Americas

The End of Nature and the Human: A Global South Ecofeminist Approach to the Anthropocene

Abigail Pérez Aguilera

April 11, 2024

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Community-Based Monitoring of Indigenous Food Security in a Changing Climate: Global Trends and Future Directions

Citation:

Lam, Steven, Warren Dodd, Kelly Skinner, Andrew Papadopoulos, Chloe Zivot, James Ford, Patricia J. Garcia, IHACC Research Team, and Sherilee L. Harper. 2019. “Community-Based Monitoring of Indigenous Food Security in a Changing Climate: Global Trends and Future Directions.” Environmental Research Letters 14 (7).

Authors: Steven Lam, Warren Dodd, Kelly Skinner, Andrew Papadopoulos, Chloe Zivot, James Ford, Patricia J. Garcia, IHACC Research Team, Sherilee L. Harper

Abstract:

Climate change is expected to exacerbate existing food security challenges, especially in Indigenous communities worldwide. Community-based monitoring (CBM) is considered a promising strategy to improve monitoring of, and local adaptation to climatic and environmental change. Yet, it is unclear how this approach can be applied in food security or Indigenous contexts. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) review and synthesize the published literature on CBM of Indigenous food security; and, (2) identify gaps and trends in these monitoring efforts in the context of climate change. Using a systematic search and screening process, we identified 86 published articles. To be included, articles had to be published in a journal, describe a CBM system, describe any aspect of food security, and explicitly mention an Indigenous community. Relevant articles were thematically analyzed to characterize elements of CBM in the context of climate change. Results show that the number of articles published over time was steady and increased more than two-fold within the last five years. The reviewed articles reported on monitoring mainly in North America (37%) and South America (28%). In general, monitoring was either collaborative (51%) or externally-driven (37%), and focused primarily on tracking wildlife (29%), followed by natural resources (16%), environmental change (15%), fisheries (13%), climate change (9%), or some combination of these topics (18%). This review provides an evidence-base on the uses, characteristics, and opportunities of CBM, to guide future food security monitoring efforts in the context of climate change. (Abstract from original source)

Keywords: community-based monitoring, climate change, adaptation, gender, food security, indigenous, systematic review methodology

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Indigenous, Security, Food Security Regions: Americas, North America, South America

Year: 2019

Black Women on the Edge: A Conversation on the Gendered Racial Struggle for Urban Land in Salvador, Brazil

Citation:

Perry, Keisha-Khan Y., and Ana Cristina da Silva Caminha. 2014. “Black Women on the Edge: A Conversation on the Gendered Racial Struggle for Urban Land in Salvador, Brazil.” 2014. In Grabbing Back: Essays against the Global Land Grab, edited by Alexander Reid Ross, 147–157. New York: AK Press.

Authors: Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, Ana Cristina da Silva Caminha

Topics: Land Grabbing, Race Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Brazil

Year: 2014

‘‘Si No Comemos Tortilla, No Vivimos:’’ Women, Climate Change, and Food Security in Central Mexico

Citation:

Bee, Beth A. 2014. "'Si No Comemos Tortilla, No Vivimos:' Women, Climate Change, and Food Security in Central Mexico." Agriculture & Human Values 30: 607–620.

Author: Beth A. Bee

Abstract:

In recent years, it has become clear that food security is intimately related to complex environmental, social, political, and economic issues. Even though several studies document the impact of climate on food production and agriculture, a growing segment of research examines how climate change impacts food systems and associated livelihoods. Furthermore, while women play a crucial role in providing food security for their families, little research exists that examines the nexus among gender relations, climate change, and household food security. This study investigates these relationships by asking: (1) how is the production and reproduction of knowledge about food security and climate change shaped by gender and lived experience, and (2) how does this knowledge influence attitudes and strategies for maintaining food security in a changing climate? Drawing on the results of research in two communities in central Mexico, I argue that women’s perceptions of and strategies for maintaining food security are derived from their socio-political, environmental, and economic contexts. This study contributes to both the growing literature on the gender dynamics of climate change, as well as debates about the role of bioengineered seeds in helping farmers to adapt to a changing climate.

Keywords: food security, gender, climate change, adaptive capacity, mexico, Knowledge

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Roles, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2014

Food Security in Small Island States

Citation:

Connell, John, and Kristen Lowitt, eds. 2020. Food Security in Small Island States. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-8256-7.

Authors: John Connell , Kristen Lowitt

Annotation:

Summary:
This book provides a contemporary overview of the social-ecological and economic vulnerabilities that produce food and nutrition insecurity in various small island contexts, including both high islands and atolls, from the Pacific to the Caribbean. It examines the historical and contemporary circumstances that have accompanied the shift from subsistence production to the consumption of imported, processed foods and drinks, and the impact of this transition on nutrition and the rise of non-communicable diseases. It also assesses the challenges involved in reversing this trend, and how more effective social and economic policies, agricultural and fisheries strategies, and governance arrangements could promote more resilient and sustainable small island food systems. It offers both theoretical and practical perspectives, and brings together a broad range of policy areas, e.g. agriculture, food, commerce, health, planning and socio-economic policy.

Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for a range of disciplines in a number of regional contexts, and for the growing number of scholars and practitioners working on and in small island states. It will be of particular value as the first book to examine the diversity and commonalities of island states around the globe as they confront issues of food security. (Abstract from original source)

 

Table of Contents:
1.Food Security and Sovereignty in Small Island Developing States: Contemporary Crises and Challenges

John Connell, Kristen Lowitt, Arlette Saint Wille, Gordon M. Hickey

2.Climate Change and Food Security in the Pacific Islands
Jon Barnett

3.Development, Global Change and Food Security in Pacific Island Countries
John R. Campbell

4.Lost Roots? Fading Food Security in Micronesia
John Connell

5.Modernisation, Traditional Food Resource Management and Food Security on Eauripik Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia
Andrew Scourse and Corinne Wilkins

6.Framing Food Security in the Pacific Islands: Resilience in Malo, Vanuatu
Matthew G. Allen

7.Postharvest Loss in Fruit and Vegetable Markets in Samoa
Steven J. R. Underhill, Shukrullah Sherzad, Yuchan Zhou, Seeseei Molimau-Samasoni, Semua Militini Tagoai

8.Can the Tropical Western and Central Pacific Tuna Purse Seine Fishery Contribute to Pacific Island Population Food Security?
Graham M. Pilling, Shelton J. Harley, Simon Nicol, Peter Williams, John Hampton

9.Addressing Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Caribbean Through Domestic Smallholder Farming System Innovation
Arlette Saint Ville, Leroy E. Phillip, Gordon M. Hickey

10.Knowledge, Markets and Finance: Factors Affecting the Innovation Potential of Smallholder Farmers in the Caribbean Community
Kristen Lowitt, Gordon M. Hickey, Arlette Saint Ville, Kaywana Raeburn, Theresa Thompson-Colón, Sonia Laszlo et al.

11.Fisheries Governance and Food Security in the Eastern Caribbean
Patrick McConney, Shelly-Ann Cox, Kemraj Pasram

12.Food Security and Livelihood Vulnerability to Climate Change in Trinidad and Tobago
Kalim U. Shah, Hari Bansha Dulal, Mohammed T. Awojobi

13.The Role of Social Capital in Influencing Knowledge Flows and Innovation in St. Lucia
Arlette Saint Ville, Gordon M. Hickey, Uli Locher, Leroy E. Phillip

14.Eating Meat or Eating Money? Factors Influencing Animal-Source Food Consumption in Timor-Leste
Johanna T. Wong, Brigitte Bagnol, Heather Grieve, Joanita Bendita da Costa Jong, Mu Li, Robyn G. Alders

15.Wild Foods and Food Security: The Case of Timor-Leste
William Erskine, Anita Ximenes, Diana Glazebrook, Marcelino da Costa, Modesto Lopes, Luc Spyckerelle et al.

Topics: Security, Food Security Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries

Year: 2020

Globalization, Agriculture and Food in the Caribbean: Climate Change, Gender and Geography

Citation:

Beckford, Clinton L., and Kevin Rhiney, eds. 2016. Globalization, Agriculture and Food in the Caribbean: Climate Change, Gender and Geography. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Clinton L. Beckford, Kevon Rhiney

Annotation:

Summary:
The last decade has seen a growing body of research about globalization and climate change in the Caribbean. This collection is a significant addition to the literature on a topic that is of critical importance to the region. It explores research from a number of Caribbean islands dealing with a range of issues related to agriculture and food in the context of globalization and climate change. Using a broad livelihoods perspective, the impacts on rural livelihoods are explored as well as issues related to community level resilience, adaptability and adaptations. The volume is strengthened by gendered analyses of issues and discussions informed by a diverse range of research methods and methodologies. Scholars of Caribbean studies and studies pertaining to social, cultural, economic and environmental issues facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will greatly benefit from this book. (Summary from Palgrave Macmillan)

Table of Contents:
1.Geographies of Globalization, Climate Change and Food and Agriculture in the Caribbean

Clinton L. Beckford and Kevon Rhiney

2.From Plantations to Services: A Historical and Theoretical Assessment of the Transition from Agrarian to Service-Based Industries in the Caribbean

Kevon Rhiney

3.Securing the Female Future and Reframing Livelihoods in Post-Sugar St Kitts

Joyelle Clarke

4.Globalisation and Fairtrade Bananas in St Lucia: A Solution to Building Resilience?

Chanelle Fingal-Robinson

5.The Decline of Preferential Markets and the Sugar Industry: A Case Study of Trade Liberalization in Central Jamaica

Dorlan Burrell

6.The Jamaican Coffee Industry: Challenges and Responses to Increased Global Competition

Mario Mighty

7.Multiple Stresses in a Globalized World: Livelihood Vulnerability Amongst Carib Communities in Northeastern St Vincent

Rose-Ann J. Smith

8.Climate Change and Quality of Planting Materials for Domestic Food Production: Tissue Culture and Protected Agriculture

Clinton L. Beckford and Anthony Norman

9.Observations, Perceptions, and Responses to Climate Change and Variability Among Small Farmers in Sherwood Content, Trelawny, Jamaica

Ayesha Constable

10.Factors Influencing Perceptions of Climate Change Among Caribbean Coastal Artisanal Fishers: Case Study of Old Harbour Bay, Jamaica

April Karen Baptiste

11.Future of Food and Agriculture in the Caribbean in the Context of Climate Change and Globalization: Where do We Go from Here?

Clinton L. Beckford and Kevon Rhiney

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Globalization, Security, Food Security Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries

Year: 2016

The Social Cost of Environmental Solutions

Citation:

Dauvergne, Peter, and Genevieve LeBaron. 2013. "The Social Cost of Environmental Solutions." New Political Economy 18 (3): 410-430.

 

Authors: Peter Dauvergne, Genevieve LeBaron

Abstract:

This article assesses the social consequences of efforts by multinational corpor- ations to capture business value through recycling, reusing materials and reducing waste. Synthesising evidence from the global environmental justice and feminist and international political economy (IPE) literatures, it analyses the changing social property relations of global recycling chains. The authors argue that, although recycling more would seem to make good ecological sense, corporate programmes can rely on and further ingrain social patterns of harm and exploita- tion, particularly for the burgeoning labour force that depends on recyclables for subsistence living. Turning the waste stream into a profit stream also relies on prison labour in some places, such as in the United States where the federal gov- ernment operates one of the country’s largest electronics recycling programmes. The ongoing corporatisation of recycling, the authors argue further, is devaluing already marginalised populations within the global economy. Highlighting the need to account for the dynamism between social and environmental change within IPE scholarship, the article concludes by underlining the ways in which ‘green commerce’ programmes can shift capital’s contradictions from nature onto labour.

Keywords: multinational corporations, environmental justice, political economy, recycling, labour, e-waste, global recycling chain

Topics: Development, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Land Tenure, Multi-National Corporations, Political Economies Regions: Africa, Americas, North America, South America, Asia, South Asia Countries: United States of America

Year: 2013

Open-Pit Peace: The Power of Extractive Industries in Post-Conflict Transitions

Citation:

Paarlberg-Kvam, Kate. 2021.“Open-Pit Peace: The Power of Extractive Industries in Post-Conflict Transitions.” Peacebuilding 9 (3): 289-310.

Author: Kate Paarlberg-Kvam

Abstract:

Three years after the peace accord signed by the Colombian government and the country’s largest guerrilla group, the guerrillas announced a return to arms. The announcement was met with dismay, but not surprise, as the numbers of murdered ex-combatants and social leaders rise and the government’s tepid commitment to the peace process sputters and stalls. At the centre of this violence have been the extractive industries. How should peace studies make sense of the power of extractivism, often described as a key element of postconflict reconstruction around the globe? This article focuses on Colombia as a case study of the contradictions of the postliberal peace, as stated commitments to gender justice and economic redistribution are undermined by commitments to mining and biofuel profits. A decolonial feminist lens, informed by Latin American anticapitalist feminists, sheds light on these contradictions and illuminates possibilities for a transformed peace in a postneoliberal world.

Keywords: extractivism, decoloniality, peacebuilding, Colombia

Topics: Armed Conflict, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Development, Extractive Industries, Gender Mainstreaming, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Security, Sexual Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2021

Disposable Waste, Lands and Bodies under Canada’s Gendered Nuclear Colonialism

Citation:

Runyan, Anne Sisson. 2018. “Disposable Waste, Lands and Bodies under Canada’s Gendered Nuclear Colonialism.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 20 (1): 24–38.

Author: Anne Sisson Runyan

Abstract:

Nuclear colonialism, or the exploitation of Indigenous lands and peoples to sustain the nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining and refining to nuclear energy and weapons production and the dumping of the resulting nuclear waste, occurs in many parts of the world and has generated considerable protest. This article focuses on a contemporary and ongoing case of nuclear colonialism in Canada: attempts to site two national deep geological repositories (DGRs) for nuclear waste on traditional First Nations land in Southwestern Ontario near the world’s largest operational nuclear power plant. Through histories of the rise of nuclear power and nuclear waste policy-making and their relationship to settler colonialism in Canada, as well as actions taken by the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) and white settler antinuclear waste movements, the article explores how gender is at work in nuclear colonialism and anti-nuclear waste struggles. Gender is explored here in terms of the patriarchal nuclear imperative, the appropriation of Aboriginal land through undermining Aboriginal women’s status and the problematic relationship between First Nations and white settler women-led movements in resistance to nuclear waste burial from a feminist decolonial perspective.

Keywords: nuclear waste, gendered nuclear colonialism, white settler colonialism, patriarchal nuclear imperative, Canada

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Indigenous, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2018

Bikinis and Other S/Pacific N/Oceans

Citation:

Teaiwa, Teresia K. 2010. “Bikinis and Other S/Pacific N/Oceans.” In Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific, edited by Setsu Shigematsu and Keith L. Camacho, 15–32. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Keywords: bikini, nuclear power, Pacific Islanders, Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, feminization, sexualization, colonialism, female body, nuclear testing

Annotation:

Summary:

This chapter suggests that the bikini bathing suit manifests both a celebration and a forgetting of the nuclear power that strategically and materially marginalizes and erases the living history of Pacific Islanders. By analyzing militarist, nuclear, and touristic discourses on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, it demonstrates the feminization and sexualization of nuclear colonialism while elaborating how empires have been engendered through the deformation and violation of Pacific Islander bodies. It describes the bikini bathing suit as a testament to the recurring tourist trivialization of Pacific Islanders’ experience and existence. By drawing attention to a sexualized and supposedly depoliticized female body, the bikini distracts from the colonial and highly political origins of its name. The sexist dynamic the bikini performs—objectification through excessive visibility—inverts the colonial dynamics that have occurred during nuclear testing in the Pacific, that is, objectification by rendering invisible. (Summary from Publisher)

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Femininity/ies, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Americas, North America, Oceania Countries: Marshall Islands, United States of America

Year: 2010

Pages

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