Gardening practices in Alaska build on traditional food system foundations

Megan Mucioki (), Sean Kelly, Davin Holen, Bronwen Powell, Tikaan Galbreath, Sarah Paterno, Robbi Mixon and Guangqing Chi
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Megan Mucioki: Emory University
Sean Kelly: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Davin Holen: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Bronwen Powell: The Pennsylvania State University
Tikaan Galbreath: Alaska Region
Sarah Paterno: Tulane University
Robbi Mixon: Alaska Food Policy Council
Guangqing Chi: The Pennsylvania State University

Agriculture and Human Values, 2025, vol. 42, issue 2, No 21, 965-981

Abstract: Abstract Community-based food cultivation by and for rural Alaskans has never been stronger. Rural gardeners, many Indigenous, provide their families and communities with affordable access to high-quality fruits and vegetables and other locally grown foods. Despite these emerging trends, there is sparse examination of gardening as a complementary, diversification, or adaptation strategy in wild food-centered systems and the interchange of values and worldviews among practices. Findings from interviews and surveys in Dillingham, Alaska, and interviews with community-focused gardens throughout the state, inform our research questions about the role of gardening in rural Alaska and the links between food cultivation practices and wild food traditions. In this study we find that home gardeners are essential pillars of food sovereignty and security in their communities, providing both gardened foods and high volumes and more diversity of wild foods. Gardening households increase the diversity of shared food resources in the community and serve as sinks of gardening knowledge and supplies for other community members. Traditional food practices and ethics are interwoven into gardening and have become part of annual food rounds and celebrations. Locally, cultivated foods are often described as a complement to age-old foodways that draw on histories and values connected to Indigenous agriculture and horticulture in the United States and Canada. Policies, practices, and programming of food and nutrition security and food sovereignty must consider the holistic food system and strategies that communities desire and invest in.

Keywords: Gardening; Wild foods; Traditional foods; Indigenous peoples; Food sovereignty; Alaska (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-024-10652-6

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