View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by British Columbia's network of post-secondary digital repositories CULTIVATING COMMON GROUND: THE STORY OF FOOD (AND THE FOOD IN STORIES) by Janet Grafton, B.A., Vancouver Island University, 2004 M.A., University of British Columbia, 2010 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA August 2020 © Janet Grafton, 2020 ABSTRACT Demystifying the story of food – from seed to store to stomach and how that cycle perpetuates – is a core tenet of food literacy and the central aim of this project. While exposure to environmental issues is critical to developing awareness, young learners are often burdened with crisis-laden facts about the state of our world and our food systems. Approaching difficult subjects using a narrative approach is one way to mitigate this burden. In this project, children’s literature that centres on farms and food production/food gathering in settler and Indigenous contexts is used as a launching pad for discussions about food security. Food is an enduring theme in children’s and young adult literature, and is particularly prevalent in narratives from the past, where food gathering and production are often rooted in their environmental contexts. These food narratives provide a pathway for young readers to critically investigate contemporary environmental concerns from a safe space. This project investigates how children’s literature can be used as part of a critical food pedagogy to enhance the food literacy of young learners and encourage them to find common ground between the physical world and the worlds they read. In locating, analyzing, and experiencing food environments in literature via an affective, indirect approach, food literacy - which is foundational to the development of environmentally responsible behaviour – is enhanced. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Glossary v Acknowledgements vi ii Introduction 1 Chapter One Literature Review 13 Ecocritical Positioning and Approach 15 Indirect Approach 25 Interdisciplinary Approach 32 Environmental Humanities Approach 35 Developing Multiple Literacies 37 Indigenous Perspective 44 Chapter Two The Story of Food 50 Overview 54 Food Production 55 Food Distribution 59 Food Culture 62 The History of Agriculture 67 The Colonization of Food 69 Alternatives to Industrial Agriculture 7 1 Mapping Food Rhetoric 80 Uncovering Hidden Stories 89 Chapter Three The Food in Stories 92 The Truth and Trouble of Meat 96 Mapping the Past 103 More Than Mere Longing 110 Cultivating Comprehension 11 6 Bridging the Gaps 13 1 Chapter Four Teaching the Story of Food 135 Food Pedagogies 136 Children’s Literature and Environmental Education 139 Food Narratives as Pedagogical Sites 142 The Role of Emotion in Pedagogy 147 Reader Response 154 Food Literacy and Environmental Behaviour 163 iii Chapter Five Developing an Interdisciplinary Food Curriculum 168 Assessments 174 Challenges 175 Unit Plan Framework 178 Conclusion 192 References 195 iv GLOSSARY Big Organic: food grown to organic standards at an industrial scale Deep Learning: a pedagogical approach that fosters critical analysis skills and independent thinking in order to locate underlying meaning in a text or topic Eco-nostalgia: a type of critical nostalgia that centres on ecology and is grounded in rural details from the past that have real environmental context Eco-text: fiction and nonfiction that focuses on the environment from an issues perspective and speaks to contemporary concerns about our relationship with, and our place within, the natural world. Also called eco-literature Ecocriticism: a theoretical approach that allows for literary and cultural engagement with ecological issues at the junction of literature, culture, and the environment Ecoliteracy (ecological literacy): an understanding of the interrelatedness of social, cultural, and environmental systems Environmentally responsible behaviour: a range of behaviours and actions that include ethical consumer purchasing, resource conservation, supporting environmental regulations, encouraging environmentally sound practices, and supporting environmentally sound policies and legislative initiatives Environmentally responsive behaviour: demonstrating sensitivity and emotional responsiveness toward physical environments and their inhabitants Food literacy: an understanding of the interdependencies between food production practices and environmental and human health, as well as comprehension of the cycles of food systems, which include production, distribution, consumption, and waste v Food security: physical and economic access to a reliable, safe, and nutritional food source. Food security supports the right to food, and assured freedom from want of food, and centres on economic and environmental sustainability Food sovereignty: the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced using ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. (Definition borrowed from La Via Campesina, the founding food sovereignty organization) Generational amnesia: a phenomenon that occurs when younger generations fail to notice environmental declines because their references points for ‘normal’ are relative to the era in which they are born Geographic literacy: the ability to read maps in order to locate places and recognize features of the landscape in real-world contexts. In broader terms, geographic literacy is an understanding of physical places and how people recognize their relation to them, particularly in terms of the places where food is grown Historical literacy: an understanding of how processes of the past connect to the current problems we face Industrial food system: the dominant contemporary food production system in North America, which is designed for scale and efficiency (i.e. producing large quantities of affordable food) and which relies on mechanization and fossil fuels to achieve this end Postnatural: refers to the increasingly distanced relationship humans have created with the natural world, which we have altered with our behaviours and technologies, rendering it nearly irrelevant vi Regenerative agriculture: a form of sustainable agriculture that incorporates technology and traditional methods in building up soil, fostering plant diversity, and integrating livestock on the land to produce nourishing and profitable farm products Regenerative reading: a form of critical reading that regards the setting of the story as more than backdrop, develops environmentally responsible and responsive behaviour, breaks down the dualism of past/present, fosters intercultural understanding, and remedies generational amnesia by establishing more fully comprehended environmental references in the minds of readers Shifting baseline syndrome: another name for generational amnesia, applied largely in science disciplines Slow food: food grown using traditional methods that connect the quality of food to the health of farmers, economies and environments Slow pedagogy/scholarship/schooling: pathways to learning that work to counter the progress drive of capitalist systems and to embrace a more long-term approach to the acquisition of knowledge Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK): an integrated understanding of the natural world that is based upon experiences and observations that have been accumulated by Indigenous Peoples over thousands of years and that are handed down through cultural transmission vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Endless thanks to my delightful Englishman, Kevin Luke, who, despite not really knowing what my project is about – he has a vague idea it involves Winnie the Pooh (it doesn’t) – and whose input largely consisted of telling me to “stop faffing around and get on with it”, provided more support than he’ll ever know. A lifetime of gratitude to Brian and Sylvia Grafton for their enduring support and for providing me and my brother with childhoods grounded in a love of green spaces and growing food. A big thank you to my colleagues in the English Department at Vancouver Island University who bolstered me with encouragement and the incentive to finish. To Kate Skipsey, who was there at the beginning and who also persevered – and inspired in doing so. And to my committee: my supervisor, Dr. Annie Booth, for her enduring patience and guidance, and for granting me the freedom to explore my topic; Dr. Kristen Guest, Dr. Kevin Hutchings, and Dr. Art Fredeen for their invaluable support and feedback throughout the drafting process; and to my external committee member, Dr. Paige Fisher from Vancouver Island University, for her insight and enthusiasm. My dissertation is stronger because of the questions they asked, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such a generous and keen-minded committee. Gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for the funding opportunities that gave me the financial freedom to attend conferences and develop the ideas for this project. And I want to express my appreciation to all the teachers who fostered my love of reading and writing: Mrs. Baechler for introducing me to “big books” in Grade 2 and helping me reach beyond my abilities; Mr. Hanrahan for his high standards, biting humour, and large heart; Mrs. Borrowman for maintaining a quiet dignity and passion for