Anna Peñuelas joined CRIA this May with a research project investigating how changes in food production and consumption—driven by globalization, socio-environmental and health crises, migration, and schooling, among other factors—compromise the food security and sovereignty of the Ngäbe indigenous people of Panama. Moving beyond biological stability, the study examines the ontological dimension of change: how these shifts reconfigure the Ngäbe’s way of being, existing, and maintaining social and spiritual integrity. Using a grounded perspective and an immersive methodology, the project bridges local logic with global debates, broadening our understanding of how communities redefine the vital relationships between food, the body, and territory amid globalization, conflict and inequality.
