By Wanda Martin, RN, MN, PhD (c)
With assistance from the Dorothy Kergin Endowment Fund, I was able to attend the Canadian Association of Food Studies (CAFS) 7th Annual Conference at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Science in Waterloo, Ontario. CAFS consists of academics and professionals from governmental and community organizations who are interested in promoting interdisciplinary scholarship in the broad area of food systems: food policy, production, distribution and consumption. The conference theme was on food studies in the age of sustainability. As a conference volunteer, I missed the opening plenary, but had the advantage of a personal
synopsis from the presenters. I was particularly interested in the Conference Board of Canada’s work toward a national food policy.
The first session I attended was on food as a commodity, where we talked about food waste, commodity exchanges, and Ontario’s organic sector. I participated in the PechaKucha session, presenting part of my dissertation work in this alternative style of presentation. PechaKucha originated in Japan as a way for designers to network and share. It is a visual means of telling a story, consisting of 20 slides at 20 seconds each, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The timing forces presenters to keep strictly on point, and without discussion in between the six presentations, we weaved our ideas together for an interesting discussion at the end.
This was followed by a student/new researcher session that allowed us to nibble on fresh food from the farmer’s market, network, and talk about some challenges such as ‘imposter syndrome’, writing paralysis, work-life balance, or transitioning in and out of academia. After the book launch of four separate authors (I restricted myself to only purchasing one!), we met informally at the Grad Pub.
Sunday morning started with a field trip to either a large organic farm, and asparagus farm, or a little city farm. I attended the later to experience the one-third acre with hens, greenhouse, cob oven, straw bale house addition, grey water system, and multiple raised beds. As with the previous day, the afternoon was filled with so many interesting options, but I chose the health and safety discussion where we discussed raw milk, child‐targeted food marketing, relationship with food during kidney disease, and the quality turn and the new public health regulation for food.
After a second engaging PechaKucha session, we had a round-table discussion on interdisciplinarity in food studies, emphasizing the importance of reaching beyond boundaries, being able to connect the dots, and looking for the sectoral synergies.
The final day started with a round table discussion on provincial food movement networks represented by BC, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Ontario, followed by the last paper session on food environments and practices. The afternoon consisted of the annual general meeting and the keynote address by Terry Marsden. Dr. Marsden is Director of PLACE, the interdisciplinary Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University as well as the Dean of Graduate Studies. He highlighted the conundrum of capitalism in food and how we are in an era of neo-productivism or sustainable intensification, in the face of land pressure, climate change, resource depletion and health and welfare challenges. Dr. Marsden suggested there is a co-evolution of clusters of eco-economy and bio-economy happening at the regional or local level and to be sustainable, we need to get beyond the mindset of neoliberalism.
The conference ended with a local food banquet and awards presentation for the student essay, and excellence in food studies research. An overall highlight (besides reconnecting with friends) was the exploration gallery of a variety of artistic food representations. It is always a privilege to attend the CAFS conference and to be immersed in new and interesting research on a topic we all enjoy!
From the 2013 Fall Communiqué — History of Nursing
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