Doctoral Dissertation Research: Agrobiodiversity, Food Security, and Food Culture in Bolivia

博士论文研究：玻利维亚的农业生物多样性、粮食安全和饮食文化

• 批准号: 1131153
• 负责人: Michael Dove
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1131153&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Agrobiodiversity; Food

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the role of crop diversity in Andean food security, using Bolivian food culture as a lens to analyze the linkages between native crops, household food consumption practices, and the broader social context. Bolivia presents a paradox common in crop centers of origin, because the country is rich in agrobiodiversity, but it exhibits the highest levels of malnutrition in South America. Genetically diverse crop varieties have evolved in conjunction with varied biophysical environments and farmers' cultural practices, but such varieties tend to be maintained in marginal agricultural areas, which are frequently sites of high food insecurity. While the existing literature offers detailed examinations of the role of environmental factors and agricultural practices in the evolution and maintenance of crop diversity, the relationship between these forces and the broader social processes driving small-scale farmers' social and economic marginalization has largely remained unanalyzed. In order to fill this gap in the literature, three empirical questions will be explored in this project: (1) What relationships exist between household culinary practices and the genetic and morphological patterning of native and traditional Andean crops? (2) How do practices, values, and selection pressures on crop diversity change as food products and people move across space? (3) How does agrobiodiversity contribute to the food security of vulnerable rural and urban populations? Data responding to these questions will be gathered through a detailed case-study of the Cochabamba region of Bolivia, relying on a combination of interviews, participant observation, and survey techniques. These data will further underpin theoretical inquiries along two lines. First, they will provide insights into the leveraging of native and traditional foods in narratives of indigeneity, modernity, and difference-making in the present-day Bolivian public sphere. Second, they will contribute to ongoing debates surrounding the ways in which the material nature of goods and the social meanings surrounding them contribute to competing conceptions of value. This project will generate basic theoretical and applied knowledge about the relationships linking agrobiodiversity to food security and food culture. Although the existence of these relationships is widely accepted, the mechanisms underpinning them have not been explored extensively. By examining agrobiodiversity and food consumption as elements of a continuous food system, this project will shed new light on the role of crop genetic resources in a wider social context. In the realms of policy and application, this research has direct relevance to the design of programs to alleviate hunger and food insecurity in Bolivia and other comparable locales. Through collaborative relationships with applied development organizations in the country, the project will generate knowledge leading to new opportunities for reinforcing locally sustainable food systems. Furthermore, this project will help to develop methodological principles for the study of agrobiodiversity and food security suitable for other world regions. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

该博士论文研究项目将研究作物多样性在安第斯粮食安全中的作用，以玻利维亚饮食文化为视角，分析本土作物、家庭粮食消费习惯和更广泛的社会背景之间的联系。玻利维亚呈现出农作物原产地常见的悖论，因为该国农业生物多样性丰富，但其营养不良程度却是南美洲最高的。 基因多样化的作物品种是随着不同的生物物理环境和农民的文化实践而进化的，但这些品种往往保留在边缘农业地区，而这些地区往往是粮食高度不安全的地区。尽管现有文献详细研究了环境因素和农业实践在作物多样性演变和维持中的作用，但这些力量与推动小规模农民社会和经济边缘化的更广泛社会进程之间的关系在很大程度上仍未得到分析。为了填补文献中的这一空白，该项目将探讨三个实证问题：（1）家庭烹饪实践与本土和传统安第斯作物的遗传和形态模式之间存在什么关系？ (2) 随着食品和人类跨越空间的移动，作物多样性的实践、价值观和选择压力如何变化？ (3) 农业生物多样性如何促进农村和城市弱势群体的粮食安全？回答这些问题的数据将通过对玻利维亚科恰班巴地区的详细案例研究收集，并结合访谈、参与观察和调查技术。这些数据将进一步支持两方面的理论研究。 首先，他们将深入探讨在当今玻利维亚公共领域的本土性、现代性和差异化叙事中如何利用本土和传统食品。其次，它们将有助于围绕商品的物质本质及其周围的社会意义如何促进相互竞争的价值观念的持续辩论。该项目将产生有关农业生物多样性与粮食安全和饮食文化之间关系的基本理论和应用知识。尽管这些关系的存在已被广泛接受，但支撑它们的机制尚未得到广泛探索。通过研究农业生物多样性和粮食消费作为连续粮食系统的要素，该项目将为作物遗传资源在更广泛的社会背景下的作用提供新的视角。在政策和应用领域，这项研究与玻利维亚和其他类似地区减轻饥饿和粮食不安全的计划设计直接相关。通过与该国应用开发组织的合作关系，该项目将产生知识，为加强当地可持续粮食系统带来新的机会。此外，该项目将有助于制定适合世界其他地区的农业生物多样性和粮食安全研究的方法原则。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。