HIDDEN HUNGER: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF FOOD AND NUTRITION IN THE KUMAON HILLS

Master's Research, 2013

In this project, I designed and conducted 3 months of independent fieldwork in Nainital district  in Uttarakhand, India to understand how state-led agricultural development and food security provisions intersected to affect people’s food consumption, gendered labor relations, and perceptions of health and wellbeing

I designed and completed interviews with over 100 interviewees (community members, government and non-government (NGO) frontline workers, and mid-level NGO management) and conducted participation observation in village settings. 

I found while food scarcity was no longer a problem in this area, women—who were the focus of empowerment-led development programs—had become overburdened and often lacked time to both prepare and eat food, which also had adverse impact on their mental health (published in Gender, Place, and Culture). Moreover, villagers overwhelmingly narrated that while incomes had risen due to cash cropping, the corresponding shift in food consumption (such as increased exposure to chemical-laden foods) resulted in weaker bodies more amenable to disease (published in Geoforum). My third article in Agriculture and Human Values uses ethnographic data to argue that the literature on nutrition transitions obfuscates more than it reveals given the complex identity politics that accompanies shifts in diets and disease burdens.

This research was generously funded by the University of Arizona SBSRI Pre-dissertation Award, the Rural Geography Speciality Group of the AAG, and the GPSC Travel Grant.