IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v39y2022i3d10.1007_s10460-021-10287-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From marginalized to miracle: critical bioregionalism, jungle farming and the move to millets in Karnataka, India

Author

Listed:
  • David Meek

    (University of Oregon)

Abstract

Historically marginalized foods, which occupy the social periphery, and often function as a bulwark in times of hunger, are increasingly being rediscovered and revalued as niche commodities. From açaí to quinoa, the move from marginal to miracle is often tied to larger narratives surrounding sustainable development, resilience to climate change, and traditional foodways. This article analyses the recent move towards millet production and consumption in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Focusing upon one of the grain’s chief proponents, I explore how narratives surrounding millets are grounded in conceptions of cultural authenticity and bioregionalism. Drawing upon human geographer’s analyses of the turn towards the ‘local’ in food activism, I contribute to the development of critical bioregionalism, an emerging theoretical framework that explores how questions of value, identity, political economy, and histories of land use intersect to structure our understandings of marginal foods and their resurgence.

Suggested Citation

  • David Meek, 2022. "From marginalized to miracle: critical bioregionalism, jungle farming and the move to millets in Karnataka, India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 871-883, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:39:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-021-10287-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-021-10287-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-021-10287-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-021-10287-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carly Nichols, 2017. "Millets, milk and maggi: contested processes of the nutrition transition in rural India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(4), pages 871-885, December.
    2. Tanya M. Kerssen, 2015. "Food sovereignty and the quinoa boom: challenges to sustainable re-peasantisation in the southern Altiplano of Bolivia," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 489-507, March.
    3. Elizabeth Finnis, 2007. "The political ecology of dietary transitions: Changing production and consumption patterns in the Kolli Hills, India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(3), pages 343-353, September.
    4. Mirka Erler & Christoph Dittrich, 2020. "Middle Class, Tradition and the Desi-Realm—Discourses of Alternative Food Networks in Bengaluru, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Judith Bopp, 2020. "Local Notions of Alternative Practices: Organic Food Movements in Bangkok, Thailand and Chennai, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Kees Krul & Peter Ho, 2017. "Alternative Approaches to Food: Community Supported Agriculture in Urban China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-16, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shah, Priya & Mehta, Neha & Shah, Sweety, 2024. "Exploring the factors that drive millet consumption: Insights from regular and occasional consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Carly E. Nichols, 2022. "Digesting agriculture development: nutrition-oriented development and the political ecology of rice–body relations in India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 757-771, June.
    3. Emily Reisman, 2020. "Superfood as spatial fix: the ascent of the almond," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 337-351, June.
    4. Leigh Martindale, 2021. "‘I will know it when I taste it’: trust, food materialities and social media in Chinese alternative food networks," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 365-380, June.
    5. Piya, L. & Joshi, N.P., 2018. "Food basket of a highly marginalized indigenous community in the mid-hills of Nepal: Transition and responsible factors," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277071, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Jing Lin & Jianming Cai & Yan Han & Jiansheng Liu, 2017. "Identifying the Conditions for Rural Sustainability through Place-Based Culture: Applying the CIPM and CDPM Models into Meibei Ancient Village," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
    7. Winkel, Thierry & Núñez-Carrasco, Lizbeth & Cruz, Pablo José & Egan, Nancy & Sáez-Tonacca, Luís & Cubillos-Celis, Priscilla & Poblete-Olivera, Camila & Zavalla-Nanco, Natalia & Miño-Baes, Bárbara & Vi, 2019. "Mobilizing common biocultural heritage for the socioeconomic inclusion of small farmers: panarchy of two case studies on quinoa in Chile and Bolivia," SocArXiv qwtu5, Center for Open Science.
    8. Ravi, S.B. & Hrideek, T.K. & Kumar, A.T.K. & Prabhakaran, T.R. & Mal, B. & Padulosi, S., 2010. "Mobilizing Neglected and Underutilized Crops to Strengthen Food Security and Alleviate Poverty in India," MPRA Paper 43094, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Karlis Rokpelnis & Peter Ho & Gong Cheng & Heng Zhao, 2018. "Consumer Perceptions of the Commodification and Related Conservation of Traditional Indigenous Naxi Forest Products as Credence Goods (China)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Rokpelnis, Karlis & Ho, Peter & Cheng, Gong & Zhao, Heng, 2018. "Consumer perceptions of the commodification and related conservation of traditional indigenous Naxi forest products as credence goods (China)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91498, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Ravi, S.B. & Hrideek, T.K. & Kumar, A.T.K. & Prabhakaran, T.R. & Mal, B. & Padulosi, S., 2010. "Mobilizing Neglected and Underutilized Crops to Strengthen Food Security and Alleviate Poverty in India," MPRA Paper 43037, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Shah, Priya & Dhir, Amandeep & Joshi, Rohit & Tripathy, Naliniprava, 2023. "Opportunities and challenges in food entrepreneurship: In-depth qualitative investigation of millet entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    13. Ravi, S.B. & Hrideek, T.K. & Kumar, A.T.K. & Prabhakaran, T.R. & Mal, B. & Padulosi, S., 2010. "Mobilizing neglected and underutilized crops to strengthen food security and alleviate poverty in india," MPRA Paper 37492, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Tian Huang & Anna P. Farmer & Ellen Goddard & Noreen Willows & Fatheema Subhan, 2017. "An ethnographic exploration of perceptions of changes in dietary variety in the Kolli Hills, India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(4), pages 759-771, August.
    15. Mirka Erler & Christoph Dittrich, 2020. "Middle Class, Tradition and the Desi-Realm—Discourses of Alternative Food Networks in Bengaluru, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, March.
    16. Reisman, Emily, 2017. "Troubling Tradition, Community, and Self-Reliance: Reframing Expectations for Village Seed Banks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 160-168.
    17. Adriana Ruiz-Almeida & Marta G. Rivera-Ferre, 2019. "Internationally-based indicators to measure Agri-food systems sustainability using food sovereignty as a conceptual framework," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1321-1337, December.
    18. Zhen, Huayang & Gao, Wenzeng & Yuan, Kai & Ju, Xuehai & Qiao, Yuhui, 2021. "Internalizing externalities through net ecosystem service analysis–A case study of greenhouse vegetable farms in Beijing," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    19. Gruère, Guillaume & Nagarajan, Latha & King, E.D.I. Oliver, 2009. "The role of collective action in the marketing of underutilized plant species: Lessons from a case study on minor millets in South India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 39-45, February.
    20. Lipy Adhikari & Sabarnee Tuladhar & Abid Hussain & Kamal Aryal, 2019. "Are Traditional Food Crops Really ‘Future Smart Foods?’ A Sustainability Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:39:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-021-10287-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.