Food security is defined as the availability of, and access to, food that is nutritious, safe, culturally appropriate, and produced in environmentally sustainable ways. This is a lot to think about when you’re making a grocery list! This presentation asked participants to actively think about the food security in their own communities through collective food mapping exercises. We discussed food production, local access, consumption, and waste to develop an approach to engaged eating.

1. Critical geographies of food
Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, PhD
Department of Women & Gender Studies
Department of Geography
October 19, 2011

2. AFIs: urban
agriculture,
eco- Efficiency
certification (over short
term, long Consumer
Spoilage
term) of food waste
Labour
agro-
practices
industry
Disposal
Production model
Waste siting
Seed
ownership Inefficient and
Resource
inequitable
over-use
Intensity of distribution
Land use
water,
practices
petro-chem
resource Consumption Obesity
use
Market
liberalization
AFIs: Fair trade, food Mal-
cooperatives, CSAs,
nourishment
local food movements Food fads &
structural
adjustment policies

3. Localvore, Nova Scotia

5. Revis family, From: Hungry Planet, 2007,
Peter Menzel & Faith D’Alusio
Raleigh, NC, USA Cost: $341.98 US for one week of food

6. From: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CLD/lcfa/mapping.htm

7.  Community mapping can help us to
identify assets, resources, and
challenges.
 It can help to illustrate the relationships
between individual practices and
structural norms.
 It can encourage another form of
community engagement.

8. Map your Lethbridge food story
 Use a map provided to identify:
 Where you get food in Lethbridge
○ Retail (grocery, convenience store [Shopper’s/ Mac’s] or
other); fast food; restaurants. If you buy a substantial amount
of your food outside of Lethbridge, you may want to note this,
too.
○ What is important about any of these sites? Make a note or tell
your partner.
○ Cheap or expensive?
 How you get food – walking, biking, bus, car –
and how often (how many trips per day or
week).
○ What is the distance between you & healthy food?

9. Occasional
trip to Asian
Market.
Be careful of
To Calgary expiry dates!
To Bozeman
farmers’ Cooperative
market, 1-2x/ year
Community
Foods 1x/
month
Normally walk to
Save-On, except
for Save-On
Tuesday!
New shop to
buy Vital
Tiffany’s Lethbridge food story, c. 2011 Greens dairy
Red star: Regular trip (by foot or car)
Orange star: Occasional trip (by foot or car) $$$ products