Food sovereignty in Aruba - impressions from the UCU Field Research Aruba Programme

The Field Research Aruba programme supports students in conducting field research in Aruba, a small island state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Students use principles of community-based research to do projects in collaboration with stakeholders in Aruba. UCU Alum Karlijn van der Loo‘22 went to Aruba in her 3rd year to carry out community based research in the field of food sovereignty. We had a chat with Karlijn about UCU, her experiences in Aruba and beyond. We hope you enjoy the interview!

What did the journey to UCU look like for you?
I came into UCU already knowing the field I wanted to go into because I have been interested in international human rights and working with NGO’s for a long time. I was always interested in politics and international law so I explored a little bit, but I knew what I wanted to do. Before I came to UCU I was living in Hong Kong and working with several NGOs dealing with human trafficking and getting involved in the research side of things.

How did you hear about the Aruba Programme?
Jocelyn (Ballantyne) was my tutor at UCU, so I heard about the Aruba program right away in our first meeting, having expressed interest in international human rights and community based solutions to those issues. I also took a course in community based research and migration, which shaped my interest in this type of research. Many students think of the Aruba program as being very science-centered, however it definitely doesn’t have to be because that wasn’t a part of my interests at all. Historically a lot of people have gone there to do environmental sustainability projects but there are so many more options.

What did you choose as your topic for the programme?
Prior to the programme applications, there were a couple of information sessions where you could speak to alumni of the programme. Through those sessions I became aware of some human rights topics that could be addressed through CBR. I ended up focusing on food sovereignty, which was suggested during one session. I thought that was really interesting because you always hear food security or food and nutrition security being mentioned. Food sovereignty is a new concept and it didn't really make sense from a legal perspective; it’s not part of international law and is a challenge from a theoretical point of view, so that's what really drew me to it. It is more of a political movement that's grounded in the community, so it was interesting to address from the community based perspective, interesting politically and a challenge to see how it could fit into international human rights law.

How would you define food sovereignty?
It's hard to define because it is a political movement and it's not a legal concept; It doesn't have a clear definition. What it comes down to is a broader perspective on food challenges. Food security tends to just look at; is there enough food for everyone? If you look at nutrition security, it's; is there enough healthy food for everyone? If you take food sovereignty, you also start looking at how it's produced. Is it produced sustainably? How are the communities that are farming affected? It's often connected to gender as well, so it takes into consideration the impact on women in traditional communities based on farming. It's also something that's very centered around Latin America. Traditionally it's been an indigenous movement, supporting traditional indigenous ways of producing food and protecting those because they're often harmed by international trade and liberalization policies.

How did you come up with a project for Aruba in this context?
This concept was very interesting for Aruba as they are nearly completely dependent on imports, and food imports are very much connected to tourism. The reason this became interesting right around the time I was going was because COVID had just happened, shutting down tourism and causing  a lot of people to lose their jobs. Income levels had fallen and there was also not enough food coming in, so Aruba‘s import dependence became very apparent and how this could be a real challenge in times of crisis.

How was it when you actually got to do your research in the field?
To be honest, before travelling I was really scared because the project was based on doing independent research in a country that you're not familiar with. To begin with, it's a completely new environment and you're supposed to do community based research with a community you don't know. That was very intimidating and I honestly I didn't know much at all about what life would be like there at all, if it would be fun or if I would enjoy the next few months, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I thought it would be difficult to integrate into the Community to find people to interview, to work with, and to support my research. It turned out to be such a welcoming environment, and the research snowballed so easily. One person introduces you to someone who introduces you to three more people, and it really explodes that way. By the end I just ran out of time to interview everyone I wanted to and to distribute the survey to everyone I wanted to. Everyone was so eager to support and interested in the outcomes of the research as well.

So what would a working day look like for you?
There wasn't really much of a regular day because like I said, there was quite a snowball. So at the beginning I had quite a slow start and I spent a lot of time on my laptop trying to figure out what was going on. I spent a lot of time with the university because it was a place to meet people. Near the end, I was working more with stakeholders, so I was visiting farms, attending stakeholder meetings, and just kind of moving across the island. There's a lot of social life going on as well on Aruba, so there was always a mix of that, a little bit of work, a little bit of downtime. I think my work life balance was probably better in Aruba than it's ever been before, both productive and relaxing. We got to discover beach tennis as well while we were there, which ended up being our favorite pastime.

What was the conclusion of your project? Can you tell us a little about your findings?
The foundation of my research was community based of course, to see what the needs of producers were, especially speaking to farmers to connect the community-based needs to policy. That came down mostly to land and water. I also had an emphasis on collaboration, many stakeholders were saying that there was a lot of disconnect between different actors, so I decided to focus a lot on collaboration and competition. Then the next level was the international human rights law. I focused on piecing together how you could develop a right to food sovereignty from the existing international and regional law, both hard and soft law. In one of my last meetings before I left Aruba I was introduced to the Minister of Economics, and I found that they did have a pilot plan in preparation covering most of my findings. Since my time there, I have continued some of the research in preparation for a conference this month, and found that an additional plan in food policy is being implemented. I don’t think my research had a direct link to these policy documents, but I’d like to think it was supportive in some way

What would you say to UCU students considering joining the Aruba project?
I think the main condition for choosing to do this project would be to be very flexible in your goals and how you expect to achieve them. You find out a lot just upon arrival in Aruba, and despite preparation and having an idea of exactly what you want to do, you must have a flexible mindset for both your subject and methods. Secondly, I think it's obvious from the name community based research, but it is important to remember that it really is community based. If you go there, it's because you want to work with stakeholders, NGO’s, the government, other researchers, and do your part to contribute. It's all about communicating with the people who are already there. Aruba is a very small place and even though everyone might not know each other personally, everyone knows of each other, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It's very easy to network, easy to meet the right people. There is also a level of intricacy needed to navigate community politics.

How do you reflect back on your time at UCU?
I'd say I learned a lot from the time at UCU and in Aruba. I think I expected to come out of UCU having a clear focus and a clear goal, really being certain of what I want to do. It ended up being the opposite. The subject of food sovereignty was something completely new for me, a new field of human rights. It has opened a lot of doors for me, I look back on it as having opened my mind in a lot of ways and just introduced me to so many possibilities and options.

For more information about the Field Research Aruba programme and other curriculum enrichment options, please follow the link below.