NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, food security

Objective(s): To collect data on the impact the Northern Farm Training Institute has had on the community food system.

Project Description: The objective of this research project is to collect data on the impact the Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) has had on the community food system. This research will be conducted through participant observation as well as open-ended questions in an informal conversation. As an NFTI intern, the Principal Investigator (PI) will assist in the preparation of the workshops and also participate in the workshops. The PI will examine local archives for information about the community and their past food systems and will also collect documentation about the NFTI project and its precursors. Sound recordings of interviews and photographs of the workshops will be taken. Photographs of people will not be used. The data collected through interviews and participant observation will be used to gather the perspectives and stories of the participants. Interviews will be recorded and transcribed. Participants will be able to access the data from their own interviews upon request. Pseudonyms will be used for participants to maintain confidentiality. Photographs will be used to keep visual documentation of the workshops and to show the methods used by the NFTI to grow food. To protect privacy, these photographs will not include people’s faces. Archival research will provide background information about the food system and the community of Hay River. Participants will be community members that are engaged with the food system and participants in the NFTI programs. In recognition of the complex and potentially fragmented nature of “community,” the PI will observe and interview a range of individuals within the project. The PI will listen to leaders in the NFTI, and include participants of different backgrounds, such as different socio-economic statuses, ages, and ethnicities. Two out of six individuals will be interviewed from the NFTI leadership team. The PI will also interview two regular participants in the NFTI workshops as well as one participant who has only attended one or two workshops. There are about 60 participants each year. The PI will select individuals with a range of participation in the workshops in order to compare and contrast how much of an impact the number of workshops attended has on their engagement with the food system and their ideas about food sovereignty. Two leaders will also be selected from the NFTI to understand their ideas of food sovereignty and the community food system, and how this is or isn't reflected in the organization. The participant from prior workshops will help me to gauge the extent to which initiative might be sustainable in the long term. The intention is to find a balance with interviewees’ identities (i.e. differences in socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender) in order to understand how these identities impact individuals’ engagement with the food system and their visions for an ideal food system. First the PI will ask potential interviewees from the current workshops if they are interested in participating in the research. If they say yes, they will be provided with the invitation to participate and the consent form. Then, a time and place to meet with them will be arranged for the interview. This research will investigate how the Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) has impacted the food system in Hay River, NWT. Therefore, it will reveal strategies used by the organization that have potentially fostered a shift towards individual and community food sovereignty. This can serve as a tool for understanding ways in which similar communities can transform their food systems through projects like the NFTI. This will create space to celebrate the successes of the NFTI and the community members that have transformed their learning though the NFTI into positive social change in their community. The PI will share the final thesis paper with the Northern Farm Training Institute and any interested individuals in the community via email. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 15, 2015 to August 30, 2015.