Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Measuring Impacts of Community Seed Banks on Nutrition, Food Security, and Food Sovereignty in Underserved Regions

博士后奖学金：SPRF：衡量社区种子库对服务不足地区的营养、粮食安全和粮食主权的影响

• 批准号: 2313938
• 负责人: Veronica Limeberry
• 金额: $ 16万
• 依托单位: Limeberry, Veronica
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2313938&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Postdoctoral; Fellowship; SPRF; Measuring; Impacts

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Law and Science program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Alder Keleman Saxena at Northern Arizona University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the interlinking issues of nutritional security, hunger reduction, and sustainable agriculture. As the United States experiences increasing environmental changes (e.g., heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and flooding) on local access to nutritional foods is fundamental. Food crops that evolve and adapt are central to securing food access in rapidly changing environments. This project undertakes these interrelated issues, examining the ways in which locally-based community seed banks are protecting crop diversity while increasing local access to nutritional, healthy foods. Community seed banks can serve as central nodes that 1) connect people to food resources, 2) steward the environment, and 3) preserve and grow important regional food crops. Despite their importance in these roles, there is little to no research on how they actually serve impacted communities. This undertaking fills this gap, examining community seed banks in areas of high poverty and hunger, to trace the pathways from seed banks to food access and nutrition. The project will contribute original data on these pathways, illustrating where, how, when, and who benefits from local seed banks.The research objective of this undertaking is to identify existing agrobiodiversity conservation initiatives in most impacted regions of the US, linking them to how they facilitate community networks for the goal of providing and increasing access to food and nutritional security. This project undertakes a four-part research design, including network analysis and pathway mapping to determine the flow of seeds to and away from community seed banks, identifying the various actors involved, their levels of participation, and outcomes of seed and benefit sharing to the community. Additionally, it will identify a typology of seed-to-food pathways, which could include backyard garden projects, community gardens, community supported- agriculture, free community fridges, educational spaces, school gardens, and others. Community members and community seed bank organizers in each case site area will be interviewed, with all interviews coded and housed in qualitative data coding software. Finally, focus groups will be held in each identified case site to assess perceptions of community seed banks and their pathways, along with how communities themselves identify these pathways. This research will contribute 1) methods for examining the conditions under which CSBs support food security/nutrition through expanding access to agrobiodiversity; 2) multiple data sets, including indexes of locally and regionally conserved seed varieties, ecosystems in which they are used, and how communities use them; and 3) network analyses introducing a typology of actors and institutions that support the flow of agrobiodiversity to and from communities. Broadly, this postdoctoral project directly contributes to global calls for increasing research on the status of agrobiodiversity. Furthermore, it contributes to understanding the intersections of sustainable food systems with food security/access/and nutrition. This research emphasizes the ways in which human societies interact and engage with their physical environments, with potential to shape theories on environmental governance and food policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项是NSF的社会，行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划和SBE法律与科学计划的一部分。 SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门以及政府的科学职业准备有前途的早期职业博士学位科学家。 SPRF奖项涉及在既定科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。 NSF试图促进科学界各个细分市场的科学家的参与，包括来自代表性不足的群体的研究计划和活动；博士后时期被认为是实现这一目标的重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决重要的科学问题，以推进各自的学科领域。在北亚利桑那大学的Alder Keleman Saxena博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金奖支持了一位早期的职业科学家，调查了营养安全，减少饥饿和可持续农业的相互联系问题。随着美国的越来越多的环境变化（例如，热浪，干旱，野火和洪水）在当地获得营养食品的机会是基本的。进化和适应的粮食作物对于在迅速变化的环境中获得食品获取至关重要。该项目提出了这些相互关联的问题，研究了本地社区种子银行保护农作物多样性的方式，同时增加了当地获得营养，健康食品的机会。社区种子银行可以用作中心节点，即1）将人们与粮食资源联系起来，2）管理环境，3）保存和种植重要的区域粮食作物。尽管它们在这些角色上的重要性，但对于它们如何为受影响的社区服务的方式几乎没有研究。这项承诺填补了这一空白，研究了高贫困和饥饿地区的社区种子库，以追踪从种子库到食物获取和营养的途径。该项目将贡献有关这些途径的原始数据，说明了从当地种子库中受益的何处，如何，何时，何时以及谁受益。这项业务的研究目标是确定美国大多数受影响地区的现有农业生物多样性保护计划，将它们链接到如何促进社区网络以提供和增加食品和营养安全的目标和增加。该项目进行了四部分的研究设计，包括网络分析和途径映射，以确定种子往返社区种子库的流动，确定所涉及的各种参与者，他们的参与水平以及种子的成果以及对社区的利益共享。此外，它将确定种子对食品途径的类型，其中可能包括后院花园项目，社区花园，社区支持 - 农业，免费社区冰箱，教育空间，学校花园等。每个案例场地区域中的社区成员和社区种子银行组织者都将接受采访，所有访谈都用定性数据编码软件进行了编码和安装。最后，将在每个确定的病例场所举行焦点小组，以评估社区种子库及其途径的看法，以及社区自己如何识别这些途径。这项研究将贡献1）检查CSB通过扩大对农业生物多样性的机会支持粮食安全/营养的条件的方法； 2）多个数据集，包括本地和地区保守的种子品种，使用它们的生态系统以及社区如何使用它们的索引； 3）网络分析引入了支持农业多样性流向社区的参与者和机构的类型学。从广义上讲，这个博士后项目直接有助于全球呼吁增加对农业生物多样性状况的研究。此外，它有助于理解可持续食品系统与粮食安全/获取/营养的交集。这项研究强调了人类社会互动并与其身体环境互动的方式，并有可能塑造有关环境治理和食品政策的理论。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来获得支持的。