKING 63 ROD AND REEL OR TRAWLER AND LONG NETS?—THINKING ABOUT SCALE 65 EAT THE FISH OR SELL IT?—FOOD SOVEREIGNTY OR GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM 65 SHARING THE HARVEST: FOOD-BASED EDUCATION THROUGHOUT INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES 67 NOTES 67 REFERENCES 68 SECTION 2: LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION 70 4. BEYOND POLICY: Race, Class, Leadership and Agenda-Setting in North American Food Policy Councils 71 CONTEXT & METHODS 72 FOOD POLICY COUNCILS: COMMUNITY COALITIONS OR EXPERT ADVISORY BODIES? 73 Stumbling Blocks to Food Justice: White Cultural Dominance and Privilege-Blindness 74 Whose Agendas Do Food Policy Councils Advance? 77 ARE WE ASKING TOO MUCH OF FOOD POLICY COUNCILS? 79 STENGTHENING OUR INSTITUTIONS AND OUR MOVEMENT THROUGH INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 81 Leadership Development for Civic Engagement 81 Leadership Development for Inclusive Organizations 82 Leadership Development for Inclusive Movement Building 83 CONCLUSION 84 NOTE 85 REFERENCES 85 5. DIGGING IN: Food Literacy Communication & Sustainability Advocacy in Community Sharing Gardens 88 EXPANSIVE LEARNING: THE CORNERSTONE OF AN EMERGING NETWORKED KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY? 89 Food Literacy: An Evolving Concept 89 On a Community Mission: The Edible Garden Project 89 The Project 90 Capturing Learning in Action 91 Methods of Data Collection 92 Data Analysis 92 SPROUTING KNOWLEDGE: FOOD LITERACY AND SUSTAINABILITY NURTURED IN SHARING GARDENS 92 Growing Food is a Sensory Learning Experience 92 Seeing is Believing so that You Can Remember 94 Hearing, Touching and Smelling to Learn, Practice, and Understand 95 Sustainability in Action 95 Sharing Gardens Bind Comunity Actors and Blend Identities 97 Performed Communication In-situ and Off-site Links Actions to Community Goals and Values 99 DISCUSSION 100 Local Organic Production by Any Other Name 100 Moving the Market Goal Post: Access among New Economic Performance Parameters 101 I Think and Learn, Therefore we Are: Individual Mindfulness Helps Reshape the Community Concept 102 CONCLUSION 103 REFERENCES 104 6. GUJARAT AGRICULTURAL SUCCESS: A Case of a Transformational Leader or a Transactional Leader? 107 LEADERSHIP: A THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING 108 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 109 FIELDWORK 110 Understanding the Policy 110 Infrastructure Support: Power and Road Access 111 The Disproportionate Impact of Infrastructure, Incentives, and Subsidies for Encouraging Commercial Crops 112 Facilitating Market Access 114 The Core of the Policy Vision 114 TRANSACTIONAL IN THE GARB OF PSEUDO-TRANSFORMATION 115 After 2000: State and Elites Enter New Relation 116 CONCLUSION 117 NOTES 118 REFERENCES 118 SECTION 3: LEARNING IN GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION 121 7. OUT OF THE WILD AND INTO THE KITCHEN: Learning about Sustainability through Wild Food Products 122 FOOD, ALTERNATIVE FOOD NETWORKS, AND WILD FOODS 123 FOSTERING TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING THROUGH WILD FOOD NETWORKS 126 EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES OF WILD FOOD CONSUMERS 127 CONCLUSIONS 131 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 133 NOTES 133 REFERENCES 133 8. MALADAPTIVE LEARNING: Incorporating Institutional Barriers into Nonprofit Community Garden Programming 137 WORKPLACE LEARNING 137 CRITICAL INSTITUTIONAL LITERACY AND THE RULING RELATIONS 138 ACCESSING SPACE FOR NONPROFIT COMMUNITY GARDEN PROGRAMS 140 Regulation of Garden Programmes Through Boss Texts 141 Subsuming Poverty within Hunger 144 A Food-centric Discourse 146 Subsuming Hunger within Nonprofit Programmes 146 CONCLUSION: WEEDING OUR CONCEPTUAL GARDENS 149 REFERENCES 151 9. CONCLUSION: Emerging Trends and Future Directions for Leadership and Adult Learning in Global Food Systems Transformation 153 THEMES EMERGING FROM THIS BOOK 153 THE POSSIBLE FUTURES OF FOOD LEADERSHIP AND ADULT LEARNING 155 Interrogating the Concept of Food Security 156 Innovation and Impact of Food Security Initiatives 158 Learning Leadership from the Practice of Permaculture 161 CLOSING THOUGHTS 163 REFERENCES 163 INDEX 166 Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Longhouse to the Greenhouse....Pages 3-16 Indigenous Knowledge....Pages 17-35 Fishing for Change....Pages 37-52 Front Matter....Pages 53-53 Beyond Policy....Pages 55-71 Digging In....Pages 73-91 Gujarat Agricultural Success In....Pages 93-106 Front Matter....Pages 107-107 Out of the Wild and into the Kitchen....Pages 109-123 Maladaptive Learning....Pages 125-140 Conclusion....Pages 141-153 Back Matter....Pages 155-170