Identifying diverse infrastructure needs, barriers, and opportunities for enhancing food security: a case study of the island of Newfoundland

Hunger and food insecurity are on the rise globally. A study of food infrastructures has the potential to offer sustainable solutions embedded in communities and networks. This thesis examined the extent to which an infrastructural lens may provide insight and understanding that could help inform the development of more sustainable solutions to systemic problems with food security on the island of Newfoundland. The purpose of this research was to analyze food (in)security in Newfoundland using an infrastructure lens, and to identify infrastructural needs, barriers, and opportunities to improve overall capacity for improving food security. This research combined data from literature reviews, content analysis and semi-structured interviews with key informants, and utilized a diverse infrastructures analytical lens which enabled the researcher to describe the state of current food infrastructures, identify existing infrastructural barriers to food security, and suggest infrastructural solutions and recommendations. Data was organized into themes with trends, commonalities, and differences using NVivo. All of the data points were then re-organized into three overarching categories: needs, barriers, and opportunities. The data in each category was re-analyzed into codes within each category. The results were categorized into infrastructural solutions and recommendations including building processing facilities, enhancing clean energy infrastructure, overcoming ecological factors using technology and innovation, public education campaigns, government incentives, institutional leadership, cooperation and sharing, and a poverty reduction strategy. This thesis concluded that globally recognized challenges to food security, including access and distribution, are intrinsically tied to infrastructure. Infrastructural analyses and solutions can enhance capacity for improving food security and offer sustainable solutions.