Towards an understanding of a changing food system in Mauritius: A case study of rural and urban Mauritius
Master Thesis
2014
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Supervisors
Journal Title
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Publisher
University of Cape Town
Faculty
License
Series
Abstract
Nutrition transition is a phenomenon occurring throughout most of the developing world whereby traditional diets are increasingly being replaced by Western diets. In the literature, globalization is described as the main factor promoting such a transition. In adopting Western lifestyles, people abandon their traditional foods and adopt a Western diet which largely consists of energy-dense, nutritionally poor and highly processed foods. The nutrition transition, the underlying causes and its subsequent impacts on public health are well documented in the literature. However, there is a gap in the literature explaining the different ways in which the nutrition transition unfolds in the lives of people. Therefore this research project tries to document the lived experience of a changing food system in the Mauritian context. Mauritius has been selected as the study site because it is a microcosm of the casual factors driving the nutrition transition and also because the food system is rapidly changing. In 2008, the status of the country changed from being a net food exporter to a net food importer. A rural and urban site namely, Bambous Virieux and Tranquebar, Port-Louis have been selected to understand the different food geographies and to investigate the ways people in different locations experience a changing food system. By means of in-depth interviews, narratives and observation, the difference aspects of a changing food system is investigated. This study approaches the phenomenon of nutrition transition from the research participants’ lens.
Description
Includes bibliographical references.
Reference:
Appavoo Moodelly, S. 2014. Towards an understanding of a changing food system in Mauritius: A case study of rural and urban Mauritius. University of Cape Town.