Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Measuring Impacts of Community Seed Banks on Nutrition, Food Security, and Food Sovereignty in Underserved Regions

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会（NSF）社会、行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划和SBE法律与科学计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在北亚利桑那大学的Alder Keleman Saxena博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金奖支持早期职业科学家研究营养安全，减少饥饿和可持续农业的相互联系问题。随着美国经历越来越多的环境变化（如热浪、干旱、野火和洪水），当地获取营养食品是至关重要的。不断进化和适应的粮食作物对于确保在快速变化的环境中获得粮食至关重要。本项目处理这些相互关联的问题，研究以地方为基础的社区种子库如何保护作物多样性，同时增加当地获得营养、健康食品的机会。社区种子库可以作为中心节点，1)将人们与粮食资源联系起来，2)管理环境，3)保存和种植重要的区域粮食作物。尽管他们在这些角色中很重要，但很少有研究表明他们实际上是如何为受影响的社区服务的。这项工作填补了这一空白，研究了高度贫困和饥饿地区的社区种子库，以追踪从种子库到粮食获取和营养的途径。该项目将提供有关这些途径的原始数据，说明在何处、如何、何时以及谁受益于当地种子库。这项工作的研究目标是确定美国受影响最严重地区现有的农业生物多样性保护倡议，并将其与如何促进社区网络联系起来，以实现提供和增加获得粮食和营养安全的目标。该项目采用了四部分的研究设计，包括网络分析和路径映射，以确定种子进出社区种子库的流动，确定参与的各种行为者，他们的参与水平，以及向社区分享种子和利益的结果。此外，它将确定种子到食物途径的类型，其中可能包括后院花园项目、社区花园、社区支持农业、免费社区冰箱、教育空间、学校花园等。将对每个案例站点区域的社区成员和社区种子库组织者进行访谈，所有访谈都将编码并存储在定性数据编码软件中。最后，将在每个确定的案例地点举行焦点小组讨论，以评估对社区种子库及其途径的看法，以及社区本身如何确定这些途径。这项研究将有助于1)研究农村企业通过扩大获得农业生物多样性来支持粮食安全/营养的条件；2)多个数据集，包括本地和区域保护种子品种指数、使用种子品种的生态系统指数以及群落如何使用种子品种指数；3)网络分析，介绍支持农业生物多样性流入和流出社区的行为者和机构的类型。从广义上讲，该博士后项目直接促进了全球对农业生物多样性现状研究的呼吁。此外，它有助于理解可持续粮食系统与粮食安全/获取/和营养的交集。这项研究强调了人类社会与自然环境互动和互动的方式，有可能形成环境治理和粮食政策的理论。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Law and Science program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Alder Keleman Saxena at Northern Arizona University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the interlinking issues of nutritional security, hunger reduction, and sustainable agriculture. As the United States experiences increasing environmental changes (e.g., heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and flooding) on local access to nutritional foods is fundamental. Food crops that evolve and adapt are central to securing food access in rapidly changing environments. This project undertakes these interrelated issues, examining the ways in which locally-based community seed banks are protecting crop diversity while increasing local access to nutritional, healthy foods. Community seed banks can serve as central nodes that 1) connect people to food resources, 2) steward the environment, and 3) preserve and grow important regional food crops. Despite their importance in these roles, there is little to no research on how they actually serve impacted communities. This undertaking fills this gap, examining community seed banks in areas of high poverty and hunger, to trace the pathways from seed banks to food access and nutrition. The project will contribute original data on these pathways, illustrating where, how, when, and who benefits from local seed banks.The research objective of this undertaking is to identify existing agrobiodiversity conservation initiatives in most impacted regions of the US, linking them to how they facilitate community networks for the goal of providing and increasing access to food and nutritional security. This project undertakes a four-part research design, including network analysis and pathway mapping to determine the flow of seeds to and away from community seed banks, identifying the various actors involved, their levels of participation, and outcomes of seed and benefit sharing to the community. Additionally, it will identify a typology of seed-to-food pathways, which could include backyard garden projects, community gardens, community supported- agriculture, free community fridges, educational spaces, school gardens, and others. Community members and community seed bank organizers in each case site area will be interviewed, with all interviews coded and housed in qualitative data coding software. Finally, focus groups will be held in each identified case site to assess perceptions of community seed banks and their pathways, along with how communities themselves identify these pathways. This research will contribute 1) methods for examining the conditions under which CSBs support food security/nutrition through expanding access to agrobiodiversity; 2) multiple data sets, including indexes of locally and regionally conserved seed varieties, ecosystems in which they are used, and how communities use them; and 3) network analyses introducing a typology of actors and institutions that support the flow of agrobiodiversity to and from communities. Broadly, this postdoctoral project directly contributes to global calls for increasing research on the status of agrobiodiversity. Furthermore, it contributes to understanding the intersections of sustainable food systems with food security/access/and nutrition. This research emphasizes the ways in which human societies interact and engage with their physical environments, with potential to shape theories on environmental governance and food policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.