{"id":73713,"date":"2026-01-20T08:24:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/?p=73713"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:00:33","slug":"utc-anthropologist-examines-how-power-shapes-global-food-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/utc-anthropologist-examines-how-power-shapes-global-food-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"UTC anthropologist examines how power shapes global food systems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Two

The cover of the study \u201cThe Elephant at the Table: Policy Pathways to Confront Power in Food Systems,\u201d worked on by Emma McDonell, courtesy of the New Institute.<\/p><\/div>\n

Who controls the food on people\u2019s tables?<\/p>\n

For University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Assistant Professor of Anthropology Emma McDonell, this was the central question she examined this past summer.<\/p>\n

During her fellowship at the New Institute in Hamburg, Germany, McDonell joined the Future of Food: Power and Biodiversity program, collaborating with an international cohort to examine how power shapes global food systems.<\/p>\n

McDonell\u2019s previous research on quinoa and its entry into consumer consciousness laid the groundwork for the institute\u2019s study, \u201cThe Elephant at the Table: Policy Pathways to Confront Power in Food Systems.\u201d <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In the introduction, the study stated that\u00a0\u201cfood systems must feed everyone, not only those who can afford it. They must regenerate ecosystems, not deplete them, and they must provide decent livelihoods to those who nourish us, not consign them to hunger and exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her cohort focused on power and the significant challenges facing future food systems. The power explained by the study is the \u201cconcrete control\u201d over markets, labor, land and narratives that shape food systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was to foreground how power and power inequities shape our food systems and then to develop agencies and folks working in these international nongovernmental organizations that help navigate the power inequities in our food system,\u201d McDonell said, \u201crather than shying away from dealing with these power inequities that inevitably shape who has access to food and who controls how our food system works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her work focused on neglected and underutilized crop species.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are thousands of crop species, and yet our food systems are based on a very small number of species in terms of the number that actually get into people\u2019s diets,\u201d she explained. \u201cMy chapter was about utilizing these many different crop species that are often very hardy in the face of climate change. They\u2019re often highly nutritious.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonell\u2019s book, \u201cThe Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop,\u201d<\/strong><\/a> informed her chapter on agricultural diversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all of these interesting, highly nutritious crop species,\u201d she said. \u201cIncreasingly, there are markets for them in high-end grocery stores where there\u2019s a trajectory where they become sort of superfoods, for wealthy, health-conscious eaters in the global North.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we leverage the nutritional benefits of these species and also their agronomic characteristics in terms of climate change adaptation for those who need the most, rather than just turning them into luxury foods for already very well-nourished people?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to McDonell, crops like quinoa haven\u2019t received the investment and support that more traditional and powerful crops like wheat and rice have.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuinoa was a neglected species and now is on the tables of wealthy consumers across the globe, but it hasn\u2019t had the impact on food security for undernourished populations that we would hope,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Power, she explained, lies at the core of the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cPower is shaping the food system,\u201d McDonell said. \u201cOur policy was not to pretend that it doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s touchy because national-level government policymakers and policymakers at these international NGOs often rely on corporate donors. In some sense, they\u2019re caught in difficult positions where they don\u2019t want to tick off powerful food corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n

What excited McDonell about her role at the New Institute was the chance to impact change through her work by presenting the institute\u2019s findings to stakeholders and policymakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was so attractive for me about not just the New Institute broadly, but this specific call about power and biodiversity in food systems, was that it was all about developing this report for policymakers,\u201d she said. \u201cI could help inform better policy on food and agriculture for the future so that we don\u2019t have the same quinoa boom-bust trajectory happen with other neglected and underutilized species.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opportunity to work with academics, journalists and other experts from the field also intrigued McDonell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned so much from these colleagues because they\u2019re experts in their own specific sectors,\u201d she said. \u201cOne person is an expert in what we call blue food systems, so basically fisheries and aquaculture; it was interesting for me to learn about these aspects of the food system that I\u2019m less well-versed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also found it a really invigorating challenge as an academic who\u2019s used to analyzing. In my field, we do ethnographic fieldwork, so we spend a lot of time in a specific cultural context, immersing ourselves in it and then trying to understand it\u2014analyzing it and writing about it. It was a different thing for me to then basically have someone say, \u2018Yeah, your critiques are valid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One area of change that McDonell said interests her is the growing interest in locally procured food through public procurement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can think of school lunch programs and breakfast programs,\u201d she said. \u201cMany countries have other kinds of public food procurement programs, and historically, they\u2019ve focused on low-cost commodity crops.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, that\u2019s how it is in the U.S., how our school lunch program is. But increasingly there is interest in incorporating locally relevant foods, locally produced foods and these sorts of neglected and underutilized species into these public procurement initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

This issue is worldwide and will affect this country, state and city, McDonell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur food system is sort of reaching a breaking point in a lot of ways in terms of projections with climate change,\u201d McDonell said. \u201cMany crops that have been produced in certain regions within 15 to 20 years may not be able to be produced in those same regions in terms of our global food systems, in trade and things like that are also at a moment of change. It\u2019s something that many of us saw during the pandemic when supply chains often quickly fell apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people know that this system is broken. When we look at nutritional and health outcomes, the fact is that the quality of what we eat often tracks very closely with our economic status. Poor people eat much lower-quality diets than rich people. Many people know this system is broken, and there\u2019s the question, \u2018How do we fix it?\u2019 What this report is doing is trying\u2014in a small way\u2014to get us towards something better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

UTC Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Geography<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Assistant Professor of Anthropology Emma McDonell\u2019s central question this past summer: Who controls the food on people\u2019s tables?<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2058,"featured_media":73719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,70,123864,61,3,7712,48007,72949],"tags":[464,123827,123826,117093,123828,124776,125298,123829,126535,126534],"class_list":{"0":"post-73713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-advancement-and-alumni","9":"category-college-of-arts-sciences","10":"category-community","11":"category-faculty-and-staff","12":"category-news","13":"category-research-academics","14":"category-social-cultural-and-justice-studies","15":"tag-anthropology","16":"tag-creating-the-mocs-experience","17":"tag-cultivating-a-culture-of-innovation","18":"tag-emma-mcdonell","19":"tag-leveraging-our-special-place-as-chattanoogas-university","20":"tag-mocs-learn-mocs-do-mocs-lead","21":"tag-new-institute","22":"tag-operating-with-excellence","23":"tag-quinoa-bust-the-making-and-unmaking-of-an-andean-miracle-crop","24":"tag-the-elephant-at-the-table-policy-pathways-to-confront-power-in-food-systems","25":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nUTC 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