UC and museum draw agricultural connections

Amanda Jones

6 March 2013: University of Canberra researchers have teamed up with the National Museum of Australia to explore how agricultural shows have helped shape the relationships between food, people and place.

The project titled ‘Urban Farming and the Agricultural Show’ is led by University lecturers Bethaney Turner and Joanna Henryks, in collaboration with curators George Main and Kirsten Wehner, from the National Museum of Australia’s (NMA) People and the Environment program. The project is funded by a micro-linkage grant from the University’s Faculty of Arts and Design.

The research led to the creation of a website that seeks to engage Australians in an ongoing dialogue about the relationships between food production and agricultural shows. The website, which includes an online exhibition hosted by the NMA, was launched at the 2013 Royal Canberra Show.

The project involved digging into the Museum’s National Historical Collection and identifying objects that relate to agricultural shows and food production, such as prize medals and trophies.

With the assistance of the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society, the team then interviewed a number of people (including backyard and community gardeners) who had a history of exhibiting produce (such as those that entered the horticultural produce section and preserves/jams) at the Royal Canberra Show.

Gardener and Show Steward Chris Hunter and NMA curator Kirsten Wehner launch the website at the 2013 Royal Canberra Show. Photo: Jason McCarthy, National Museum of Australia

The interviews were conducted early last year, with the 2012 Royal Canberra Show providing the perfect backdrop for the team to see exhibitors in action.

“We were particularly interested in exploring the areas in which people connect to the food system through growing and exhibiting their own produce, as well as exploring the importance of food growing in urban settings,” Dr Turner, assistant professor in international studies, said.

The project builds on previous research by Dr Turner and Dr Henryks that explores why and how (and the impacts of) people connecting to the food system particularly through their own food production in community gardens, school kitchen gardens shopping at farmers’ markets and engagement with food waste.

The team found that agricultural shows have traditionally represented agriculture as broad-scale, industrial processes located firmly in rural settings. This practice distances urban dwellers from engagement with the food system.

Through the interviews the project identified key ways in which these assumptions about food production are being challenged and reimagined in contemporary small-scale food production in backyards and community gardens in urban areas.