Land, Food and Power

How what we eat today has been influenced by colonialism is under discussion at an online event  hosted by Bangor University (today / 16 June).

Local food producers Maggie Ogunbanwo, author of recently published The Melting Pot cook book, owner of Maggie’s An African Twist to Your Everyday Dish® (Penygroes) and Olwen Ford,  of Llan Farm (Llanfrothen) will share their experiences and views of food, land and power at the bilingual online event.

The Royal Geographical Society seminar is one of a series which brings food producers, historians and those active in food movements together with academics and others to discuss ‘decolonising’ food.

"The seminar will be an opportunity to discuss the idea of what the phrase 'food colonisation' means, and to understand how food can be decolonised," explained Robat Idris of the organising group.

Decolonising Food Geographies takes place via Zoom and is a free to attend event. Speakers will address practice and policy and will discuss past colonial food systems, present concerns and future challenges within the unique sustainability context framed by the legal commitment of the Future Wellbeing Goals established by Welsh Government. 

Carwyn Graves, a food historian will explore Welsh food heritage and experiences of land sovereignty and community experiences. Shared experiences from Scotland will be explored by Dr. AlastaIr McIntosh, author of Soil and Soul. Challenges to family farms posed by changing farming support in Wales will be summarised by Dr. Glenda Thomas of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG Cymru).

During the afternoon a panel discussion with shepherd, Sam Robinson and Gerald Miles, representing the Landworkers Alliance Caerhys Farm will enable groups often excluded from decision making to participate, addressing social, cultural and environmental justice. This is framed by a Decolonising Food Geographies process, the founding principle for this series of collaborative seminars across four UK Universities and Development Institutions. Recent research on food poverty in North East Wales will be shared by Natasha Toone illustrating the need to address local food insecurity when planning the future of farming, food and land use in Wales. 

Dr Eifiona Thomas Lane lecturer in Food Geography at Bangor University and Chair of Wales Real Food and Farming Conference, hopes for practical outcomes. She said: 

“The final session will involve participants committing to three achievable actions to support the process of decolonising food research, development and teaching and scholarship personally and professionally across institutional and disciplinary boundaries.” 

This seminar will feed into the Royal Geographical Society’s annual conference in Aug. The Bangor Dialog is the fourth dialogue in the series and is a collaboration with Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), Institute of Development Studies at Brighton, UCLAN and a wide range of community activists. The series is funded by the Royal Geographical Society and Independent Social Research Fund.

More information and register: https://foodgeographies.wordpress.com/bangor-seminar/ 

This event will be bilingual with simultaneous translation.

Publication date: 11 June 2021