Introduction

This issue of Culture, Agriculture, Food, and Environment features articles that examine the relationship of farming and foraging practices to sustainability and taste in diverse geographic contexts. Gracie Pekarcik, David Ader, and Tom Gill undertake a comparative analysis of agriculture over time in Cambodia in order to analyze the long-term effects of the Pol Pot regime on agricultural lands and livelihoods. As the Khmer Rouge sought to create a utopian agrarian-socialist state beginning in 1975, they abolished private subsistence gardens and private property to concentrate on rice production. At the same time, the regime implemented genocidal policies that also resulted in the dismantling of classical education and cultural and indigenous practices. These decisions have had lasting effects on agriculture, which even today remains centralized and unsustainably intensive. Pekarcik, Ader, and Gill delineate how smallholders in particular remain vulnerable due to the lack of diversified crops and sources of income. They further suggest various agricultural policy shifts that could improve food and economic security for farmers. Germán Muñoz, Lily Palacios, Hugo Guarín, and Héctor Castillo also pursue research with farmers, in this case in Colombia, to better understand their perspectives on how to manage plastic bags that are used in coffee farming. Coffee farmers have widely adopted the practice of using polyethylene plastic bags to grow germinated seedlings for 4–6 months. Some then bury the bags or leave them in fields where they transplant the coffee trees, while others collect and take them to disposal sites. Muñoz, Palacios, Guarín, and Castillo undertake participant observation to understand the perspectives of farmers about these plastic bags which, depending on how they are managed, can release toxic chemicals into the air and soil. The authors find widespread support among coffee farmers for the development of biodegradable bags. Foraging provides food sources for a range of cooks, from elite chefs to migrants who seek to find footing in their adopted countries. The article by Vien Dinh focuses on the latter engagements with foraging in order to better understand how migrant practices of gathering wild edibles shape food security, overall welfare, and cultural preservation. Dinh undertakes research with Vietnamese immigrants to Germany and Japan and analyzes the significance and persistence of migrant foraging in host societies, finding that migrants forage and consume wild plants both to link cultural heritage with their new surroundings and to create a sense of culinary belonging. Abdulla Al Mozahid looks to rural Bangladeshi agrarian workers understand taste and texture attributes of rice. They use the idea of agrarian taste to examine the imbricated practices of multisensorial tasting and judgment-making practiced by agrarian workers of diverse class perspectives. They find that agrarian taste is not just about the flavor of cooked rice but encompasses growing and production practices as well. The ethnographic stories they highlight elucidate how diverse practical, economic, and socio-cultural aspects shape perceptions of rice quality and have implications for how rice is grown and processed. Overall, this issue presents research situated at the intersection of food and environment, with an emphasis on agricultural food systems. The articles collectively address pervasive intellectual interests in care, cultivation, and relationality while also offering some pragmatic conclusions about policies and practices.