Food Studies International Award for Excellence

Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal offers an annual award for newly published research or thinking that has been recognized to be outstanding by members of the Food Studies Research Network.

Award Winners for Volume 14

A Socioecological Systems Approach to Assessing Family Food Sovereignty

In recent decades, food sovereignty (FS) proposals have posed a challenge to the theoretical and practical foundations of food security and globalized agri-food systems. The general statement of FS focuses on people’s right to nutritious and culturally appropriate food, as well as on strengthening sustainable production systems and short marketing chains. Although this approach has been widely adopted in discourse, significant methodological gaps have been identified in measuring FS at the rural household level. Given the complexity of the concept, it is approached as a complex variable, and a methodological proposal is put forward based on a series of indicators to measure FS in peasant agroecosystems from a socioecological perspective. Based on an extensive review of the current literature, the dimensions and categories of analysis were determined, along with proposed indicators to measure FS, including sustainability and resilience indicators previously validated in rural contexts. From 469 scientific articles, 5 analytical approaches and 6 dimensions of FS were identified. A list of 1,335 indicators was obtained, which, after undergoing a triple validation process, was narrowed down to 89, grouped into 21 categories linked to the proposed dimensions. This study confirms that FS is a complex and dynamic concept encompassing diverse spatial, temporal, and social scales. It was found that evaluating the proposed indicators requires a transdisciplinary approach, a multidisciplinary team, and collaborative work, as well as appropriate statistical weighting due to the quantitative and qualitative nature of the scales used. Additionally, the importance of fieldwork in measuring FS is highlighted.

Past Award Winners

Volume 13

“Is It Worth It”: The Lived Experience of Food Insecurity among College Students at a Midwestern University System

B.J. Fletcher, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 103-124


Volume 12

Taste for Sustainability and a Green Transition

Ole Mouritsen, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 12, Issue 2, pp. 9-18


Volume 11

Typology of Patterns in Cycles of the Creation and Discontinuation of Foods: Toward Modeling the Life Cycles of Foods

Hitoshi Koyano, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 11, Issue 2, pp. 39-63


Volume 10

#MeToo on the Menu: Addressing Toxic Kitchen Culture

Em Kohl, Alison Fisher Bodkin, Toni Whitfield, and Olivia Stevens, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 10, Issue 4, pp. 1-20


Volume 9

The Difficulties of Developing Local Food Systems: Perspectives of Farmers and Other Key Stakeholders in Boulder County, Colorado

Ashley Dancer, Peter Newton, And Veronica House, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 19-30


Volume 8

Learning from Failure: Postwar Efforts to Establish a World Food Reserve

Bryan McDonald, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 8, Issue 4, pp. 1-15


Volume 7

Food and Form-of-Life: A Philosophical Argument for Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture

Jody Beck, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 1-13


Volume 6

The Political Identity of Food: Partisan Implications of the New Food Politics

Rebecca Harris, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 6, Issue 4, pp. 1-20


Volume 5

Tradition and Modernity: Industrial Food, Women, and Visual Culture in 1950s and 1960s Italy

Dr. Silvia Bottinelli, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 5, Issue 1, pp.1-17


Volume 4

"Good" Food as Family Medicine: Problems of Dualist and Absolutist Approaches to "Healthy" Family Foodways

Julie M. Parsons, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 4, Issue 2, pp.1-13


Volume 3

A Program to Increase Dietary Consumption of Plant-based Foods among University Students

Catherine Faver and Tina Schiefelbein, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp.57-63


Volume 2

GM Foods Regulation: Coming to Terms with the Lay Conception of Risk

Lyne Letourneau, Olga Carolina Cardenas Gomez and Vincent Richard, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp.15-29


Volume 1

Food-Away-From-Home (FAFH) Expenditure Patterns for Ghanaian Urban Households: Effects of Income, Gender and Household Demographics

Robert Aidoo, Kwasi Ohene-Yankyera and Vincent Abankwah, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp.1-14