This project was a phenomenological study of individuals engaged in place-based and justice-oriented food work across the Lake Superior watershed, asking: How do those engaged in place-based food work across the Lake Superior watershed envision a Lake Superior foodshed? The research involved eight key informant interviews using the Lake Superior watershed as a case setting, social constructivist and radical food geographies approaches and mobile and in situ methods, a place-based and situated form of data collection that brings place into the research encounter. The findings charted the path from the boundaries that limit change, the relationships with place and community that ground actions, and how said grounding allows visions of socially and ecologically just food futures to flow outwards. Imagining alternatives does not negate the limitations of existing boundaries but provides a foundation from which to work around and/or through them. As generative rather than reactive approaches, foodshed imaginaries nurture place- and context-specific solutions by mapping where we want our food systems to go, rather than simply tracking where our food comes from and existing problems in food systems.  

Project Lead: Sarah Siska (Environmental Studies, Lakehead University)