March 23-25, 2023 at the University of Hohenheim (hybrid)
The second annual meeting of the Agri-Food Geographies working group was held by the University of Hohenheim in cooperation with the Chair of "Societal Transition & Agriculture" from March 23-25, 2023. A total of 116 people actively participated, 66 of whom where present and 50 digitally. In addition to geographers, scientists from various disciplines as well as all status groups and practitioners were represented. Thanks to a generous funding from the Fiat Panis Foundation, it was also possible to invite two guests from the Global South, Dr. Elena Lazos (Mexico) and Dr. Alexander Panez (Chile). The two keynote lectures by Prof. Dr. Damian Maye (University of Gloucestershire) and Prof. Dr. Marit Rosol (University of Würzburg) opened and rounded off the extensive scientific lecture program. In addition, there were several interactive formats such as poster presentations, a "Schnibbeldisco" and a campus tour of "alternative food places".
The motto of this year's conference was: "Who MAKES our food? Power and powerlessness of actors in the agricultural and food system". In the current debate on transformations towards sustainable and just agricultural and food systems, the focus is mostly on the diverse local approaches (e.g. Alternative Food Networks), which aim to build a counter-design to the conventional food system with alternative ways of cultivation and distribution. Although these initiatives appeal to many people, they often remain in spatial and socioeconomic niches. Considerably less attention is paid to the 'big picture' - the structure, functioning and structural challenges of the conventional agricultural and food system. Based on this background, speakers at this annual conference focused on a wide variety of economic, institutional and civil society actors and their diverse power relations with each other in global and regional agricultural and food systems. In doing so, we explored the causes of inequalities in power, resources, and the distribution of labour and roles along the value chain - from seed production, processing and marketing to food waste.
After welcoming remarks by the representatives of the working group (Dr. Birgit Hoinle, Prof. Dr. Amelie Bernzen), the Chair of Social Transition and Agriculture (Prof. Dr. Claudia Bieling, Anna Struth) and Dr. Andrea Fadani from the Fiat Panis Foundation, Prof. Dr. Damian Maye spoke in his keynote lecture on "Food and power in the making: the double movement and new geographies of food", in which he proposed the division into four different types of "food geographies". With a case study on "Meat power in Mexico," the session was followed by the contribution of Dr. Elena Lazos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), who reported on her recent research on inequalities between industrial and small-scale meat producers in Mexico. The opening session offered further insights into the diversity of current research topics on farming and food systems: From a perspective critical of colonialism, Dr. Andrea Fadani (Fiat Panis) presented on the role of coffee in Cameroon agriculture and its entanglements with German colonialism. Dr. Timothy Williams (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) asked the question "Who exercises power in European agri-food systems?" and presented a matrix for analysing actor networks. Stefan Ortiz-Przychodzka (Leuphana University of Lüneburg) then focused on the global perspective of the topic with a presentation on bee-human relationships, biodiversity and diverse economies in the Bolivian Chiquitania dry forest, and Dr. Michael Spieß (HNE Eberswald) with a presentation on the threat to local seed systems using the examples of Pakistan and Tajikistan. After a lot of 'food for thought' the student initiative FRESH invited to a social exchange at a Schnibbeldisko. Here the participants could prepare and enjoy dinner together from rescued food.
The program on Friday (03/24/2023) started with two parallel sessions on "Global-Local Value Chains". The parallel sessions were organized so that one session was analogue and the other was hybrid. The first session offered insights into the value chains of various beverages, ranging from Colombian coffee (Dr. Xiomara Quiñones-Ruiz, BOKU Vienna), Bavarian beer (Carola Wilhelm; Prof. Dr. Tobias Chilla, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg) to the topic of "identity displacement" in the case of cocoa (Gustavo Cruz, University of London). In the parallel session, the value chain in the meat industry was addressed, from the question of feeds such as soy in Kashastan (Dr. Henryk Alff, HNE Eberswalde), to the systemic lock-in in German meat production (Miriam Klein, RWTH Aachen) and the question of how to explore power relations in the meat industry, posed by Danko Simič and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ermann (University of Graz).
In Session 3 on "Power relations in agricultural production," Kushala Nuwanthi spoke about organic cotton production and gender relations in India, while Karlotta Koch (both from the University of Hohenheim) addressed power relations in the certification process of organic products. After lunch, Anna Struth and Judith Blättler from the student working group on sustainability (AKN) invited participants to a campus tour of 'alternative food places' in Hohenheim. Participants learned about places and initiatives for sustainable food in Hohenheim, such as a student-run community garden on campus, as well as food sharing stations and a collective wood-fired oven.
In the afternoon, two parallel sessions followed - on the one hand on conceptual approaches for the analysis of power relations in agri-food systems, such as Food Regime Theory (presented by Nora Faltmann, University of Innsbruck, using the example of Switzerland) or "culinary justice" (Meike Brückner, HU Berlin and Birgit Hoinle, University of Hohenheim). In parallel, Nikola Blaschke (Uni Hohenheim), Ipek Gündüz and Ronja Herzberg discussed approaches to agricultural and food policy, such as "urban food policies" in Turkey and food waste in Germany. In the following sessions, the focus was again more on the Global South. Among others, the presentations of Vida Mantey (University of Hohenheim) on power relations and the role of smallholder farmers in coal offset projects in Kenya, as well as the presentation of Alejandra Guzmán (Universidad Cruzana, Mexico) on the coloniality of power in the global coffee value chain contributed to this. In the poster session, six presenters presented their topics in short pitches, which participants were then able to engage in conversation about before everyone headed to Café Denkbar for a get-together.
Saturday (25.03.2023) was dedicated to the question of methods and transformative perspectives on food systems. In the analogue session, Christine Bosch and Sarah Graf (both University of Hohenheim) presented methodological approaches (e.g. net-map) to explore power relations in agri-food systems. In the parallel session, Louisa Prause (HU Berlin) discussed "corporate power and food system transformations" and Susanne Raab and Hannah Müller (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) discussed the negotiation of a right to food in the context of local welfare regimes using the example of the Food Council in Berlin. Finally, all participants gathered again in the Katharinenaal for the presentation of the international guest speaker, Dr. Alexander Panez, who together with Dr. Ilka Roose (HNE Eberswalde) spoke about the neoliberal design of agricultural policy in Chile and the current debates about the constitutional reform there. The concluding keynote by Prof. Dr. Marit Rosol on the role of "food movements" in transforming the food system successfully returning to the main focus of the conference - the question of power relations and empowerment perspectives in the food system.
Overall, the two-day conference in Hohenheim was characterized by a very international participation and - due to the interactive formats - a high degree of exchange and networking in a pleasant group atmosphere. The next annual meeting is expected to take place in April 2023, the location has not yet been determined.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to be added to the AK's email distribution list. Also visit our website at https://ak-agrifoodgeos.org/ Here you can also find the agenda of the past meetings.
Amelie Bernzen (amelie.bernzen@uni-vechta.de), Franziska Czernik (franziska.czernik@uni-vechta.de), Anika Trebbin (anika.trebbin@thuenen.de), Birgit Hoinle (birgit.hoinle@uni-hohenheim.de), Doris Schmied (doris.schmied@uni-bayreuth.de) as well as Anna Struth, Klara Dietrich, and Prof. Dr. Claudia Bieling, who were responsible for the local organization.
