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Laine Young
PhD Candidate, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
My research focuses on women’s experience of urban agriculture in Quito, Ecuador. I take an intersectional feminist approach to examine power relations and ensure that lived experiences and alternative forms of knowledge are included in urban agriculture research. I work with the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (LCSFS) and the FLEdGE: Food Locally Embedded Globally Engaged network.
Through the LCSFS I became involved in the development of a podcast focused on sustainable food systems research called, Handpicked: Stories from the Field. The podcast is hosted and produced by LCSFS project coordinator Amanda DiBattista, and myself. The episodes tell stories about researchers and their community partners and how they are working together to make our food system more sustainable.
Being a part of the production of Handpicked has positively impacted my capacity as a community researcher. It has opened the doors to connect with and learn from other food system researchers and made space for my growth as an interviewer and in creating accessible stories about complicated research. As a researcher, I am always searching for ways to make results accessible to a wider audience and this podcast is doing just that. I will also be producing an episode based on my research project that will air in our second season.
Our first episode will be released on Sept. 30, 2019 and it explores sustainable food systems from the perspectives of LCSFS advisory board members and students. We sit down with the director of the LCSFS, Professor Alison Blay-Palmer to learn a bit more about the amazing research and projects that the Centre is involved in. Subsequent episodes will explore how we measure changes in the food system, how Northern Indigenous communities are monitoring climate change through changes to their local food systems, how international agreements can impact local food systems, and how technology is helping farmers get their food to our plates.
This podcast opens up a space for academic researchers and those on the ground in communities to tell stories about the impact of their work to the wider public. I’m excited that podcasting is becoming a way to disseminate research and I hope that Handpicked helps to pave the way forward for other researchers at Laurier to engage in creative pursuits, like podcasting, to get their research out into the world.