Negotiating the Modernity Crisis: Globalization, economic gain and the loss of traditional and sustainable food practices in Turkey

A globalized food system, seemingly of international benefit, poses many hidden dangers, particularly for developing countries. A desire within LMICs to modernize and enter the global economy has resulted in the loss of local and traditional foodways, instead replaced by imported and processed items. However, these traditional practices are our best hope for a secure, sustainable and nutritious food supply as they are healthier and more climate-friendly than the purchased alternative.

Turkey, as a LMIC, faces two major challenges. The first is avoiding a slide into a fully globalized food system whereby traditional food practices are eliminated. Increasing urbanization and a neoliberal attitude to agriculture has already significantly altered food acquisition and consumption practices.

Unhealthy western fast food outlets are an ever-increasing sight. In Turkey women are the crux of the home; food processing and cooking belong almost exclusively to the female realm. The second challenge is to negotiate an ongoing struggle with modernity, namely finding a solution to the desire to continue to practice traditional foodways yet simultaneously modernize, a struggle particularly pertinent for women as they increasingly enter the work force.

The project, a collaboration between Royal Holloway (UK) and Koç University (Turkey), tackles key components of the UN's SDGs 5 (gender equality), 11 (sustainable communities) and 12 (responsible production and consumption). The project aims to articulate and find solutions to Turkey's challenges by studying the dynamics of sustainable foodways in the province of Manisa, and especially the agency of women, through an exploration of ancient and traditional diet and processing practices.

As archaeologists, we leverage the legacies of food, bringing a deep knowledge of the past into the present. Using archaeobotanical (ancient plant) data from the two archaeological sites of Kaymakçi and Sardis we explore the way people continuously produced food in this region for over 4000-years. Here practices of the past may provide a pathway towards a more sustainable future; there are valuable lessons to be learned from the way people negotiated massive cultural, religious and climatic changes.

Training and education in archaeobotanical research aims to enhance this under represented discipline within Turkish archaeology and provide new employment opportunities, especially for women.

We also seek to understand more broadly how contemporary communities have shifted their practices given the challenges faced by Turkey's current LMIC status. In collaborative and capacity building workshops with members of rural and urban Manisa communities, we will engage in two-way conversations. Participants will cook traditional foods and discuss their own experiences and solutions to the struggle with modernity while we will discuss our archaeobotanical findings with the aim of linking past and present landscapes.

The outcomes of our research will be disseminated through traditional academic methods and a range of public-facing activities. Our archaeobotanical findings, in peer-reviewed articles and available on open access databases will make a significant contribution to Turkish archaeobotanical research and ancient foodways more broadly. We will unite our archaeological work with the workshop data to create a free exhibition in Istanbul and a cookbook (hardcopy and free PDF download).

Visitor surveys will create an engagement feedback loop, allowing visitors to articulate their own experiences of a changing foodscape. With Manisa and Istanbul as case studies, we hope to expand upon our results to aid Turkey and other LMICs find the necessary medium between sustainability, food security and globalization.