Territorial gastronomic coalitions in Andean Lima: action-research insights among small producers, restaurants, and community kitchens

This project targets some of the most compelling threats to Andean agriculture, including food insecurity and climate change, by focusing on Territorial Gastronomic Coalitions. Thus, it directly associates to the main goals of the McKnight Foundation’s Program of Global Collaboration for Resilient Food Systems (CRFS) by enhancing the linkages among food systems, participatory action research and multi-actor collaboration. This will be done by departing from a territorial-based approach to take into account the particular institutional and socioecological dynamics that shape such coalitions. In doing so, the project expects to effectively contribute to designing, validating, implementing and evaluating sustainable responses to changing food-system conditions in Andean Lima. As known, the worldwide success of Peruvian gastronomy at the beginning of the new millennium was based on the application of international haute cuisine techniques supported by the enhancement of Peruvian identity, cultural diversity and biodiversity (Elías, García Negro, Schling & Mount, 2022). Following this idea, it is possible to establish a dialogue with the CRFS's commitment with special emphasis on its strategy 1 related to accelerating local and regional food systems transformation by scaling co-created agroecological knowledge and practice through TGC. In addition, efforts will be made to establish connection with strategy 2 linked to influencing global and cross-national funding flows, policies, and research norms and agendas to enable agroecological transformation through participation in academic, public advocacy and policy-making related settings.