Using human ecology to identify potential pathways to the proliferation of bioregional values-led food procurement: What do Canberra Food Co-op members perceive as the benefits of participation in a solidarity-based food co-operative

Abstract

Solidarity-based food networks provide food procurement opportunities outside of the unjust and unsustainable global industrial food system. This research seeks insight into the interactions of one such solidarity-based food system and some of its members, who are creating community around values-led food-choices - to better understand how a potential proliferation of such systems could influence change across the broader food system. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty committed working members of the Canberra Food Co-op. As a non-Indigenous researcher with a background in learning from First Nations Peoples, the Indigenous research methodologies of relational ethics of care and Dadirri - deep listening (Atkinson, 2002), were foundational to the research and interview process. The interview recordings provided data thematically analysed with a human ecology lens. Five common interview themes around values, ethics, food choices, community, and barriers and enablers were identified, and comparisons made with previous work on food values and systems. Using Wilkes' (2022) model, this study finds that co-op members attribute combinations of values-led, instrumental, systemic, and relational reasons for initial involvement at the co-op. Relational reasons alone however are found to sustain those memberships over time. Members consider that their values deepen at the co-op, and are strengthened by working together in community. Drawing upon the systems diagrams of human ecology, this research found that the main barrier to the further proliferation of solidarity-based community co-ops is lack of accessible public spaces. This case study has established that these working members see their co op and community as central to their lives and wellbeing, and that their ongoing contributions there strengthen and deepen their values, enabling them to more confidently enact those values outside of the co-op. Overall, this research concludes that if values-led food networks, ones that hold space and opportunity for communal gathering and closer relationships between farmers and members, are to proliferate, then more access to available public spaces to create community is required. Without government support and regulation to enable these conditions, those interested in creating community around solidarity-based food options find themselves necessarily considering food procurement avenues outside of space-based food co-operatives and food networks operating with an exchange of money. Show more