Quiet Food Sovereignity in Eaestern Europe
Lecture
With Natalia Momonova (Ukraine/Norway)
respondent: Valer Simion Cosma (Romania)
Friday, 19th 2024, 6-8 p.m
at The National Museum of Romania Peasant (Sala Acvariu entrance from the restaurant)
Cover credits: watercolor painting by Natalia Mamonova
Feeding a growing world population with sustainably produced food has been a challenge and it became critically important in the wake of covid-19, climate change, the wars in ukraine and gaza, and the rise of the far right in europe. while politicians debate how to make our food systems more innovative and resilient, there is a solution that has been available and practised in eastern europe for decades. smallholder farming and local food networks are widespread in many post-socialist countries, but are not typically seen as sustainable alternatives to globalised industrial agriculture. meanwhile, as the example of ukraine has shown, these practices are not only environmentally friendly and sustainable, but also capable of feeding the country’s population with healthy food in peace and wartime.
In her lecture, Natalia Mamonova will share the results of her study on the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine on Ukrainian and global food systems. She will discuss the role of family farmers in ensuring food security in Ukraine during the war, the practices of solidarity and informal networks in food production and distribution, and the lessons the rest of the world should learn from Ukrainian smallholders. Natalia will also engage with her studies of quiet food sovereignty and farmers’ movements in various Eastern European countries to understand how we can transform our food systems to feed a booming population without destroying the planet.
Following Natalia’s lecture, Valer Simion Cosma will offer some commentaries to bridge the subjects raised in the presentation with the rural and agricultural context of romania. based on his extensive fieldwork in the romanian countryside, as well as on projects he initiated, Telciu Summer School, Telciu Summer Conferences and Culese din rural, his contribution will bring the discussion closer to the potential of artistic, cultural and educational projects to change the ways in which we understand the rural world and to raise public interest in its complex contemporary facets.
Natalia Mamonova is a rural (political) sociologist with over 10 years of research experience in rural politics, agrarian transformation, social movements, food sovereignty and right-wing populism in post-socialist Europe. She received her PhD degree from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University, the Netherlands in 2016. Since then, she was a researcher/lecturer at the University of Oxford, the New Europe College in Bucharest, the University of Helsinki, and the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.
Natalia’s current research at RURALIS is mainly focused on the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Ukrainian and global food systems. Together with Brian Kuns (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) she received a research grant from FORMAS (the Swedish research council for sustainable development) for the project: “Food security, food sovereignty and collective action during the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian and global perspectives” (2023-2026).
Valer Simion Cosma is a historian, anthropologist, and occasional publicist. he is currently the director of the “lucian blaga” university library in sibiu. he worked for almost four years as a researcher at the county museum of history and art – zalău, where he conducted extensive fieldwork in the countryside. he founded the centre for the study of modernity and the rural world and of events, educational projects, and residency programs such as the telciu summer conferences, the telciu summer school, culese din telciu, anonimii migrației, artiști la muzeu and culese din rural.
In parallel with his work as a researcher and cultural manager, he has worked as scientific consultant in the production of theatre shows, artistic performances, documentary films, albums, and exhibitions. His interests are the modernization of the rural world, history and the sociology of rural elites, vernacular religion and the relation between modernity/coloniality and religion in Eastern Europe, nationalism, and migration.
The presentations and discusssions will be held in English.
Architecture, Biodiversity, Culture [ABC]. Building ecological institutions for culture is an European cooperation project situated at the intersection between cultural practices, eco-architecture and ecosystems preservation. Initiated by a consortium of organisations active in the fields of culture, contemporary art, architecture, civic activism and eco-sustainable community practices, the project proposes a participatory process of building and cultural contextualising of ecological prototypes to be used by cultural institutions. ABC operates on four sites in Romania, Bulgaria and France: Silistea Snagovului, a village in the proximity of Bucharest, near a protected area of lake and forest; Brezoi, a small town in the South-Western part of Romania, in a mountaneous area and close to an important river; Dren, a village outside of Sofia, in a hilly area; and Bagneux, in the peripheral neighourhoods of Paris.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
The event is organised by tranzit.ro/București and hosted by The National Museum of Romanian Peasant.
ERSTE Foundation is the main partner of tranzit.ro.
