Food sovereignty and solidarity initiatives in rural Ukraine during the war

CBEES Advanced Seminar with Natalia Mamonova, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Rural and Regional Research (RURALIS). Trondheim, Norway

Speaker: Natalia Mamonova, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Rural and Regional Research (RURALIS). Trondheim, Norway

Discussant: Ildikó Asztalos Morell, Associate Professor in Rural Development, Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala

Chair: Asiya Bulatova, Researcher at the School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, and the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES)

Abstract: This seminar examines coping strategies and solidarity initiatives in rural Ukraine during the full-scale war with Russia. Based on primary qualitative data conducted remotely, it explores the ability of different food producers to farm in military conditions, their mutual help and reciprocity. The article also discusses farmers’ mundane patriotism, the influx of internally displaced persons to the countryside, charitable initiatives of agribusiness, and local conflicts and tensions. It argues that the networks and collective action that emerged during the war accelerated the development of a vibrant rural civil society needed to promote peasant rights and endorse food sovereignty in Ukraine.

Keywords: Food sovereignty; small farms; solidarity; Ukraine; war

Natalia Mamonova is Senior Researcher at RURALIS - Institute for Rural and Regional Research in Trondheim, Norway. Her research focuses on rural politics, agrarian transformation, social movements, food sovereignty and right-wing populism in post-socialist rural Europe. She received her PhD degree from 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. Her current research at RURALIS focuses on the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Ukrainian and global food systems (FORMAS grant, together with Brian Kuns from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences). Read Natalia's latest article in the Journal of Peasant Studies “Food sovereignty and solidarity initiatives in rural Ukraine during the war External link, opens in new window.”