Mapping Urban Food Security in Delft: A Bottom Up Perspective

Abstract

Food security is a complicated phenomenon that consists of the intersections of food and people, and the cultures that people create around food. In general, food security research is concerned with how people access food, how reliable that access is, how affordable that food is, and how culturally appropriate that food is. This analysis tends to ignore the complex relationships people have with food and who these people are. Through the mapping of the Delft food system by remote sensing, surveys and interviews I create a food atlas that consists of maps of the spatiality of food but also maps of feelings, anxieties, fears and resilience, all centred around the people of Delft. The results and discussions of this thesis shows that food security is far more complicated than initially thought and that there are multiple avenues of inquiry into the lives of people who are considered food insecure. My research shows that the people of Delft are food insecure but that this label cannot be applied too liberally as food insecurity has different meanings for various residents and it manifests in various ways. I explore this through the creation of three women who represent three different classes of women who live within Delft.