FrameWorks Research on Food Systems

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FrameWorks Research on Food Systems

• Axel Aubrun, Ph.D.

FrameWorks Institute Research Partner
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Cognitive Assumptions

• Involuntary
• Powerful
• Widely shared
• Stable

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The Destruction of the Ozone Layer

• Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs incoming
  solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) that is
  dangerous to living systems. This UVR causes
  damage to the genetic material in living systems.
  Ozone prevents the UVR from reaching the Earths
  surface, and so protects us from its harmful
  effects. Spacecraft sensors have observed ozone
  depletion during the Antarctic winter.

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The Hole in the Roof Scenario
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Cognitive Assumptions (Contd)

• Involuntary
• Powerful
• Widely shared
• Stable
• Implicit

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The Responsible Mind

• In order to take responsibility you have to be
  able to picture yourself as an actor in a
  system/scenario.

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Cognitive Assumptions (Contd)

• Involuntary
• Powerful
• Widely shared
• Stable
• Implicit
• Not always helpful
• Can change

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FrameWorks Research on Food Systems

• Meta-Analysis of Survey Research
• Elicitations With the Public
• Cognitive Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Food
  Systems
• Review of Common Advocate Frames

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FrameWorks Research

• Elicitations With the Public

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Methods

• 30 one-on-one in-depth interviews
• Indiana, North Carolina, California and Rhode
  Island
• 20 European-Americans, 4 African-Americans, 3
  Hispanics, 3 Asian-Americans
• Evenly divided by gender, age from 20s to 60s.

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Lived Experience and the Little Picture

• The Big Picture is Crowded Out

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Everyday Action Scenario (EAS)
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Characteristics of Everyday Action Scenarios

• Concrete
• Human Scale
• Visible Cause and Effect

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Everyday Responsibility

• Fixing a hole in the roof
• Gun self-protection
• SUV family protection

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Abstract Systems vs. EAS
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A Cognitive Mismatch
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Defaulting to Everyday Action Scenarios

• Worrying about oil spills or trash on the beach
• Locking away guns
• Buying an SUV
• Dont put your hand between the rollers

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Factors that Reinforce EAS Thinking

• Consumer stance
• Personal responsibility advocacy

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Lived Experience and the Little Picture

• The Big Picture is Crowded Out
• New information is translated into new (and less
  productive) terms by the dominant models.
• There is emotional pressure to ignore problems in
  the food system.

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Food Systems as About Modernization

• Degree of Modernization is exaggerated.
• Modernization is seen as unstoppable.
• Problems are the price of progress.
• Certain kinds of information have no place and
  are filtered out.

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Limited Educational Value of Food Scares

• Food scares often confirm the generic
  Modernization narrative.
• Familiar little-picture models reassert
  themselves quickly in peoples thinking.

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FrameWorks Research

• Elicitations With the Public
• Cognitive Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Food
  Systems

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Methods

• One-hundred fifteen newspaper articles collected
  from newspapers in various parts of the country
• The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Miami
  Herald, The Detroit Free Press, The Chicago
  Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Seattle
  Times, and The Los Angeles Times, AP Newswire
  articles
• Newspaper archives searched for terms such as
  food, food systems, food production,
  agriculture, farms, etc.

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Many pieces play (destructively) on traditional
images of farming and rural America
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• Reinforce a cognitive disconnect between Food and
  Food Supply Systems
• Reinforce little-picture thinking by focusing
  images of the Individual Farmer
• Suggest that farming is removed from the real
  economy.
• Depict farming as an anachronistic occupation
• Make problems seem inevitable by referring to
  The Fall of traditional Rural America

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A strong focus on consumers and a
consumer-perspective obscures the real dynamics
of food systems.
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Many pieces tend to reinforce the negative
implications of the unstoppable Modernization
picture of food systems.
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Positive Impacts

• Highlighting the relationship between
  farmers/food-producers and the rest of the actors
  in a region
• Embedding discussions of particular farms/farmers
  thoroughly within big-picture discussions
• Focusing explicitly on the food supply chain
• Appealing to readers as responsible actors

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FrameWorks Research

• Meta-Analysis of Survey Research
• Elicitations With the Public
• Cognitive Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Food
  Systems
• Review of Common Advocate Frames

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Methods

• 10 recorded one-on-one conversations conducted
  with expert advocates at the Food and Society
  Conference in Lansdowne, VA, in April of 2005
• Additional informal conversations over several
  days during the conference

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The Forest and the Trees
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The Forest and the Trees

• Self-Contained Paradigms
• Minimal Reference to the Food System
• Not getting past Little Picture Thinking

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• Food Security
• Sustainability
• Social Justice for Farm Workers
• Farmland Preservation and Family Farm Viability
• Slow Food
• Local Food
• Organic Food
• Diversity
• Traditional Foodways

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Why a Unified Conceptual Model for Food Systems?

• Engagement and Salience
• Making Sense of Advocates Communications
• Unification and Diversity of the Field
• Creating Broader Constituencies
• Making Advocates Jobs Easier
• Inoculating the Paradigms Against Consumer
  Thinking

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Moving Beyond the EAS Simplifying Models

• Capture the essence of expert (often abstract)
  understanding
• Connect expert understanding to EAS (concrete,
  human scale, cause and effect)
• Put the actor in the causal picture
• Simplifying models compelling explanations

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Advantages of Simplifying Models

• Non-partisan
• Lasting effects
• Inoculate against manipulation/spin
• Ethical

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FrameWorks Institute Research Partner