Nature-Society Interactions in Food Practices

Team members: Rajeswari B.T., Al Badush, Harini Nagendra, Rohan Arthur, Seema Mundoli and Suri Venkatachalam

Timeline: 2022 - present

Food habits are a blend of culture, history and local geography, which reflect the rich traditions, identity and relationship people have with their natural resources. In traditional and resource-dependent cultures, this relationship is particularly clear, since the food cooked in households is often based on local resources. However, one of the biggest impacts of modernity is a shift towards ingredients from more distant sources produced, packaged and distributed as part of a global distribution system which could change the way local communities interact with their local environment, both in material and emotional ways.

Project objectives:

• To explore the changes of food patterns over time. 

• To understand how urbanisation and external dependencies have reflected on food patterns.

The Lakshadweep Islands are among the most densely populated regions in the country, and islanders face resource scarcity due to limited land, poor soil quality, and isolation of the islands. However, improved transportation has fast-tracked urbanisation and exposed islanders to different food cultures, allowing people to benefit from a wider food distribution system, both national and international.

In a place like limited special area and other natural resources also far from the mainland, and the hustle and bustle. People have been interacting, connecting and depending on their natural resources in different ways.

Our team has observed varying levels of urbanisation in different islands in the archipelago. Alongside this development, people’s relationships with food and nature has also changed. For instance, a reliance on locally available edible molluscs, coconut plantations and colocasia is being replaced with commodities like rice and vegetables from the mainland. Through interviews, we have clearly noted a shift in the sources of ingredients between the past and the present. This is leading our work deeper into food vulnerability, particularly in terms of storage, nutrition, and availability. Similarly, the research is uncovering themes related to people’s alienation and sense of agency.

Some of the pictures that give a glimpses into the life across different islands in Lakshadweep.

There is limited understanding and inadequate documentation of how food systems, including dietary changes, local agricultural practices, and shifts in food sourcing, have evolved over time in island systems like Lakshadweep. Additionally, there is insufficient knowledge about how food choices and availability differ between urbanized areas and more rural communities within the islands. Furthermore, the effects of urbanization, increasing external dependencies on mainland food supplies, and the growing impact of extreme whether conditions on local food production and agency have not been explored.