Just Eat Peas and Dance: Field Peas (Vigna unguiculata) and Food Security in the Ozark Highlands, U.S
2014
Campbell, Brian C.
Field peas (Vigna unguiculata L. [Walp]) are recognized as an important agricultural crop throughout Africa and Asia for myriad reasons, ranging from their remarkably high nutrient content to their adaptability to marginal lands. In the early twentieth century, agricultural research stations investigated and advocated V. unguiculata for sustainable farming in the United States of America (U.S.) but such interest has all but disappeared in commercial agronomy. U.S.-focused agronomists perceive field peas as relatively incompatible with contemporary non-integrated agricultural systems, climate, and fast-food culinary habits; however, the species remains integral to the traditional cuisine of the southern U.S. With almost 18 million U.S. households experiencing food insecurity in 2011, a marked increase over the last decade, fresh strategies and time-tested species deserve research attention. This paper explores the role of field peas in hunger mitigation in the recent past in the Ozark Highlands, a marginal landscape unable to support large-scale industrial crop production, which currently endures some of the highest food insecurity rates in the U.S. Ethnographic accounts detail the importance of field peas during difficult times, and findings from an agrobiodiversity conservation project demonstrate the salience of field peas as a staple food and feed crop amongst older, traditional Ozark families. I conclude with a discussion of field peas' role in community food systems strategies for contemporary and future Ozark food security.
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