TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF A CHANGING FOOD SYSTEM IN MAURITIUS: A CASE STUDY OF RURAL AND URBAN MAURITIUS
Jessy [Pick the date] Univeristy of Cape Town
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University of Cape Town
1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
1.1. CONTEXTUALISING MAURITIUS ...... 6
1.2. STRUCTURE OF THIS DISSERTATION ...... 8
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 10
2.1. INTRODUCTION ...... 10 2.1.1. The History of Changing Diets ...... 10
2.2. THE NUTRITION TRANSITION ...... 13 2.2.2. Nutrition Transition in the Developed World ...... 14 2.2.3. Nutrition Transition in the Developing World ...... 16 2.2.4. Different Experiences of the Westernisation of the Global Diet ...... 18 2.2.4.1. The new dietary dimensions in China ...... 19 2.2.4.2. Nutrition transition in India ...... 20 2.2.4.3. The experience of the nutrition transition in the Fiji Islands ...... 21 2.3. DRIVING FORCES BEHIND THE NUTRITION TRANSITION ...... 22 2.3.1. Globalisation ...... 23 2.3.1.1. The link between income and diet structure ...... 24 2.3.1.2. Globalisation of mass media ...... 26 2.3.1.3. Economic restructuring ...... 27 2.3.1.3.1. Transnational food corporations ...... 28 2.3.1.3.2. Trade liberalisation ...... 29 2.3.2. Urbanisation ...... 32 2.3.3. The Dietary Impact of the Absorption of Women into the Labour Force ...... 34 2.3.4. The Supermarket Revolution ...... 35
2.4. HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF THE NUTRITION TRANSITION ...... 36 2.4.1. The Epidemiological and Demographic Shifts ...... 36 2.4.2. The Developed World ...... 38 2.4.3. The Developing World ...... 38 2.5. CONCLUSION ...... 39
3. METHODOLOGY ...... 44
3.1. INTRODUCTION ...... 44
3.2. USING A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO ANALYSE THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF A CHANGING FOOD SYSTEM ...... 45
3.3. INTRODUCING THE STUDY SITES ...... 46 3.3.1. Tranquebar, Port Louis ...... 47 3.3.2. Bambous Virieux ...... 51
3.4. DATA COLLECTION METHODS ...... 53 3.4.1. Observation ...... 54 3.4.2. Sampling for a Representative Group across the Two Study Sites ...... 55 3.4.2.1. The selection criteria...... 55 3.4.2.2. The sample group ...... 56 3.4.2.3. Snowballing and sampling technique ...... 1 3.4.3. Mapping of Food Sources ...... 2 3.4.4. Data Collection through Semi-Structured In-Depth Interviews ...... 2 3.4.4.1. The initial approach ...... 2 3.4.4.2. In-depth semi-structured interviews ...... 4 3.4.5. Food Narratives...... 5 3.4.6. Data Capturing and Analysis...... 6 3.4.7. Secondary Data ...... 6
3.5. REFLECTING ON THE CONSTRUCTS OF MY IDENTITY ...... 7 3.5.1. Being a Cultural Insider ...... 8 3.5.2. Cultural Insider and Yet Different ...... 9 3.5.3. Power Struggle ...... 10
3.6. ETHICAL CONCERNS ...... 10 3.7. LIMITATIONS ...... 11 3.8. CONCLUSION ...... 12
4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MAURITIUS ...... 14
4.1. INTRODUCTION ...... 14 4.1.1. The Ambiguous Term ‘Traditional Food System’ in the Mauritian Context ...... 15
4.2. THE MAURITIAN SOCIETY: A PRODUCT OF GLOBALISATION ...... 16 4.2.1. The Colonial History of Mauritius ...... 16
4.3. POST-COLONIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ...... 17 4.3.1. The Different Waves of Economic Development ...... 18 4.3.2. Economic Diversification as a Measure for Economic Development ...... 19 4.3.3. The Mauritian Trade Liberalisation Regime ...... 20 4.3.3.1. Export Processing Zone in Mauritius ...... 20 4.3.3.2. Access to preferential markets ...... 22 4.4. CONCLUSION ...... 24
5. THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF THE TRADITIONAL AND THE CONTEMPORARY FOOD SYSTEMS ...... 25
5.1. INTRODUCTION ...... 25
5.2. THE OLD AND THE NEW DIETARY PATTERNS ...... 27 5.2.1. Similar Traditional Food Narratives in Tranquebar, Port Louis and Bambous Virieux ...... 27 5.2.2. Manzé Létan Lontan ...... 28 5.2.2.1. Simple diets ...... 29 5.2.3. Manzé Azordi Zour ...... 34 5.2.3.1. The disappearance of some staple foods ...... 34 5.2.3.2. The new food commodities in the diet ...... 38 5.2.3.3. Comparative assessment of the types of foods consumed between the two sample groups ...... 38 5.2.3.4. The emotional connection with the contemporary food system...... 40 5.2.3.5. Volumes of food consumed ...... 42 5.2.4. Contrasts between Bambous Virieux and Tranquebar, Port Louis ...... 44 5.2.5. The Emotional Connection with the Traditional and Current Food Systems ...... 46 5.3. CONCLUSION ...... 47
6. STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE FOOD SYSTEM IN MAURITIUS ...... 49
6.1. INTRODUCTION ...... 49
6.2. CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES AND REARING OF ANIMALS FOR OWN CONSUMPTION ...... 49
6.3. THE COMMODIFICATION OF MEAT IN THE PREVAILING FOOD SYSTEM ...... 51
6.4. FOOD PREPARATION ...... 53
6.5. FOOD PURCHASING PATTERN ...... 55 6.5.1. The Disappearance of Local Traditional Retail Stores ...... 56 6.5.2. The Rise of Supermarkets in the Mauritian Food Economy ...... 58 6.5.3. Wet Markets ...... 60 6.6. CONCLUSION ...... 61
7. CONCLUSION ...... 63
7.1. THE TRADITIONAL MAURITIAN FOOD SYSTEM ...... 64
7.2. MAURITIUS: MICROCOSM FOR NUTTRITION TRANSITION ...... 64
7.3. THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF A CHANGING FOOD SYSTEM ...... 65
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 70
9. APPENDICES ...... 86
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