Research Institute for Humanity and Nature is a national research institute establishedby the Government of Japan in 2001 and it is part of the National Institutes for the Humanities. RIHN researchstarts from the premise that environmental problems are rooted in human society, culture, and values. The
goal of RIHN is to seek concepts, theories and mechanisms capable of describing and enabling transformationof human-environment interactions. This implies that RIHN research involves a normative dimension, driven
by questions such as what the relationship between humanity and nature ought to be like. To this end, RIHN
solicits, funds, and hosts integrative research projects investigating environmental change problems in specificsettings. Research projects are undertaken by interdisciplinary teams at RIHN, partner institutions, and societal
stakeholders in Japan and abroad.
We at RIHN believe that research ought to contribute to the search for solutions to real-world problems and,
therefore, we promote a co-design and co-production approach where researchers and societal actors joinhands in exploring problems and developing new framings and possible solutions. RIHN research isincreasingly transdisciplinary in that it seeks to redefine the role of science in society, improve dialogue
between different traditions of knowledge, and stimulate new multi actor local, national and international
collaborations. This approach needs to draw on multiple, diverse perspectives from a range of disciplines
including the natural and social sciences, arts and humanities, and engineering and design.

RIHN 15th International Symposium

Transitioning Cultures of Everyday
Food Consumption and Production:
Stories from a Post-growth Future

January 13 - 16, 2021
Lecture Hall, RIHN and Online

Organized by
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN)
National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU)
Inter-University Research Institute Corporation

PREAMBLE
Theme:
Whether by ecological breakdown or concerted action, the era of mass production andconsumption is nearing its end. This means that the resource-intensive systems of provisioning
on which many currently depend upon to meet their daily needs will change. For years, weaksustainability approaches emphasized the importance of individual attitudes, behaviors, andchoices as the lever to shift economies and societies toward smaller footprints. These strategies
have not only proven unsuccessful, they point to fundamental flaws in consumption-based
economic models. Recent crises serve to further stress the fragility of economies that must
perpetually grow.
Food systems, in all their many forms and complex interaction, are already showing signs offailure. Industrial agriculture, factory farms, and mass-produced and processed food are amajor source of greenhouse gas emissions, cause massive biodiversity and soil fertility loss,
contribute to non-communicable diseases, and weaken farming communities worldwide.
Industrial agriculture alone is a significant contributor to 8 of the 10 planetary boundaries.

The window of time in which effective action is possible is closing fast and the degree of change
needed is immense-- stronger, more radical strategies for economic and social change are
essential. Driving the agricultural crisis, and much of the environmental crises we see today, isthe relentless push for economic growth. The question before those concerned about the futureof food and the planet, is how to reimagine and enact models for production, consumption, andgovernance that are viable, desirable, and possible outside of a growth-first paradigm. We must
not only downscale energy and material throughput, but design a metabolism that functions
very differently-- different values, different lifestyles, different practices, and a different way ofrelating to nature.

As food is so ingrained in culture and the rhythms of daily life, the repatterning of a post-growth
food system has profound implications for the future of lifestyles, work, and health. How mightsustainable food practices reconstitute foodscapes of sufficiency and conviviality, in which theline between consumer and producer is blurred? How do we redesign food production aroundthe principles of agroecology so they might regenerate ecological synergies and expand farmer
and citizen sovereignty? Food futures are political-- how do civic food actors rally arounddesirable food visions and find agency in transforming their foodsheds? Finally, can our
relationship with food and agriculture redefine socio-cultural ideas of the good life and enable
alternative worldviews that embrace ecological and social limits?
Seeking a post-growth future for food and society is reengaging with core tenants of RIHN’s
mission: to debate how human culture ought to operate on the planet and identify practicalsolutions and transformative pathways to get us there. This symposium brings together
interdisciplinary scholars to share stories of a present and future in which “enough is as goodas a feast.”
An online symposium
Due to the global pandemic, the symposium will be carried out online using a number ofplatforms. We anticipate the bulk of the interaction will take place via video chat software, such
as Zoom, but we also plan on using online messaging software, such as Slack, to extend thediscussion beyond live interactions.

OUTLINE OF THE SESSIONS
Session 1: Regional and Regenerative Foodsheds
In this session we critically reimagine food production as bioregional, decentralized,
and highly autonomous systems. We examine the spatial implications of such aredesign and what they mean for food security and sovereignty. How do we plan,
construct, and measure the impacts of place-based, localized food systems and what
are some examples? How might food production change to be more agroecological andsensitive to the needs of other species?
Session 2: Food Futures, Transdisciplinary Processes, and Politics
The way we envision the future unfolding has tremendous influence over how we makedecisions. Likewise, who is included in policy-relevant discussions and joint knowledge
production contributes significantly to the robustness and legitimacy of possible
outcomes. New forms of governance and policy that engage with the future andrelevant stakeholders will be needed to reach a more sustainable food system. How dofuture-making activities -e.g. foresight, models, scenario exercises- engage and(de)politicize food futures? How do transdisciplinary processes involve stakeholders
effectively in the context of food policy? And what are the stories associated with theseprocesses?
Session 3: Food-alternatives in the Present
There are post-growth food practices hiding in plain sight, incubating and awaiting
their moment to spread. In what ways do consumers and producers enact alternative
food practices in their daily lives and rhythms of work and what are the implications
for the future? What role do alternative business models and technologies play as key
materials in the reproduction of practices?
Session 4: Sufficiency and Cultural Change
Underlying societal change are processes of cultural shift-- values and worldviews thatmake sense of the world we live in. How can our relationship with food and agriculture
redefine socio-cultural ideas of the good life and enable alternative worldviews thatembrace ecological and social limits?

PROGRAM
Wednesday, 13 January 2021
(JST Tokyo)
09:30-09:35

Welcome and Opening Remarks
YASUNARI Tetsuzo (Director-General, RIHN)

09:35-09:45

Introduction
Steven R. McGREEVY (RIHN)

09:45-10:15

Keynote Address
Overcoming the Problem Bias – Researching and Learning Sustainable
Food Economy Solutions
Arnim WIEK (Arizona State University, USA)

10:15-10:30

Break

Session 1 Regional and Regenerative Foodsheds

10:30-10:45
10:45-11:00
11:00-11:15
11:15-11:30
11:30-12:00

Chair: Steven R. McGREEVY (RIHN)

Designing the Sustainable Foodshed of Japan: Insights from Ecological
Footprint Modeling and Local Food System Mapping
TSUCHIYA Kazuaki (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
The Bounty of Enough: (De)Constructing the Global Industrial Food
Complex through Narratives of Scarcity
Oliver TAHERZADEH (RIHN)

Designing Biodiverse and Resilient Farming Systems: Experiences from
Latin America
Clara Ines NICHOLLS (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Our Collective Future: Building Sustainable Agrifood Systems and Resilient
Rural Communities. Lessons from the US and JapanTANAKA Keiko (University of Kentucky, USA)
Session Discussion

Thursday, 14 January 2021
15:00-15:05

Yesterday’s Recap & Today’s Overview
Christoph D. D. RUPPRECHT (RIHN)

15:05-15:35

Keynote Address
Limits, Degrowth and Environmental Justice
Giorgos KALLIS (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)

15:35-15:50
15:50-16:00
16:00-16:15

Keynote Q&A
Moderator: Christoph D. D. RUPPRECHT (RIHN)

BreakArnim WIEK Keynote Q&A
Moderator: Steven R. McGREEVY (RIHN)

Session 2 Food Futures, Transdisciplinary Processes, andPolitics
16:15-16:30
16:30-16:45
16:45-17:00
17:00-17:15
17:15-17:30
17:30-18:00

Chair: Christoph D. D. RUPPRECHT (RIHN)

Using Gaming to Develop Public Capacities for Anticipatory Governance
Joost VERVOORT (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
Commodity, Commons, Public Good or Human Right. Normative Food
Narratives Shape Future Food Transitions
Jose Luis VIVERO POL (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Grappling at Food Policy in Kyoto: Experiences and Future Prospects
AKITSU Motoki (Kyoto University, Japan)
Evaluating Futures for Food Systems Change: From Imagination toTransformation
Astrid MANGNUS (Utrecht University, Netherlands)

Constructing Practice-oriented Participatory Policy for Sustainable
Everyday Urban Food Futures in Bangkok
Kanang KANTAMATURAPOJ (Mahidol University, Thailand)
Session Discussion

Friday, 15 January 2021
15:00-15:05

Yesterday’s Recap & Today’s Overview
Maximilian SPIEGELBERG (RIHN)

Session 3 Food Alternatives in the Present
15:05-15:20
15:20-15:35
15:35-15:50
15:50-16:05
16:05-16:35

16:35-16:45

Chair: Maximilian SPIEGELBERG (RIHN)

Reimagining Informal Food Practices: Sustainability Lessons from theEuropean East
Petr JEHLIČKA (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)

Consumption and Everyday Life: How Prescriptions Inform Our
Understanding of Healthy and Sustainable Food
Marlyne SAHAKIAN (University of Geneva, Switzerland)Love thy Robber: Exploring the Informal Food Economy of Unattended
Food Stands
KOBAYASHI Mai (RIHN)

Legumes' Role Post-COVID-19: Reorienting the Focus of Policy on Legumebased Food and Feed System
Bálint BALÁZS
(Environmental Social Science Research Group, Hungary)

Session Discussion

Break

Practitioner Roundtable
16:45-16:55

16:55-17:05
17:05-17:15
17:15-17:45

Facilitator Hein MALLEE (RIHN)

Kyoto Organic Action (KOA): A Cooperative Attempt to Establish an
Independent Distribution System for Local Organic Produce
SUZUKI Kentaro (Kyoto Organic Action, Japan)

Realizing Gender Justice through Agroecology – Lessons from Women’sCollective Farming Efforts in India
Ashlesha KHADSE (Amrita Bhoomi Agroecology Center, India)

Climbing Mount Improbable: The Beginnings of a Post-growth Food
Narrative in the UK
Chris SMAJE (“A Small Farm Future”, England)
Discussion

Saturday, 16 January 2021
09:30-09:35

Yesterday’s Recap & Today’s Overview
TAMURA Norie (RIHN)

09:35-10:05

Keynote Address
Food Journeys: Encounters that Engender Empathy across DifferenceMichael CAROLAN (Colorado State University, USA)

10:05-10:20
10:20-10:30

Keynote Q&A
Moderator: TAMURA Norie (RIHN)

BreakSession 4 Sufficiency and Cultural Change
10:30-10:45

10:45-11:00
11:00-11:15
11:15-11:30
11:30-12:00

Chair: TAMURA Norie (RIHN)

Willingly Sliding down the Slope: Narratives and Games for a more
Sustainable Food Culture
Ilan CHABAY (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Germany)
The Cultural Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture
Daniel NILES (RIHN) and ABE Ken-ichi (RIHN)

Subsistence Agriculture in the US: Reconnecting to Work, Nature, andCommunity
Ashley COLBY (Rizoma Field School, Uruguay)

Pahom and the Everlasting Plate – Stories as Bearers of Alternative Food
Visions
Rajat CHAUDHURI (Fiction writer and Activist)

Session Discussion

Final Session
12:00-12:35

12:35-12:45

Chair: Steven R. MCGREEVY (RIHN)

Final Comments & Discussion
SATO Yo-Ichiro (Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan)
TACHIKAWA Masashi (Nagoya University)

Closing Remarks
Steven R. McGREEVY (RIHN)

Keynote Address

Overcoming the Problem Bias – Researching and
Learning Sustainable Food Economy Solutions
Arnim WIEK
Arizona State University, USA

Arnim WIEK is professor in the School of Sustainability and director of the
Sustainable Food Economy Lab at Arizona State University, USA. He also holds
a guest professorship at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. His teamconducts research on sustainable solutions for local food businesses andeconomies in close collaboration with entrepreneurs, government agencies,
non-profit organizations, and other stakeholders. He had research and teaching
appointments at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, theUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, the University of Tokyo, and Utrecht
University.

Abstract
After centuries of standardizing, commercializing, and globalizing the food economy, thedetrimental effects on the environment, workers, and the public have been widely
recognized. Increasing problem awareness has triggered transitions to sustainable foodeconomies guided by principles of regeneration, localization, circularity, justice, and publicvalue generation. Following these principles, many small food businesses, short food supply
chains, and novel economic support structures are paving the way for a broader adoptionof sustainable practices, models, infrastructures, and technologies. These include organic
practices, renewable energy, local sourcing, reusable packaging, workforce diversity,
employee ownership, social financing, and cooperative networks. While these pioneering
efforts are well underway, research and education lag behind, struggling to emancipate
from the conventional problem focus. This talk outlines and illustrates a significant shift
towards solutions – how research and education ought to focus on the development ofsustainable food economies, from the micro (business) to the macro scale (economy). Key
aspects of this shift towards solutions are interdisciplinary collaboration among various
scholars, transdisciplinary cooperation with practitioners, and inspiration for the next
generation of food economy actors.

Designing the Sustainable Foodshed of Japan:
Insights from Ecological Footprint Modeling and
Local Food System Mapping
TSUCHIYA Kazuaki
The University of Tokyo, Japan

TSUCHIYA Kazuaki is an assistant professor at Department of Ecosystem
Studies, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University ofTokyo, Japan. He studies linkages between urban lifestyle, environment andhealth issues. He is a Co-chair of Working Group 1 “Food system mapping &modeling” at the FEAST project, RIHN. He has a Doctor of Agriculture from the
University of Tokyo.

Abstract
How are we eating? How does our food impact the environment? How could we eat in the
future? These are the questions we tried to answer in the Working Group 1 “Food system
mapping & modeling” at the FEAST project, RIHN. We took a closer look at the way food andagriculture work today to learn how we can create ecologically and socially sustainableagrifood systems in Japan. Because food and agriculture are linked in complex ways, weused a range of methods in our research. These include for example GIS and land use
analysis, consumer surveys, ecological footprint modelling in collaboration with the Global
Footprint Network, and modelling of potential future diets in collaboration with Institutefor Global Environmental Strategies. Specifically, we worked on two topics: ecologicalfootprint modeling in Japan and local food system mapping in Kyoto. Sub-national ecologicalfootprint analysis showed that prefectures with a higher proportion of urban and elderly
population had high food Ecological Footprint per capita. Our findings implied that policy
makers should consider supporting local food activities with elderly populations, as
processed food dominates majority part of the food Ecological Footprint. Local food system
mapping showed that consumer’s attitudes toward local agriculture, as well as accessibility
to local food, are the key to realize resilient local food systems.

The Bounty of Enough: (De)Constructing the Global
Industrial Food Complex through Narratives of
Scarcity
Oliver TAHERZADEH
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan

Oliver TAHERZADEH is a Senior Researcher at RIHN interested in how
environmental risks connect different actors within global supply chains. His
research explores this in relation to food system sustainability, international
trade and national consumption. Before joining RIHN Oliver completed his PhD
at Cambridge University on the scale and source of water, energy and land
insecurity within the world economy. Oliver's recent research invites reflection
on the unequal environmental footprint of consumption, within and between
nations, and whether this can be addressed through market-led instruments
and green growth.
Abstract
The global industrial food complex is increasingly framed as a logical response to the
productive limits of regional food-sheds. Increased trade, productivity and mechanisation
have emerged as key imperatives to overcome such limits and feed a growing global
population. Yet, transformation of food systems towards this end have led to a zero-sum
game between food and environmental security. This invites critical evaluation of the global
industrial food complex and the narratives of scarcity which it is constructed. Using crosscountry evidence, this talk will show that regional food-sheds are not scarce but bountiful
and capable of meeting food needs sustainably and equitably. Food trade and efficiency
claims will also be interrogated alongside this to illustrate their potential and limits withincontext.

Designing Biodiverse and Resilient Farming
Systems: Experiences from Latin America
Clara Ines NICHOLLS
University of California, Berkeley, USA

Clara Ines NICHOLLS is a Colombian agronomist with a PhD in Entomology andBiological Control from the University of California -Davis. She is a Permanent Lecturer
on Sustainable Rural Development in Latin America at the University of California,
Berkeley. She also teaches in various universities in Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua,
Argentina, Spain and Italy. She served as the president of the Latin American Scientific
Society of Agroecology (SOCLA) and is co-director of the Centro LatinoAmericano de
Investigaciones Agroecologicas (CELIA-www.celia.agroeco.org). She is the author of 4
books (among them Biodiversity and Pest Management in Agroecosystems) and of morethan 50 scientific journal papers.
Abstract
Diverse, severe, and location-specific impacts on agricultural production are anticipated with climatechange. The last IPCC report indicates that the rise of CO2 and associated “greenhouse” gases could
lead to a 1.4 to 5.8 °C increase in global surface temperatures, with subsequent consequences on
precipitation frequency and amounts. Temperature and water availability remain key factors indetermining crop growth and productivity; predicted changes in these factors will lead to reduced
crop yields. Climate-induced changes in insect pest, pathogen and weed population dynamics andinvasiveness could compound such effects. Undoubtedly, climate and weather induced instability willaffect levels of and access to food supply, altering social and economic stability and regional
competiveness. Adaptation is considered a key factor that will shape the future severity of climatechange impacts on food production. Changes that will not radically modify the monoculture natureof dominant agroecosystems may moderate negative impacts temporarily. The biggest and mostdurable benefits will likely result from more radical aroecological measures that will strengthen theresilience of farmers and rural communities, such as diversification of agroecosytems in the form ofpolycultures, agroforestry systems, and crop-livestock mixed systems accompanied by organic soil
management, water conservation and harvesting, and general enhancement of agrobiodiversity.
Traditional farming systems are repositories of a wealth of principles and measures that can help
modern agricultural systems become more resilient to climatic extremes. Many of these
agroecological strategies that reduce vulnerabilities to climate variability include crop diversification,
maintaining local genetic diversity, animal integration, soil organic management, water conservationand harvesting, etc. Understanding the agroecological features that underlie the resilience oftraditional agroecosystems is an urgent matter, as they can serve as the foundation for the design ofadapted agricultural systems. Observations of agricultural performance after extreme climatic events(hurricanes and droughts) in the last two decades have revealed that resiliency to climate disasters
is closely linked to farms with increased levels of biodiversity. Field surveys and results reported in
the literature suggest that agroecosystems are more resilient when inserted in a complex landscapematrix, featuring adapted local germplasm deployed in diversified cropping systems managed withorganic matter rich soils and water conservation-harvesting techniques. The identification ofsystems that have withstood climatic events recently or in the past and understanding the
agroecological features of such systems that allowed them to resist and/or recover from extreme
events is of increased urgency, as the derived resiliency principles and practices that underlie
successful farms can be disseminated to thousands of farmers via Campesino a Campesino networks
to scale up agroecological practices that enhance the resiliency of agroecosystems. The effective
diffusion of agroecological technologies will largely determine how well and how fast farmers adapt
to climate change.

Our Collective Future: Building Sustainable
Agrifood Systems and Resilient Rural Communities.
Lessons from the US and JapanTANAKA Keiko
University of Kentucky, USA

Dr. TANNAKA Keiko’s research examines various aspects of sustainableagriculture and food systems. Her current projects on beginning farmers in theSoutheastern US and in Japan concern the intersection of farmers’ knowledge,
practices and perspectives on agricultural sustainability. She is a member of themultistate research program on an "agriculture of the middle." Under thisprogram, she is conducting a grant-funded project to examine creativities andchallenges for operating social justice-oriented food hubs (supply chains) in theSoutheastern US. Her instruction focuses on the sociological examination of
global food systems and agricultural sustainability, particularly the role ofscience and technology in reconfiguring relationships and practices of foodproduction, circulation, and consumption. She publishes both in English andJapanese. Her publications in English can be found in Agriculture and Human
Values; the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development;
the Journal of Rural Social Sciences (or formally Southern Rural Sociology); andRural Sociology. She has been very active in the Rural Sociological Society (RSS).
In 2018-2019, she served as president of RSS.
Abstract
The future of farming greatly depends on each nation’s capacity to cultivate new, young
farmers. Using the cases of farmers in Kyoto and Kentucky, this presentation compares
Japan and the United States in the infrastructure to support “beginning” farmers and theperspectives of these farmers on “sustainability” and “success.” Although the necessary
elements for farmer support are similar, the role of rural “community” in the skill andprofessional development of these farmers differs notably between the U.S. and Japanese
agrifood systems. This presentation will explore both theoretical and policy implications forbuilding sustainable/resilient agrifood systems in the context of increasingly globalized andhighly technology-driven capitalist economy.

Keynote Address

Limits, Degrowth and Environmental Justice
Giorgos KALLIS
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Giorgos KALLIS is an ecological economist, political ecologist, and Catalan
Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) Professor at theInstitute of Environmental Science and Technology, Barcelona. He is the authorof 'Limits' (Stanford University Press) and 'The case for Degrowth' (Polity Press,2020). His research is motivated by a quest to cross conceptual divides between
the social and the natural domains, with particular focus on the politicaleconomic roots of environmental degradation and its uneven distribution alonglines of power, income, and class. His current work explores the hypothesis ofsustainable degrowth as a solution to the dual economic and ecological crisis.
He was previously a Marie Curie Fellow at the Energy and Resources group at
UC Berkeley, and he holds a PhD in Environmental Policy from the University of
the Aegean, an MSc in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and an MSc
in Environmental Engineering and a Bachelors in Chemistry from Imperial
College, London.

Abstract
Drawing on material from my two recent books, 'Limits' (Stanford University Press, 2019)and 'The case for degrowth' (Polity Press, 2020), I make three arguments: first, that limits
and limitless growth are two sides of the same coin that perpetuate injustices in the nameof progress. Second, that global environmental justice requires that the over-developed
economies of the global north find ways to limit their growth. And third, that environmental
injustices are not externalities or corrigible side effects, but systemic features, functional tocapitalist growth. I will illustrate my arguments with examples from my fieldwork over theyears on cases of water conflict and climate adaptation as well as with data from my macrowork on degrowth economics.

Using Gaming to Develop Public Capacities for
Anticipatory Governance
Joost VERVOORT
Utrecht University, Netherlands

Joost VERVOORT is Associate Professor of Foresight and Anticipatory
Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht
University, an Honorary Research Associate at the Environmental Change
Institute, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Fellow at the Research Institute of
Humanity and Nature, Kyoto. Joost leads the food foresight project of the
CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security programme, which has
operated across 7 global regions for the last ten years, resulting in many
processes in which foresight was used to guide national policies and strategies
on food, agriculture and climate. He also leads a number of other majorinternational research projects focused on foresight, anticipatory governanceand simulation gaming.

Abstract
There is a need for new ways to move beyond the current ‘crisis of the imagination’ in foodsystems and in sustainability more generally. There have long been calls for a‘democratization’ of futures and foresight, a need for ‘public’ foresight. Such calls are part ofa more general perceived need for new forms of participatory governance and public
engagement with societal challenges. Games have a long history of use in formal policy andplanning contexts. However, the commercial game sector, a industry that has outgrownother media in many respects, is often ignored by sustainability literature interested in
more formal game applications. Other literatures, mostly in media studies, psychology andsociology, have explored the societal significance and potential impacts of games. However,these analyses have not, so far, been connected to research focused on sustainability
transformations. In this presentation, I will seek to integrate 1) current understandings ofthe societal impacts of commercial and public games with 2) research on the culturaldimensions of sustainability transformations and 3) findings from the literature on games
and sustainability. In doing so, I will aim to offer a novel framing for understanding thepotential and limitations of commercial and public games as catalyzers of transformationalchange. I will draw on a number of on-going, high-profile examples that show the possibility
space.

Commodity, Commons, Public Good or Human
Right. Normative Food Narratives Shape Future
Food Transitions.
Jose Luis VIVERO POL
Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Jose Luis VIVERO POL is associated researcher in the Centre for the
Philosophy of Law at the University of Louvain. An engaged scholar
collaborating with universities of Cordoba, Edinburgh and the Spanish Right toFood Observatory. His research interests include the political economy of theright to food, epistemologies of commons (food-producing commons andcommons-based food systems), non-market systems, food narratives andframings, and alternative food systems in Western countries and fragile states.
He is analysing collective arrangements in customary and contemporary foodsystems, and how they can coalesce to form a networked alternative to thehegemonic industrial food system.
Abstract
Food is a life enabler with multiple meanings and different valuations for societies andindividuals throughout history and geographies. The progressive commodification of foodas a vital resource is understood as a social construction, informed by Academia, that shapes
specific food policy options and blocks or discard other policies. In opposition to thisdominant paradigm, an alternative valuation of “food as a commons” is discussed, inpractical and theoretical terms. This paper focuses on Food Narratives of Agents inTransition using two theoretical frames (Discourse Analysis and Transition Theory) andadopting three methodological approaches: systematic, heuristic and governance. The first
approach presents a genealogy of meanings of commons and food by exploring five schoolsof thought plus a systematic review of academic literature where food is discussed either as
a commons or as commodity. The heuristic approach investigates the relevance the two
narratives had in influencing individual and relational agency of food-related professionals
working in food systems in transition. The governance approach navigates the policy arena
to study how the absolute dominance of the tradeable dimension of food in the politicalstance of some important countries obscures other non-economic dimensions such as theconsideration of food as a human need or human right. Finally, a normative theory of foodas a commons is presented, with particular attention to policy and legal options to radicallytransform the industrial food system.

Grappling at Food Policy in Kyoto: Experiences andFuture Prospects
AKITSU Motoki
Kyoto University, JapanAKITSU Motoki is a professor of Philosophy of Agricultural Science in the
Graduate School of Agriculture at Kyoto University. He received PhD in
Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology from Kyoto University and now isin the presidential position of Asian Rural Sociology Association and Japanese
Association for Rural Studies. His recent publications are ‘Revitalising rurality
under the neoliberal transformation of agriculture: Experiences of reagrarianisation in Japan’ in Journal of Rural Studies and a book by an editor, New
Horizon of Ethics of Agriculture and Food (in Japanese), regarding ethics as animportant driver to save a great distress of Japanese agriculture.

Abstract
Compared with the dynamics of food issues in other developed countries, Japan walks along
a unique or isolated trajectory. Disparity in living standard seems invisible, the obesity ratecontinues to be amazingly low, but domestic food production faces a stark crisis
represented in, for instance, a food self-sufficiency rate hovering under 40%. We started
action research to build local food policy in Kyoto, aiming for consciousness raising on food,sustainable food production and consumption, and the regeneration of a locally circulated
economy. Two sites, Kyoto City and Kameoka City, are intimately tied together due to theirclose proximity. In Kyoto City, famous for its rich culture and tourism, we first tried to
involve food-related NGO activists and municipal officials in order to share a common vision.
Thereafter, the diverse group focused on some relevant and particular issues, held public
events, and conducted joint research. It is only recently when we’ve been able to intervenein the new 10-year agriculture and forestry policy making process. Kameoka City with
89,000 population, adjacent to Kyoto City, was selected for comparative study. In Kameoka,
research on consumers’ behavior and food stakeholders workshops were conducted at the
beginning, and organic farming was chosen as a joint focal point. At present, activities are
ongoing in collaboration with organic farmers, an initiative led by an Art University, and themunicipal authority including the mayor. This presentation examines the policy process forthe two cases in four stages: Visioning, Organizing movement bodies, Forming the action
plan, and Policy orientation and interaction with "regime".

Evaluating Futures for Food Systems Change: FromImagination to Transformation
Astrid MANGNUS
Utrecht University, Netherlands

Astrid MANGNUS is a PhD researcher at the Urban Futures Studio and theCopernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Utrecht University). Her PhD
has a specific focus on urban areas and their dynamics, both in Europe and inJapan. In these contexts, she studies the use of various approaches to futuring,
including gaming, in the context of imagining and realising sustainability
transformations. She is particularly interested in how different factors(institutional context, process, participants, methods and design affordances)that make up futuring practices relate to outcomes such as learning, capacity
development and networking, as well as new contributions to sustainability
transformations.

Abstract
It has become abundantly clear that many current human systems, including food systems,
are fundamentally unsustainable and deeply unfit to face the challenges of a changing planet.
As a result, there is an urgent need for new ways to imagine societal transformations toward
more sustainable futures. We have investigated a process where different, complementary
foresight approaches were used by an alliance of food system actors from Kyoto prefectureinterested in sustainability transformation. The research question we investigate was: how
can we evaluate the long-term effects of using foresight to mobilize food system actors
toward urban food system transformations?
Firstly, the aim of this foresight process itself was unusual compared to morestraightforward policy or strategy guidance processes: in this case, the process focused onallowing participants to experiment with an entirely new form of food systems governance,
the Food Policy Council (FPC). The methods employed were also chosen to fit this novel
purpose. Secondly, we present a longitudinal analysis that allows us to evaluate the longterm effects of this experimental foresight process on present day actions.
From in-depth semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis on policy documents wehave constructed and applied an evaluation on earlier food system futures work. From this,we drew key lessons on 1) initiating long-term change through new governance modes (theFPC); 2) initiating immediate change by bringing together existing ‘seeds’ of good practices;and 3) the vital role of key champions in driving transformation processes towards moresustainable food systems.

Constructing Practice-oriented Participatory Policy
for Sustainable Everyday Urban Food Futures in
BangkokKanang Kantamaturapoj1, Steven R. McGreevy2, Natapol Thongplew3, Motoki Akitsu4, Joost Vervoort5,
Astrid Mangnus5, Kazuhiko Ota2, Christoph D. D. Rupprecht2, Norie Tamura2, Maximillian Spiegelberg2, Mai
Kobayashi2, Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin6, Suwit Wibulpolprasert7
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand,
FEAST Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan, 3 Faculty of Science, Ubon Ratchathani
University, Ubon Ratchathani Thailand, 4 Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan,
5Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, 6 Faculty of Economics,
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 7 International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public
Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand
1
2

Kanang KANTAMATURAPOJ is an associated professor at the Faculty of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Thailand. She has joined FEAST
since 2016. She has conducted two research projects with FEAST; 1) Future
Vision of Thai Consumers on Sustainable Food Consumption Practice and 2)
Towards a future of sustainable food consumption: practice-oriented scenarios
evaluation and participatory back-casting approach for sustainable foodpurchasing, eating-out and cooking in Thailand. In addition, she is a person in
charge of Memorandum of Understanding between Faculty of Social Sciences,
Mahidol University and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.

Abstract
Re-considering how policies influence consumer practices is vital to ensure sustainableconsumption. Conventional approaches to policy development have been criticized thatthey center too much on trying to change individual attitudes, behavior, and choices, while
ignoring the influence of social structures. Coinciding with this effort to prioritize practices,
there are also demands for policy development to be more participatory, anticipatory, andimaginative. This research reports on the operationalisation of practice-oriented policy
development process to reflect on how such processes compare with conventional policy
development work.
The work centered on three food-related social practices-- food purchasing, eating out, andhome cooking-- in Bangkok, Thailand. Each practice has significant sustainability
implications for everyday life in highly-populated urban centers. A multi-phase process ofinterlinked workshops-- visioning, scenario evaluation, and transition workshops-- were
designed to incorporate role-play and narrative elements to elicit transformativeknowledge on how practices are embedded in everyday life. Participants selected promising
practice scenarios from the year 2050 and developed three categories of interventions
needed to realize the practice scenarios: 1) policy and regulation, 2) education andengagement and 3) research and technology.
Practice-oriented participatory policy development poses a number of challenges: not allpractices may be amenable to the process and the integrative elements of social practices(materials, competencies, meanings) don’t easily translate into siloed governmental
structures. Beyond policy implications, the experimental workshop spaces promoted social
learning, knowledge sharing, and collective action. Narrative-styled scenarios andincorporating drama are powerful to illustrate possible futures and embedded participants
into future everyday lives.

Reimagining Informal Food Practices:
Sustainability Lessons from the European East
Petr JEHLIČKA
Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic

After two decades at the Department of Geography at the Open University, UK,
Petr JEHLIČKA recently moved to his native Czechia. He is Senior Researcher at
the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. His
research is located in agro-food studies and revolves around everyday
environmentalism and sustainable food consumption at the intersection offormal and informal food economies. More recently he has explored these topics
in relation to the geopolitics of knowledge production. Petr has co-edited three
special issues; the current one on rethinking food systems from the margins. His
work was published in the Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis,
Geoforum and Local Environment, among others.

Abstract
There is an incongruity between the “European East’s” growing role in the global foodregime and its virtual absence from international academic communications on possibilities
of a more sustainable food system. The centrality of the food system in damaging planetary
ecosystems demands diversification of our thinking about the food system’s sustainability
in two ways. First, by including approaches that go beyond market-based ethicalconsumption. Second, by drawing on knowledge from contexts outside the “Western core”
in which the hegemonic concept of sustainability originated. Deploying J. K. GibsonGraham’s (2008) concept of reading for difference the talk reframes East European
household food practices (growing, sharing, foraging) as everyday sustainability andhighlights this scholarship’s contribution to the efforts to reimagine a more inclusive andsustainable global food system. Epistemologically, this agenda is inspired by postcolonial
calls to “decentre the West” and by recent efforts to “put the European East back on the mapof knowledge production” (Müller 2018). To support this goal empirically, the talk openswith a string of headline figures demonstrating the extent, stability and - largely unintended
but actual - sustainability of East European everyday food practices. The talk then considers
the reasons for marginalization of this knowledge in international debates before making acase for the need to reverse the trend of using the European East as a testing ground forconcepts and theories developed in the West. Instead, the talk proposes that the European
East should be read as a place producing novel and internationally relevant knowledge.

Consumption and Everyday Life: How Prescriptions
Inform Our Understanding of Healthy andSustainable Food
Marlyne SAHAKIAN
University of Geneva, Switzerland

As Assistant Professor of Sociology (University of Geneva), Marlyne SAHAKIAN
brings a sociological lens to consumption studies and sustainability. Her
research interest is in understanding everyday practices in relation toenvironmental promotion, social equity and social change. She is a co-founderof SCORAI Europe, a network for sustainable consumption research and action,
and a member of ENOUGH, a network focused on sufficiency.

Abstract
How and what we eat is tied up with historically situated habits and socio-cultural processes,that can be difficult to change. And yet, food consumption is one of the high environmental
impact categories in Europe – particularly when it comes to meat and dairy products. Basedon a study of food consumption in Switzerland, which prides itself on the image of the happy
cow in Alpine pastures as part of its national identity, this contribution sets out to uncover
the different and competing prescriptions around ‘healthy and sustainable diets’ and how
these play out in practice. Food, at the level of an individual consumer or household, has to
do with habits and social relations, but on a more macro level, with systems of provision,mobility, and more generally the rhythms that organize everyday life. Meat consumption inparticular places an emphasis on the emotions that are tied up with certain prescriptions,
whether inciting ‘low’ and ‘no’ meat consumption, or the promotion of meat consumption.
In addition to discussing these more qualitative approaches to food, the impacts of Swiss
diets are also presented, based on a life cycle assessment that considered both
environmental and human health impacts. To conclude, these different reflections arebrought together to then discuss how future diets might be imagined, towards the wellbeingof both people and planet.

Love thy Robber: Exploring the Informal Food
Economy of Unattended Food Stands
KOBAYASHI Mai
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan

KOBAYASHI Mai is a project researcher at the Research Institute for Humanity
and Nature. She received her PhD in Environmental Studies in 2016 and her MA
in Environmental Management in 2012 from Kyoto University Graduate Schoolof Global Environmental Studies, in Kyoto Japan. Her field work, thus far, has
focused on new-entry farmer communities around Kyoto, and rural farming
communities in Bhutan. Her interests stem from her experience working withseveral NGOs, non-profits and farming communities around the world that arededicated to expanding the possibilities of small-scale diversified foodproduction systems. Her interests are in processes and expressions of de- andre-peasantization in a post development context.

Abstract
Informal food activities exist all around us. They are characterized by non-formalized
human and financial resource structures, and their lack of trackable or registered activity
with the state. As opposed to formal food systems, which primarily relates to food as acommodity, the informal food system places more emphasis on food as process of coproduction, or food as commons. In an attempt to deepen our understandings of theinformal food system, this presentation explores the presence and practice of unattended
food stands found in Japan. How do they exist and why might they exist in such abundance?
What roles might they be serving in society beyond providing us with an alternative space
to sell and obtain food? And what potentials do they provide in our ability to imagine newand enhanced relationship spaces around food to enhance food sovereignty and societal
wellbeing.

Legumes' Role Post-COVID-19: Reorienting the
Focus of Policy on Legume-based Food and Feed
SystemBálint BALÁZS
Environmental Social Science Research Group, Hungary

Bálint BALÁZS, sociologist-historian with PhD in Environmental Sciences.
Senior Research Fellow and Managing Director of the Environmental Social
Science Research Group (ESSRG Ltd), Hungary, Budapest. He has international
research experience in EU projects in the field of sustainable and local foodsystems, the transition to sustainability and policy analysis, as well as public
engagement, science-policy dialogues, citizen science, cooperative research, andparticipatory action research. He is leading the Policy Work Package of the
TRUE project - TRansition paths to sUstainable legume-based systems in
Europe, https://www.true-project.eu/, and acts as a board member of theEuropean Sociological Association, Environment & Society network (RN12).

Abstract
Despite the well-documented benefits provided by legume-supported value chains, theproduction and consumption in Europe are low. In contrast, their demand as feed is high,the adaptation of a phenomenon termed “the legume paradox”. The topic of legumes islargely underrepresented in agricultural and food policy debates. Besides, the production,
processing, marketing and consumption of legumes are hindered by a range of factors in
Europe. The COVID-19 systemic shock accelerated science, policy, societal and businessactors’ attention to some degree towards these vulnerabilities of our food systems and theacute need to enhance food system resilience. Still, changing business practices, stateinterventions and bottom-up initiatives shape the production and consumption of legumesin Europe in a way that keeps legumes locked-in at multiple levels of the food systems. The
presentation will discuss the hindering factors and using the results of a policy Delphi study;
besides some opportunities for reorienting towards coherent policies of more sustainable,
post-growth legume-based food and feed systems will be presented. Results are based on
the TRUE project that fosters collaboration among multiple stakeholders to implement‘legume-supported transition paths’ to help realise more-sustainable food- and feedsystems (TRansition paths to sUstainable legume-based systems in Europe https://www.true-project.eu/, received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727973).

Kyoto Organic Action (KOA): A Cooperative
Attempt to Establish an Independent Distribution
System for Local Organic Produce
SUZUKI Kentaro
Kyoto Organic Action, JapanSUZUKI Kentaro Born in Yokohama,1977. Spent 8 years of childhood in North
America (Toronto & New Jersey). Studied Aesthetics and Art history in Doshisha
University, and travelled around Asia for 2 years in search of Buddhist wisdom.
Went through an apprenticeship under a Buddha sculptor in Kyoto for 3 years,
and moved to a rural village to learn about the country life and the traditional
ways of life. Started a subscription-based vegetable delivery business in 2014 to
spread the importance of connecting to the earth through food and agriculture.
Abstract
KOA started in 2017 as an attempt to streamline the collection of local organic produce bysharing a truck and an online platform. Our members consist of farmers, distributors andsmall scale vegetable shop owners. We first started out by mapping out the organic farms
located around the Kyoto area, and asked the farmers for their cooperation to collect theharvested vegetables according to the schedule of the truck that now runs 4 times a week.
Our system is made so that the farmers can update their list of vegetables every week, andreceive orders from multiple buyers through email. Through this cooperative project, both
farmers and buyers noticed fundamental problems around organic agriculture in Japan, andwe established a council to discuss these matters that range from agricultural techniques,business management, community building, and so on.
We are in our 4th year, and entering a turning point where we need to reach out to the public
to enhance the local production and distribution of ecological and ethical food andagriculture.

Realizing Gender Justice through Agroecology– Lessons from Women’s Collective Farming Efforts
in India
Ashlesha KHADSE
Amrita Bhoomi Agroecology Center, India

Ashlesha KHADSE is part of the Amrita Bhoomi Center – a farmer’s agroecology
and political education school in Karnataka, India. She has been associated with
Indian farmers movements as well as La via Campesina, the global peasants
movement since 2009. Ashlesha completed her Master’s of Science from El
Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, where her research
focused on the role of farmers organizations in scaling up agroecology.

Abstract
The talk will highlight women’s collective agroecology efforts in India. While agroecology
has grown significantly as a practice, movement and in policy globally, its gender impacts
have not been addressed adequately. Women activists have questioned agrocology’s ability
to address gender injustices. This talk will draw lessons from womens group farming efforts
in India to help us think about how agroecology can be more responsive to women farmers
rights.

Climbing Mount Improbable: The Beginnings ofa Post-growth Food Narrative in the UK
Chris SMAJE“A Small Farm Future”, England

Chris SMAJE is a small-scale farmer and agrarian writer in Somerset, southwest
England. He is the author of A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society
Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a
Shared Earth (Chelsea Green, 2020). Previously, he taught sociology at the
University of Surrey. He is a current director of the Ecological Land Co-operative,
a founder member of the Land Workers’ Alliance, and blogs at
www.smallfarmfuture.org.uk.

Abstract
In this talk, I give a brief overview of emerging food alternatives in the UK, sketched against
the unpromising background of the country’s highly urbanized, food-import dependent,
large-scale and fossil energy intensive food and farming system. My focus will be primarily
upon the changing economic and cultural realities – not least in the context of Brexit, theCovid-19 pandemic and political devolution – that are starting to change national
conversations about landownership, farming styles and scales, and local food system
resilience. I will discuss the opportunities for post-growth food production geared to local
livelihoods that are beginning to emerge in this new political and cultural space, focusing
particularly on the possibilities for shifting from an agricultural towards a morehorticultural mindset.

Keynote Address

Food Journeys: Encounters that Engender Empathy
across DifferenceMichael CAROLAN
Colorado State University, USA

Michael CAROLAN is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Researchand Faculty Development at Colorado State University. Other appointments
include: Distinguished Fulbright Research Chair, University of Ottawa, Ottawa,
Canada; Visiting Professor, Ruralis Research Institute, Trondheim, Norway; andResearch Affiliate, Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, Dunedin, New
Zealand. He has published over 250 peer review articles and more than a dozen
books. Additionally, he regularly writes pieces for public audiences. These
pieces have appeared in such outlets as The Conversation, Bloomberg, Mental
Floss, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post, Popular Science, The Smithsonian
Magazine, Salon, and New Food Economy.

Abstract
What data would change the mind of a bigot or a climate change denier to make them thinkotherwise? We must come to terms with the overwhelming empirical evidence concerning
how cultural and political beliefs filter the facts we choose to see and acknowledge.
Traditional liberal political theories continue to advance the idea that good old-fashioned,well-reasoned talk holds the potential to solve any social ill. How can that be if we hear only
what we want?
Strategies out of today’s social and political crisis need to be informed by such realizations—that we cannot change what people think about the world without first targeting how they
feel about it. This is where food enters the picture; it holds the potential to create opening
where people are sufficiently disarmed to have experiences with others, or about others,
whom they otherwise would not thanks to those aforementioned cognitive filters.
Drawing from more than a dozen case studies, my lecture outlines the thesis of aforthcoming book with Stanford University Press. In it, experiments are discussed that I
conducted, using food as a mediator, that profoundly changed how people thought about
the world and their place within it. I reflect on those findings and ponder the role that food
could play in a world ravaged by incivility, hate, and the growth of xenophobia andauthoritarian populism.

Willingly Sliding down the Slope: Narratives andGames for a more Sustainable Food Culture
Ilan CHABAY
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Germany

Ilan CHABAY is Head of Strategic Science Initiatives and Scientific Project
Leader of the Global Sustainability Strategy Forum and the KLASICA(Knowledge, Learning, and Societal Change Alliance) at the Institute forAdvanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam Germany and Adjunct Professor at
Arizona State University, USA. Between his first career in laser physics researchand his current third career in social science, he was associate director of the
Exploratorium Science Museum, San Francisco, and for 18 years founder andpresident of a company that designed and produced interactive exhibitions andgames for 230 museums around the world, including Disney, Smithsonian, andNASA.

Abstract
Changing lifestyles to improve local and global sustainable well-being is essential,
notoriously difficult, and urgently needed, including for achieving food sufficiency with lesswaste. There are decades of research showing that the deficit model of supplying ever more
information and rationales for change is woefully ineffective in motivating change. We needaffective and generative approaches to stimulate and catalyze collective behavior change
toward just and equitable sustainable futures. Narratives are a fundamental way to effectchange, for example, by embedding them in narrative-driven games to facilitate learningand dialogues.
A key to the affective impact of narratives is what David Maggs calls the “algebra of theprotagonist.” The algebra denotes the dynamic balance in tension between a) what theprotagonist wants, b) needs in order to achieve what is wanted, c) a confounding belief thatblocks the protagonist from achieving the need, and d) the origin of the confounding belief.
Through witnessing and understanding the meaning of the algebra and its possible
resolution for the protagonist, we become meaningfully engaged by the narrative.
Developing narrative-driven games in which the players enact the role (and algebra) of aprotagonist opens an avenue for raising players’ awareness and stimulates their questions
about their choices in the context of the game. Crafting the scene, plot, and other charactersthat introduces appropriate complexity leads to both internal and external tensions for theprotagonist/player. The game then can stimulate and facilitate constructive mutual learning
dialogues among diverse stakeholders in the context of sustainable food consumption andproduction.

The Cultural Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture
Daniel NILES and ABE Ken-ichi
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan

Daniel NILES is a human-environmental geographer at the Research Institutefor Humanity and Nature, Kyoto. His research examines how different forms of
traditional environmental knowledge remain sensible through time, and thecontinuing relevance of these longstanding fields of experience in the
Anthropocene. He has served as Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for
the History of Science, Berlin; Visiting Researcher at the Department of
Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley; and as consultant inagricultural heritage for the FAO. Recent publications include “The charcoal
forest: sensing the agencies of nature” in Forms of Experienced Environments(Cambridge Scholars Press, 2020), “Science and the experience of nature” (withN. Tachimoto, in Nature Sustainability, 2018), “Agricultural Heritage andConservation Beyond the Anthropocene” in the Oxford Handbook of Heritage
Studies (Oxford University Press, 2018).

ABE Ken-ichi is a professor at RIHN. His areas of specialization are Asian areastudies and environmental anthropology. Based on extensive ﬁeldwork intropical forests, he has written and edited a number of books, including“Extreme Conﬂicts and Tropical Forests” (2007, Springer), and “Good Earths:
Regional and Historical Insights into China's Environment” (2009, Kyoto
University Press). He has also collaborated with UNESCO on the “Water andCulture” subtheme of the World Water Forum and, as a member of the GIAHS
Scientific Committee, contributed to the design of the FAO’s GIAHS program.
abek@chikyu.ac.jp

Abstract
This paper focuses on the cultural dimensions of agricultural sustainability. We pay special
attention to the cultural field in part because much sustainability research has a distinctly
modernist bias. Especially when discussion turns to traditional agricultural contexts, thetechno-metabolic systems of other times and places appear less complex, less sophisticated,
and less relevant to contemporary challenges. This bias is especially significant in thecultural realm, as the human practices, beliefs, languages, gestures, and so on, associatedwith traditional agricultural contexts are not only considered antiquated, they are emptiedof their ecological significance. Drawing on our research in areas designated by the UN FAO
as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, we explore the important but elusive
ways in which the ‘ecological’ becomes ‘cultural’, as this process seems essential in longstanding agricultural heritage zones—humankind’s best examples of sustainableagriculture.

Subsistence Agriculture in the US:
Reconnecting to Work, Nature and Community
Ashley COLBY
Rizoma Field School, Uruguay

Ashley COLBY, PhD is interested in the myriad creative ways in which people
are innovating in face of the failures of late capitalism and ecological disaster.
She is based in Uruguay, where she has recently founded Rizoma Field Schoolfor experiential learning in sustainability.

Abstract
To date, researchers interested in alternative food networks have often overlooked thesomewhat hidden, unorganized population of household food producers. Subsistence
Agriculture in the US fills this gap in the existing literature by examining the lived
experiences of people taking part in subsistence food production. Over the course of thebook, Colby draws on accounts from a broad and diverse network of people who are hunting,fishing, gardening, keeping livestock and gathering and looks in depth at the way in whichthese practical actions have transformed their relationship to labor and land. She also
explores the broader implications of this pro-environmental activity for social change andsustainable futures.
With a combination of rigorous academic investigation and engagement with pressing
social issues, this book will be of great interest to scholars of sustainable consumption,
environmental sociology and social movements.

Pahom and the Everlasting Plate – Stories as
Bearers of Alternative Food Visions
Rajat CHAUDHURI

Fiction-writer and Activist
Rajat CHAUDHURI is a bilingual writer, activist and editor. His most recent
novel The Butterfly Effect has been listed twice by Book Riot, US as a ‘Fifty must
read eco-disasters in fiction’ and among ‘Ten works of environmental literaturefrom around the world’. He has been a Charles Wallace Writing Fellow,
University of Chichester, UK and a Hawthornden Castle Fellow, Scotland.
Chaudhuri is an environment columnist for the New Indian Express and he has
been a contributor to the UNDP Human Development Report. He is currently
working on a climate change video game and a co-edited volume on
multispecies cities. Twitter: @rajatchaudhuri www.rajatchaudhuri.net
Abstract
The dominant practices, beliefs, production methods and consumption systems for foodtend to be pegged on consumerism, wastage, industrial farming and intensive agriculture,
all of which are damaging for the environment. I examine how this dominance can bechallenged and alternative ecologically-conscious worldviews of food sufficiency foregrounded by employing the vehicle of storytelling in various contexts.
I begin by discussing the character of the peasant farmer Pahom in Tolstoy’s How Much Land
Does a Man Need, a tale about the perils of greed and by implication, the importance of frugal
living. Next I dwell on the appeal and easier recall of stories compared to facts and data. Thisis followed by a focus on the necessity and desirable impact of ecological fiction in the
Anthropocene as evinced in the work of several researchers. A few signposts of alternative
food cultures are examined through examples of scarcity led dietary innovation (Bengal
Famine 1943), conservation of climate-resilient landraces of rice (Debal Deb), ecologically
conscious eateries (Edible Archives) and repurposing of leftovers.
I now introduce tools for writing convincing stories, applying this mechanics in fashioning
basic plots using the previous examples as starting points. This framing of an eco-fiction plot
about an alternative food pathway, based on a real (or imaginary) character(s) and real (orspeculative) settings, coupled with the understanding of the importance and efficacy of suchnarratives, demonstrate how effective stories can be fashioned which challenge dominantworldviews and posit alternatives for the production and consumption of food.

CHAIRS & RAPPORTEURS*alphabetical order

Hein MALLEE is a social scientist with a Ph.D. from Leiden University, the Netherlands. His
work was initially concerned with migration and related policies in China, but as he started
working in international development, he became involved in projects on ruraldevelopment, natural resources management and poverty alleviation both in China and inSoutheast Asia. The dominant theme in this was local people’s involvement in and rights toresources. He has been a Professor at RIHN since March 2013 and a Deputy DirectorGeneral since April 2018. He is also the Director of the Regional Center for Future Earth in
Asia.
Steven R. MCGREEVY is an associate professor at the Research Institute for Humanity andNature and has a background in agriculture and rural sustainable development from Kyoto
University (Ph.D. 2012). He researches novel approaches to regional revitalization,
sustainable agrifood and energy transitions, and the relinking of patterns of foodconsumption and production through policy and practice. He leads the FEAST project(Lifeworlds of Sustainable Food Consumption and Production: Agrifood Systems inTransition), which maps food systems, analyzes patterns of food consumption, food-relatedsocial practices and their socio-cultural meanings, and takes a transdisciplinary approach
to explore the realities and potential for sustainable agrifood transition at sites in Asia.
srmcgreevy@chikyu.ac.jp
Christoph D. D. RUPPRECHT is a geographer and Senior Researcher with the FEAST
Project at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. He received his PhD in urban
geography, planning and ecology from Griffith University in 2015. His work focuses on
more-than-human and degrowth approaches to sustainability, in particular around issuesof urban planning and design, food, and agriculture. Recent endeavors include combining
speculative literature such as solarpunk and gaming with sustainability studies to envision
desirable futures. His latest major paper “Multispecies Sustainability” redefines
sustainability to recognize the interdependence of living beings and their wellbeing,
expanding the concept to non-human species and their needs.
SATO Yo-Ichiro is a Professor at Faculty of Letters of Kyoto Prefectural University (KPU),
and is the President of Society of Japanese-Food Studies. He was graduated from Faculty ofAgronomy, Kyoto University in 1977, and got Dr. of Agronomy in 1986. He has worked at
National Institute of Genetics (NIG), Shizuoka University, Research Institute for Humanity
and Nature (RIHN), and, as Executive Director of National Institutes for Humanities (NIHU).
He has been studying origin of rice and crop cultivation, and more recently studying on foodculture as a global environmental problem.

Max SPIEGELBERG has been engaging in questions of sustainability, environment, andhumanity across boundaries of disciplines, cultures, and skills in various positions andcountries for 20 years now. Following his PhD in Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto
University he joined in 2017 the FEAST project at the Research Institute for Humanity &Nature. Max’ interest lies with integrated and participatory approaches and science-policycivil society interfaces. With these angles his current topics of engagement are beekeepers
and honeybees, informal/urban/civic food, and future food with a degrowth/postdevelopment angle. In Twitter he can be found under @PricklyLash.
TACHIKAWA Masashi is a professor in sociology at the Nagoya University, Japan. His
research interests are mainly related to; (1) development of local food policy in various
countries, (2) re-commoning of local food issues in the aftermath of 3.11 disaster, (3)regulatory and societal impacts of emerging life science technologies, such as gene editing.
His major academic fields are sociology of agriculture and food, science/technology &society, rural sociology. He has been a member of the WG2 of the FEAST project since theinitial stage.
TAMURA Norie is a social scientist working on agriculture, forestry, and fishery in Japan.
She received her Ph.D. in agriculture from Kyoto University in 2007 and has over ten yearsof experience as a consultant in forestry, fishery and rural development. In 2016, shetransferred to the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature where she started working
as a Senior Researcher and sub-leader of the FEAST Project. Her research interests include
local and small-scale agricultural practices, wild food practices, and the transition of seafood
consumption in Japan.
YASUNARI Tetsuzo is Director-General of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.
He received his D.Sc. in Meteorology & Climatology from Kyoto University in 1981. He is adistinguished scientist in the fields of meteorology, climatology, and global environmental
system studies. He formerly served as a member of the Joint Scientific Committee of WCRP,
and later served as a member of the International Science Committee for Future Earth.
Currently, he is Chairman of the Future Earth National Committee under Science Council ofJapan, and is a member of Future Earth Advisory Committee since March, 2018. He is afellow of JpGU (Japan Geoscience Union). He has published more than 300 scientific papers
and books. yasunari@chikyu.ac.jp

COMMITTEE and SECRETARIAT■Organizing Committee
Chair
Hein MALLEE

Members
TAYASU Ichiro
Steven R. McGREEVYTAMURA Norie
Christoph D. D. RUPPRECHT

Deputy Director-General
Professor
Associate Professor
Senior Researcher
Senior Researcher■FEAST Project Members

Steven R. McGREEVYTAMURA NorieOTA Kazuhiko
Christoph D. D. RUPPRECHT
KOBAYASHI Mai
ODA Kimisato
SHINKAI Rika
Maximilian SPIEGELBERG
MATSUOKA Yuko
KOBAYASHI Yuko

■International Affairs Subsection
FUJIKAWA Takeshi
KATAOKA Takae
KYUDA Ritsuko

Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN)
457-4 Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8047, JAPAN
Tel. +81-75-707-2152 Fax. +81-75-707-2106
kokusai@chikyu.ac.jp http://www.chikyu.ac.jp