ABSTRACT. All across Turtle Island (North America) we are seeing a great resurgence of indigenous tribes building healthy resilient food systems as a cornerstone to cultural and ecological renewal programs, as a means to reclaim indigenous economies and economic/ political sovereignty. The Indigenous Seed Keepers Network is helping leverage resources for indigenous communities cultivating culturally appropriate solutions to restoring seed stewardship of traditional foods. The mission of the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network is to nourish and assist the growing Seed Sovereignty Movement across North America. As a national network, we leverage resources and cultivate solidarity and communication within the matrix of regional grass-roots seed sovereignty projects. We support the creation of solutions-oriented programs for adaptive resilient seed systems within tribal communities. ISKN is a shade tree of support to the essential work of tribal seed initiatives, as we offer a diverse array of resources aimed at nourishing a vibrant indigenous seed movement, as a compliment to the growing Food Sovereignty movement. In the age of the increasing industrialization of our food and the erosion of biodiversity within cultural contexts, the Indigenous SeedKeeper Network asks the questions; Can we envision the Seed Commons and coordinate collaborative efforts to care for our seeds that is in right relationship to our indigenous cosmology? How can we use the process of reclaiming our traditional seeds and food as a powerful means of cultural restoration? Integral in this seed movement is the cultural memories and stories; we regain a sense of who we are as a culture through our foods and seeds. Developing resources that support in-situ stewardship of these varieties within their communities of origin is a fundamental aspect to ensure these foods remain accessible to Indigenous Peoples. These varieties are a fundamental aspect of success in a local food program, for they are adapted to bioregional climate conditions over many generations. Access to traditional seed varieties ensures abundant harvests in regions with marginal resources. Seed stewardship is a fundamental tool for communities who face the consequences of climate change, increasing the creative capacity of indigenous food systems to evolve as our Mother Earth changes. It is a critical time for the Indigenous SeedKeepers network to emerge in such leadership in Turtle Island ( North America) to help communities steward, protect, share and sustain their precious seed resources. ISKN works with a focus group/advisory council from a wide range of tribal communities across Turtle Island.

ABSTRACT. Since the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) in 2003 launched Mother Seeds in Resistance, an anti-GMO initiative focused on agro-biodiversity conservation, the concept of indigenous seed sovereignty has gained political relevance in Chiapas, Mexico. Fifteen years later, what began as a project limited to Zapatista-controlled autonomous communities has spread to many non-Zapatista communities and organizations. Today, seed sovereignty has become one of the most dynamic and powerful political agendas in the region. This is possible, I argue, because seed sovereignty—a notion rooted in the material, spiritual, and cultural meanings these communities assign to their native seed systems—highlights their common interests as Mayan indigenous people, an identity that transcends political, religious, and territorial divisions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with EZLN-affiliated and non-Zapatista communities this paper explores the development of this regional agenda of seed sovereignty. I focus on the Guardians of Mother Earth and Seeds project, developed by the local NGO DESMI, which includes 25 indigenous and mestizo non-Zapatista communities from the regions of Los Altos and Norte Tumbalá. DESMI (Economic and Social Development for Mexican Indigenous People) has been working in the region for almost 50 years and has collaborated with the EZLN since its origins. The Guardians of Mother Earth and Seeds project is informed by the EZLN’s agenda of food and seed sovereignty, but is being implemented in non-Zapatista communities. This paper compares what seed sovereignty looks like in practice in Zapatista and non-Zapatista communities, and how they have developed a regional political agenda around seeds. Despite structural differences between these two groups of communities, they have managed to establish a common ground in which this project of seed sovereignty is rooted: the proposition of reinterpreting native seeds as a protected commons. This framing makes explicit the responsibility of peasant communities to protect their native seeds both from external threats (e.g., the introduction of GMOs and intellectual property rights regimes) and from agricultural practices employed by peasants in the region that inadvertently put at risk the sustenance of native seed systems. Thus, in an attempt to preserve their native seeds, these communities have embarked in a process of transforming their own agricultural practices. Seed sovereignty has also enabled a process of partial decommodification that can potentially transcend seeds to reach other aspects of these communities’ agricultural systems.

ABSTRACT. The erosion of farmer sovereignty over seed—via corporate appropriation of plant genetic resources, growing monopoly power in the seed industry, the development of transgenic crops, and the global imposition of intellectual property rights (especially patents)—has become a pivotal issue for farmers the world over. Increasingly, the access of farmers and breeders to genetic material is subject to use-restrictions drawn from both intellectual property and contract law. In response, the Open Source Seed Initiative was created to “free the seed” from such use-restrictions. This is accomplished with a “copyleft” Pledge attached to newly bred cultivars. Recipients or purchasers of OSSI-Pledged seed are assured of the freedom to do whatever they wish with the seed, with one restriction: that they give that same freedom to anyone to whom they give or sell that seed or any of its derivatives or progeny. Colleagues all over the world have been excited and inspired by the potential of open source approaches to freeing the seed. OSSI has Variety Contributors and Seed Company Partners in Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and the UK. However, socio-agro-legal-political environments vary considerably around the world. OSSI’s deployment of open source seeds in the USA is facilitated by the fact that the USA places virtually no restrictions on breeding and subsequent sale of seed. In contrast, breeders and seed sellers in the European Union labor under the extremely restrictive regulations of the Common Catalog. These regulations forbid selling most seed that is not listed in the Catalog, and the requirements for listing are such that, practically speaking, farmers, gardeners, and small seed companies find it very difficult to breed and sell their own varieties. Most nations of the Global South are now being pressed to accept similarly restrictive IPR, phytosanitary, and certification rules. Despite such barriers, efforts to free the seed are making gains globally. The German NGO, AGRECOL, has written an open source license adapted to EU conditions. The Indian NGO, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, has developed an open source license designed to complement the Indian Seed Law. The Dutch NGO, Hivos International, is working to introduce open source seed projects in East Africa. OSSI is cooperating with these initiatives and others to build an international platform for supporting open source, freed seed.

ABSTRACT. Objective. Farm Fresh Food Boxes (F3B) is an innovative direct-marketing strategy allowing customers to order pre-packed boxes of fresh local produce for later pick up at small rural stores. F3B can potentially open new markets for farmers, increase foot traffic in rural stores, and provide access to fresh, affordable locally-grown produce for consumers living in rural areas. Intervention. A multidisciplinary research and extension team in three states (Vermont, Washington, and California) offers technical assistance to participating farmer-retailer pairs to help them market F3B to consumers in areas with limited access to fresh, local produce. Rural stores post weekly flyers detailing the content and cost of F3B available from participating area farms. Customers pre-order advertised boxes at the store each week, to be picked up at the store on a designated day. Methods. As part of a mixed-methods evaluation of this intervention, we assessed purchaser opinions via voluntary short paper surveys included in each F3B sold. Categorical data were tabulated, and qualitative analysis conducted on responses to open-ended questions Findings. Twelve F3B customers from four participating stores submitted consumer surveys in late Fall, 2017. Most respondents were older, white, middle-income women living with a 15-minute drive to the store, who habitually shop other DTC venues; five were frequent shoppers at the rural store. Most had heard about F3B through advertisements posted in the store. A majority expressed satisfaction with the quality and variety of produce in the F3B, as well as the value, ease of ordering, and interactions with retailers. Two respondents said they disliked that F3B pick-up times were inconsistent, or not as convenient as shopping at a grocery store. Most felt the advantages made F3B worth trying. Half the respondents said they purchased additional items when they came to pick up their box. Conclusions and Implications. Most customers were satisfied with of the F3B, frequently stating with the quality and variety of the produce. Customers also frequently were very satisfied with the ease of ordering, the value for the cost of the box, and interactions with the retailers. F3B seems to be a promising way to draw customers into rural stores but may require carefully planned external advertising to be successful.

ABSTRACT. Despite the decrease in the number of the nation’s farmers and farmland, Hispanic operators continue to increase nationally and in the Midwest. Based on the USDA Census of Agriculture between 2007 and 2012, the number of farm operators in the Midwest decreased by 8,709 while total farmland decreased from 344 million to 339 million acres. During that same period, the number of Hispanic farm operators in the region increased by almost 25%.

As the nation’s agricultural industry continues to undergo demographic changes, it is critical that we increase our understanding of how Latino farmers seek to improve the success of their farms and connect with the resources needed to be successful. Missing in the literature are in depth case studies that shed light on the diversity of the agricultural livelihood strategies of Latinos in the Midwest. We need to better understand how Latinos enter the practice of farming, the factors that impact their success as farmers, the networks of support they maintain, and the strategies farmers employ as they seek to become successful agricultural entrepreneurs. At the same time, it is important to design research in ways that promote networks that bridge the gap between Latino entrepreneurs in agriculture and the organizations, institutions and policies that exist in support of the practice of farming.

This is a qualitative research study that used participatory research methods to better understand how Latinos in Missouri moved into farming, the nature of their connections to existing institutions and organizations that support the agricultural system and the particular capacity needs that must be addressed by key stakeholders in order to actively engage with these farmers. Focus groups with agricultural service providers and separately with Latino farmers were conducted during the months of January through May of 2017. In addition, individual in-depth interviews with Latino farmers were completed to complement the focus groups. The focus groups and individual interviews were recorded, transcribed, and those interviews conducted in Spanish were translated into English. Transcriptions were then coded by the team of researchers using four levels of coding.

Preliminary findings show there are significant gaps with what resource providers offer and what these emerging farmers actually need. Barriers reach beyond language to include a lack of acculturation of both farmers and resource providers, as well as rigid belief systems in the practice of agriculture that allow for little flexibility to accommodate the real needs of small minority farmers.

ABSTRACT. The proportion of the world's population living in urban areas is increasing dramatically; as of 2007, more people live in urban than rural areas [1]. As growing populations in urban areas demand greater food supplies, coupled with a rise in rural to urban migration and the need to create livelihood options, there has been an increase in urban agriculture worldwide [2,3]. With more and more focus on social equity, urban agriculture can benefit both the urban poor and more affluent city-dwellers by targeting gaps in the food system, have a positive impact on urban development, and raise the quality of life and livelihoods through increased employment opportunities and improved access to high quality food and social opportunities [4]. But, how does urban agriculture achieve these goals?

As urban agriculture gains traction in cities across the globe, it manifests in various ways. In some cities, the trend is emerging at a grassroots level, whereas in others, governments are providing resources and changes in policy to incentivize research and development of high-tech and intensive urban farming. This paper presents exploratory findings on the current state of urban farming initiatives in five case cities in south and southeast Asia: Delhi and Bangalore, India; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Jakarta, Indonesia. Research methods include a review of the academic and gray literature, interviews, and site visits. Although the five cities represent diverse socio-political-economic contexts, there are common trends among emerging urban farm entrepreneurs. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications for social equity and food security.

[1] UNFPA. (2007). State of the world population. Retrieved from http://www.unfpa.org/public/ accessed 12/10/11. [2] Bryld, E. (2003). Potentials, problems, and policy implications for urban agriculture in developing countries. Agriculture and Human Values, 20(1), 79-86. [3] van Veenhizen, R. (2006). Cities Farming for the Future: Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities. Leusden, The Netherlands: RUAF Foundation, IDRC and International Institute for Rural Reconstruction. [4] Lesher, C. W. (2006). Urban Agriculture: A Literature Review. (Masters of Latin American Studies), United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD.

ABSTRACT. The processes and strategies that are involved in the formation and evolution of local food systems (LFSs) are often obscure, relatively uncoordinated, and somewhat mysterious. The current study develops a stronger understanding of such processes and strategies through a qualitative exploration of the influence of routine practice work at the organization level on the development of two distinct LFSs in the Southwest region of the United States (U.S.): the Southeastern Arizona (SA) LFS and the Albuquerque/Santa Fe (ASF) LFS. Data were gathered between August 2014 and September 2017 through semi-structured interviews with and direct observations of 53 local food practitioners operating in one of the two LFSs. The principles of three intersecting organizational theories guide the study: institutional entrepreneurship, embedded agency, and practice work. The principles of Institutional entrepreneurship are used to explore how the tacit practices and explicit strategies that local food actors engage in at the organization level converge at the system level to maximize resource mobilization, influence shared belief systems, and reinforce common understandings of legitimate practices. The principles of embedded agency are used to more deeply explore the capacities of local food actors to influence the systems in which their businesses or organizations (e.g., CSAs, farms, farmers’ markets, food co-operatives) operate. The principles of practice work are called on to reveal how the routine activities and tasks that local food actors perform at the organization level contribute to the negotiation and resolution of system level challenges, conflicts, and tensions. The findings reveal three forms of ingenuity (technological, organizational, policy) that regularly emerge through the day-to-day organization level work of local food practitioners. The system-level influence of these ingenuities, whether intentional or not, are argued to be indicators of the embedded agency of the practitioners and their capacities to serve as institutional entrepreneurs. Equally important, organization level ingenuities are revealed to be otherwise overlooked and under-utilized sources of system level innovation. Implications for both practice and future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. As urban farms have proliferated around the United States in the past decades, much attention has been paid to their youth engagement, community development, educational and other social impacts. Commercial-focused urban farmers may have many social and community goals as part of their mission but they seek to primarily support their farms through sales of agricultural products. Yet there have been few assessments of how commercial urban farms, which face the narrow margins and high risks of growing produce in small spaces, can thrive based on primarily sales of their products. While there are some emerging sectors in commercial urban farming that are highly capitalized (e.g. controlled environment agriculture, vertical farming), most soil-based urban farms face many of the same challenges as rural small farms. Often strong relationships with nonprofit and philanthropic sources have helped urban farms survive. What else can be done to encourage their self-sufficiency for a promising future? Through a study commissioned by the Local Food Research & Development Division of USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, we have interviewed 14 commercial urban farmers and over 150 policy-makers, urban planners, funders, and nonprofit and community organizers engaged in local food systems and urban farming to uncover the policies, resources, and future research and development needed to support the development of urban farms. These case study farms present relevant farm models and approaches, supportive planning policies, and critical partnerships that point the way toward fulfilling the promise of urban agriculture.

ABSTRACT. As a response to the inadequacies of an industrialized food system, small-scale, sustainable agriculture projects are on the rise in urban areas. Using data from interviews and content analysis, this case study details the formation of Treehugger Organic Farm (an urban farm in Broward, Florida) that employed both agroecological and permaculture methods. I describe the progression and challenges the owner and personnel faced while developing a sustainable farm in the context of the three sustainability pillars (environment, economy, and social). The farm and personnel became deeply embedded in the local community, not just as a source of food, but also as a place for community outreach and political activism. To close, I analyze how varied motives for engaging in urban, sustainable agriculture can lead to disparate visions. In its fifth year, the farm owner decided to end the operation, leaving the farm manager and community confused. This case study raises important questions about farming for profit and farming as a labor of love, and what happens when visions of a sustainable future are tested.

ABSTRACT. Background: Businesses and organizations involved in growing, distributing, and supplying food may face severe disruptions from natural and human-generated hazards ranging from extreme weather to political unrest. Baltimore, Maryland is developing policies to improve local food system organizations’ ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptive events, and ultimately to contribute to food system resilience.

Objective: Identify factors that may be associated with organization-level food system resilience, how these factors may play out in disaster response, and how they may relate to organizations’ confidence in their ability to withstand disruptive events.

Design: Semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives of key food system businesses and organizations identified using stratified purposive sampling and snowball sampling.

Participants/Setting: Representatives of 26 food system businesses and organizations in Baltimore stratified by two informant categories: organizations focused on promoting food access, such as governmental offices and nonprofits, and businesses and organizations involved in supplying and distributing food in Baltimore City, such as retailers, wholesalers and producers.

Analyses: Interviews were analyzed using ATLAS.ti using a phronetic iterative approach.

Results: Identified 10 factors that may contribute to organization-level resilience: formal emergency planning; staff training; staff attendance; redundancy of food supply, food suppliers, infrastructure, location, and service providers; insurance; and post-event learning. Organizations that were larger, better resourced, and affiliated with national or government partners typically demonstrated more resilience factors compared to smaller, independent, and nonprofit organizations. Smaller and independent organizations often engaged less in formal preparation, and often lacked backup infrastructure. The mission-driven and family-run nature of many smaller, independent organizations may compensate in part for their lack of formal preparation, with more dedicated staff and thus higher attendance. Despite wide variation in preparedness across organizations, nearly all respondents reported high confidence in their organizations’ abilities to respond to disruptions.

Conclusion: This study’s examination of factors that contribute to resilience can help food system organizations, researchers, and government officials identify priorities for investigating vulnerabilities in diverse operations, and potential strategies to improve resilience in the face of ongoing and growing threats.

ABSTRACT. The rise of food access research is intimately tied to availability of GIS technology and data on store locations. This presentation discusses the importance of mapping technology in shaping food desert research as well as research on the environmental impacts of health in general, as well as the use of food desert in popular communication. Much of the power of the term lies in the use of maps. The food access or “desert” concept visualizes inequality through the use of GIS. The fact that studies of food access often begin and end with easily accessible store address data, which is also easy to put into a map, has promoted the analysis of food access data by academics and non-academics alike. Issues with these data, as well as debates about how to analyze them, are often overlooked in public discussions. This presentation addresses the history of popular discourse on food deserts and the importance of maps and mapping technology in shaping this history.

ABSTRACT. Scholars examining the food movement raise questions about the effectiveness and ability of the movement to truly achieve equitable and meaningful change in the food system. For example, environmental sociologist Debra Davidson (2016) explores whether urban agriculture is capable of contributing to a shift toward an environmentally sustainable food system. Sociologist Patricia Allen (2010) questions the economic equity that is being achieved through localized food systems. And, geographer Margaret Marietta Ramírez (2015) addresses the issue of racial exclusivism in food spaces. Though some of these scholars acknowledge the importance ideology plays in efforts toward food justice, little attention has been given to the role of religion and spirituality. This paper bridges the works of scholars studying the socio-economic outcomes of the food justice movement and those exploring the intersection of religion and spirituality with ecology and environmental justice. Specifically, this paper presents a case study of interviews with individuals affiliated with Franklinton Farms, a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio. Ecofeminist theory provides a framework for examining the religious meaning-making of those interviewed and addresses the intersection of gender, race, and class in food justice work. I argue that the religious meaning-making of those affiliated with Franklinton Farms suggests that religion and spirituality can contribute positively toward dismantling intersectional injustices in the food system. By engaging an interdisciplinary approach to food justice scholarship, this research sheds light on the interaction of religion and spirituality with grassroots efforts toward food justice and raises questions about broader impacts of religious meaning-making on efforts to build a just food system.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, I discuss efforts of rural communities in Maine to confront regulatory pressure to industrialize farming practices. Towns across the state and legislative work at the state level have seen an increasing legitimization of an alternative model of agricultural governance developed through the passage of municipal ordinances. Through these actions, potential exists for the municipalities to uphold liberal-democratic ideals of self-governance through participatory decision-making processes. I will explore the possibilities for communities to ‘occupy the fields’ of local food systems through an analysis of food sovereignty’s discourse in the state.

This discourse has material consequences that emerge through the simple yet fundamental acts of face-to-face exchanges that occur in the community. In emphasizing the location of these transactions, food sovereignty adopts the potent symbolism of ‘home’ and the intimacy it represents. As a protest, this rhetorical maneuver attempts to effect a disruption within regulatory systems by positioning the home as under threat from the state. Regulators inspect farms, but if farms act as homes and community centers, then the regulatory impact can become invasive. The home emerges as a place of confrontation, as a ‘site of engagement,’ and the chosen location in which to open “an ephemeral fissure in place.” This opening does not act only as protest, but also as cultural inheritance—acts of resistance serve as moments of cultural evolution, fragmenting what appears whole, only to once again enfold dissent in a fluctuating process of acculturation. Such confrontation provides insight into how relationships between state regulatory agencies and farms establish a social order of power and rights. When small farms ‘threaten’ this order, a displacement occurs – non-complying farms become “non-places” to the state.

The transformative potential of affective food systems emerges from this displacement through a paradox of power central to their discourses. Sovereignty moves between individuals as a discourse of rights, fragmenting a unified power into “a multiplicity… [of] capacities, possibilities, [and] potentials.” This “democratization of sovereignty,” however, coincides with legal systems that exercise power between “a right of sovereignty and a mechanism of discipline.” Confrontation between the concentrated sovereignty of state and the democratized version throughout society also generates a dispossession that alters farms from stable social forces to regulatory problems. Such dispossession or displacement materializes as a juridical “state of exception,” constituting a border between politics, law, and society that risks the legal abandonment of small farms.

ABSTRACT. African Americans are among the most disenfranchised and marginalized group of people in American history. The presence of Black leaders is especially important in order to address historical and institutional inequities as they relate to food access, food justice, and cultural visibility. From this perspective, we explored the experiences of self-determination and empowerment of African American leaders who provide community-based food system education to youth in the Triad area of North Carolina. Specifically, this research utilized a Critical Race Theory and Critical Pedagogy lens to understand the values, beliefs and experiences of African American leaders as they work toward food justice in their communities. The objectives of this research are two-fold. First, programmatically, we aim to better understand the everyday lived experiences of racial discrimination and marginalization from the perspective of African American food system leaders in North Carolina whose work is rooted in southern food system patterns and structures. Second, we aim to highlight the role of African American leaders in creating opportunities for empowerment and self-determination in youth through the teaching and learning of agriculture and food in their local communities. To address these research and social justice aims, our multi-site case study methodology included a series of narrative inquiry interviews, a narrative videography project, and a culminating focus group session with a snowball sample of African American food system leaders in the Triad area of North Carolina. While the narrative inquiry aspect of this research focuses on the telling and sharing of stories of self-determination and cultural resiliency of community leaders, the video-narrative component uniquely highlights the significance of providing a digital platform to elevate and “hear” the voices of African American food system leaders, particularly in southern region of the United States. Video in this narrative inquiry thus serves as a process and medium for social change in the (re)shaping of possibilities for African Americans as agents of change in addressing such issues as food security and racial justice. We conclude with findings and implications for this performative approach to narrative inquiry in food systems research.

ABSTRACT. Over the last decade there have been shifts in the dining preferences of middle-class American cruise passengers. I employ user posts from the online board CruiseCritic's "Cruise Foodies" sub-forum to show that, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, passengers demonstrated a strong preference for flexible onboard dining including variety, quantity, and service around-the-clock. Many remained aware that logistical challenges—like those pertaining to the use of fresh and local ingredients onboard—meant cruise food would be inherently ‘inauthentic.’ Thus, while they desired authenticity, they primarily looked for it at ports, demonstrating a distrust of corporations. In the next decade, cruise lines advanced a project to bring ethnically themed dining experiences onboard as a way of transforming ships into spaces for cultural immersion. I argue that cruise lines used this ‘authenticity project’ as an alternate means of bringing perceived authenticity to those who demanded it—a workaround for otherwise impractical logistical changes. Passengers increasingly contemplated the authenticity of onboard fare in the second decade, a shift that coincided with the authenticity project. While some perceived cruise ships as spaces where they could encounter a range of cultures in “authentic” ways, many rejected the idea, continuing to point to the logistical challenges that made cruise food inauthentic in the first place. Thus, the project failed to satisfy passengers seeking to engage with the 'real' lives of exotic 'Others.' Growing numbers of tourists look to ports for the ‘local flavors’ that corporations cannot provide.

ABSTRACT. Although the movement has been around in various forms for many decades, Freeganism, and the Freegan lifestyle gained in notoriety in the US, UK, and Australia in the mid 2000s (Corliss 2014). Freegans (a term that combines “free” and “vegan”) are dedicated to participating as little as possible in a capitalist economy, choosing instead to forage and salvage unused or wasted consumer goods as a means of sustenance. According to Nguyen, Chen and Mukhergee, “Freeganism is a nexus of anti-consumerist and sustainability discourses” (2013, 1). In the mid 2000's Freegans brought visibility to the issue of food waste, revealing the diseases of capitalism through exposing its excesses at sites of disposal. While several ethnographic (e.g., Barnard 2016; Gross 2009; Corliss 2014), legal (e.g., Thomas 2010), medical (Tibetts 2013) and journalistic accounts (e.g., Friedman 2012) have worked to explain the movement's history, principles, members and practices, none have explored how Freegan discourses and practices function in relation to newer movements for food waste and recovery. Such a comparison is useful, in order to examine both the sustainability of food movements (whether radical or mainstream)and the ways such movements mobilize food/waste economically. This paper looks at the discursive construction of Freeganism in academic and popular media coverage and in light of the more recent and widespread food waste and recovery movement. Building on the work of critical geographers, sociologists and other cultural studies scholars, the paper explores the ways food/waste economies are mobilized and intersect in these movements' discourses, performances, and media coverage thereof.

ABSTRACT. Tourism has seen a steady increase in the South American countries of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, These countries are also home to large indigenous populations, cultures, and food systems. Every year thousands of tourists visit these countries and their native communities, influencing them socially and economically. In the last few years, tourism planners have focused on understanding a newer aspect of travel and tourism, often referred to as Culinary Tourism. Culinary tourism includes tours, events and areas that are focused around local cuisine or foods for attracting tourists. A large number of tourists make their decision for travel based on events related to food and drink. These countries offers a rich and diverse cuisine that takes many of its roots from the Native American and indigenous styles of cooking. The researcher has travelled, reviewed and studied many of such areas and analyzed the potential benefits of Culinary Tourism to the local economies of these regions. This study researches and examines culinary interest points in the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru and analyzes the scope and potential for attracting culinary tourists to this region. This presentation will highlight some important aspects of the indigenous cuisines of South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru), and its potential to be used in attracting tourism, and thereby helping the local economies. Given the high interest in niche food techniques, styles, and food based tourism, the target audience can be anyone participating at ASFS.

ABSTRACT. As foodstuffs travel or are imitated across the world, disputes and legal issues have arisen between producers and the regions in which these products are sold. These foods and beverages include the famous wine from France known as Champagne, Pisco from South America, and Manchego cheese-all sold as some form of imitation in more than one country. My focus will be on a beverage that few are aware of, but that plenty of people drink, called Txakoli/Chacoli. Because this beverage is not linked exclusively to "place", it is not only difficult to define it what it is, but also has also been difficult to control who has the right to make and sell this product under this name. The immigration of the Basque people to Chile brought parts of their culture, to include the fermented beverage called Txakoli/Chacoli, which has been historically produced in various regions of Chile. There are several factors differentiating the product depending on where it is produced. There are similarities and differences that exist to create distinct products that happen to share the same name, but not the same spelling. It is in the orthographic difference, along with various production processes, that one can distinguish the place from which this fermented beverage originates. I will focus on the importance of this orthographic difference in creating products that to the ear appear to be one in the same, but to the eyes and mouth create distinction, and follow-up by discussing the various associations and concerns that follow consequently.

ABSTRACT. As the fad of authentic Chinese food swept over North American metropolises in the mid-twentieth century, Toronto’s Chinese-Canadian restauranteurs proved themselves to be highly adaptable food business entrepreneurs. In contrast to other large cities such as San Francisco or Vancouver, where the tide of authentic Chinese cuisines was primarily introduced and dominated by Taiwanese immigrants, Toronto remained a fundamentally stronghold of Cantonese food dominated by Hong Kong-originated merchants. This essay explores the history of Toronto’s Chinese-Canadian restauranteurs’ business operation strategies and their intimate relationship with Hong Kong by investigating local Chinese newspapers published between late 1950s and early 1980s. I argue that successful restauranteurs of this generation maintained an identity of social leader within the Chinatown community. The most powerful restauranteurs were also philanthropists who donated funeral gifts to bereaved Chinese families. Meanwhile, the restauranteurs spared no effort to innovatively protect the predominance of Cantonese cooking by inviting Hong Kong pop stars for performances and employing highly skilled Hong Kong cooks to improve their menus. The dominance of Cantonese taste and banquet style thus outmatched a gastronomic transformation to more diverse regional cuisines, making Toronto a relatively conservative Chinese food center in North America, dedicated to the culinary skills of Hong Kong chefs.

Please note: Jeffrey Pilcher is not actually a co-author of this paper. I had to add myself to submit this file.

ABSTRACT. This study proposes to examine the connection between the popularity of ethnic and migrant cuisines and the autonomy of restaurateurs in crafting and marketing dishes abroad. This project takes the proliferation of Mexican and Venezuelan restaurants in Toronto as a case study to explore this connection. The project compares various menu items and ingredients from Venezuelan and Mexican restaurants owned by members of those communities. Featuring a parade of delights, such as Mexican pozole [corn soup] and Venezuelan reinas pepiadas [‘curvy queen’ corn pancakes], these menus serve as points of departure to determine whether increased popularity of these cuisines compromises the autonomy of the restaurateur and impacts authenticity.

Please note: Jeffrey Pilcher is not actually a co-author of this paper. I had to add myself to submit this file.

ABSTRACT. Driving along the Queensway and Park Lawn Road, commuters in Toronto are greeted by both the smell and sight of the 40-acre Ontario Food Terminal (OFT), the largest distribution centre in Canada. Located in the urban center of Toronto the Terminal plays a unique role in the cityscape, first by reducing the distance from fresh produce to consumers and also by its dynamic ability to respond to the successive waves of migrants and their foodways. Yet the Terminal is not exempt of criticism as the recent workers strike in November 2016 attests. With the aid of material from the Archives of Ontario and a number of oral history interviews, this paper aims to show the inner workings of the OFT through both its challenges and success in maintaining an open access distribution centre for farmers to sell to wholesale markets. Nearly all the produce consumed in Ontario make its way through the Terminal, but outside wholesale buyers and farmers, few Torontonians know of its existence. How then can markets, migrants, and accessible produce change the way we eat?

Please note: Jeffrey Pilcher is not actually a co-author of this paper. I had to add myself to submit this file.

ABSTRACT. The Market Block, now known as the St. Lawrence Market, was established in 1803 at a longstanding site of indigenous food exchange along the Lake Ontario waterfront. The St. Lawrence Market remained at the centre of Toronto’s Anglo-dominated food system as Toronto burgeoned from a frontier outpost into the global metropolitan city it is today. Utilizing methods of historical geography, this paper maps the changing nature of Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, from wholesale market to culinary tourist destination; its relationship to the city’s growing and diversifying population; and to other sites of food retailing, including other retail markets (St. Andrew’s, St. Patrick’s, Kensington), wholesale hubs such as the Toronto Municipal Abattoir and the Ontario Food Terminal, private grocers and street vendors. This papers questions if, when and how Anglo merchants in Toronto retained control over urban provisioning despite the transformations brought on by industrialization, immigration and global commodity chains, and points to the unintended effect of public provisioning infrastructure in sustaining local, non-Anglo foodways during the rise of integrated mass distribution and consumption.

Please note: Jeffrey Pilcher is not actually a co-author of this paper. I had to add myself to submit this file.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the appeal or "superfoods" in the context of previous work on the threat to scientific authority in an age of social media where "everyone is a critic" and "Dr. Google" is on hand to equip anyone with access to the Internet with "tools" for self-diagnosis which undermine the role of and need for medical professionals (and likely irritates them to no end!). Targeted far wider than to people with actual medical conditions, the marketing language and commercial success of "superfoods" is a prime example of what the economist Herbert Simon called "docility": the mechanism by which people are persuaded that they need external guidance (and products, in this case) because they are constantly faced with messages about the dangers of modern life, and their apparent inability to deal with them autonomously in an environment that's "sick" by virtue of its cornucopia of foods that are "bad" for you. But rather than the empowerment and miracle cures that peddlers of "superfoods" promise, the burgeoning market for "magic pills" transmitted in branded turmeric lattes and chia seed porridge and/or endorsed by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow is more symptomatic of the general insecurity that results from a media-scape that traffics in hyperbole rather than evidence-based communication about best practices when it comes to health and longevity. Alarming rates of obesity, diabetes, and other "lifestyle" afflictions demonstrate that the global health crisis is real, and also that addressing economic disparities that result in phenomena like food deserts is a more pressing and realistic solution than touting the supposed - but scientifically unsupported - curative and life-enhancing properties of the blueberries or kale that people who need the most support likely can't afford, and wouldn't significantly benefit from either.

ABSTRACT. This article examines the narratives of lost and discovered foods prominent Peruvian chefs employ to frame their work as chefs and to promote Peruvian food more generally. It argues that many foods framed as recently lost/discovered were not lost but instead unknown, unvalued, or neglected by elite consumers. Tales of lost foods obscure the work of the many people who have produced and consumed these foods, while tales of discovery exalt white, male, elite chefs as protagonists with the vision and expertise to see value in “undervalued” ingredients and dishes. Linking contemporary Peruvian chef’s narratives about their work and Peru as a culinary frontier to heroic tales of Enlightenment thinkers and eighteenth century travelers, the article shows how the same metaphors of vision, travel, and masculinity that wove their way through early heroic stories of discovery also define contemporary tales of Peruvian chefs seeking out novel ingredients. It argues that even as Peru’s emerging class of celebrity chefs work to subvert colonial culinary hierarchies that hold up European cuisines as exemplars of gastronomic excellence, they ultimately reproduce colonial relationships of power through their narratives of discovery that frame chefs as the arbiters of “good food” and erase the labor of the actors who actively produced and consumed the foods prior to their discovery.

ABSTRACT. In 1897, Honolulu newspapers began advertising a new product made from the corm of the kalo plant. Taroena, a ‘taro flour,’ would undergo an intensvie marketing campaign for the next 20 years as the ideal superfood for ‘invalids, infants, and dyspeptics’ because of its mild taste and its highly digestible qualities. Produced in Hawaiʻi and distributed from hubs in the American midwest, Taroena’s characterizations as an ‘assimilable’ food that ‘digests itself’ differed dramatically from the continent’s reception of poi, the Native staple food traditionally made from taro, or kalo, which Americans often derided for its sour taste and viscuous texture. While 20th century writers often described the challenges of getting – and keeping – poi down in their stomachs, Taroena’s marketing campaign claimed that reconstituted taro flour was often the only thing that those with the most delicate constitutions could digest. This short essay builds upon previous work examining the regulation and reception of Hawaiian poi in order to examine the racialized dimensions of the promotion of Taroena. Focusing particuarly on discourse centered around the intestinal tract, I posit that movements of Native foods through the gut became revalued via the process of reconstitution of bodies, product, and health.

ABSTRACT. Objective – Improving access to affordable fresh food is a challenge in many rural communities. With several grocery stores closing in recent years’ rural residents face obstacles to obtaining affordable locally grown food. This study developed and implemented an in-store marketing campaign promoting locally grown fruits and vegetables within recipes, price strategies, and other marketing efforts. Our study aimed to measure how an in-store marketing program in rural grocery stores improved profits and purchases for those rural grocery stores. Methods – surveys and receipts of purchases were collected at 8 different grocery stores (less than 7 checkout counters 4 intervention stores and 4 control stores) among a total of (n= 315 spring 2017 and n=227 fall 2018) respondents over one year. All research was approved from the University of Kentucky and East Carolina University Internal Review Board. Results – At baseline the average grocery bill spent was 15% on fruits and vegetables and 31% spent on soda. Post intervention the average grocery bill spent was 27% on fruits and vegetables and 28% spent on soda. Those stores that participated in the intervention reported an average net profit of $2,000 over 3 months on those foods marketed compared to the stores that didn’t participate in the intervention. Discussion – Given the significant change in spending on fruits and vegetables targeted within store and profit experience by stores a marketing campaign seems effective in rural communities. Partnerships need to continue to assist smaller stores to stock locally grown produce at affordable prices.

ABSTRACT. Food insecurity affects from 34% - 59% of college students, according to recent studies. This will continue to be an issue as tuition increases and more low-income and first-generation students enter universities and colleges. Nearly 52% of college students live at, or near, the poverty level compared to a national poverty rate of 14.5%. This leaves many undergraduate and graduate students with challenging decisions around meeting their basic housing, nutritional, and educational expenses. To assess food insecurity and financial stress at a public Midwestern university, a multidisciplinary team surveyed a random sample of 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Findings include: A high rate of food insecurity (44.3%) among respondents. This measure was calculated by summing the affirmative responses to the USDA short-form food security questions embedded within the survey instrument. This means, during a 7-month period during the 2016 to 2017 academic year, 44.3% of respondents experienced at least two of the following: didn’t have enough food to last and didn’t have money to buy more, couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals, cut the size or skipped meals, ate less than they felt they should because they didn’t have enough money, were hungry and didn’t eat. This finding is consistent with other studies that report food insecurity rates between 34% and 59% at U.S. universities and community colleges. There is a general awareness and perception that food insecurity is a significant problem on college campuses among 57% of respondents. A slight majority of respondents (63%) reported that they knew students besides themselves who currently or sometime during the academic year who had problems with food insecurity or hunger. Yet, private (e.g., food pantries) forms of food assistance and SNAP are seldom used and responses regarding the use of an on-campus food pantry were mixed. Full findings and implications for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Background: The growth in the sectors of agriculture and food production in US and globally is mostly attributed to the innovative technology which includes a set of technologies that combine sensors, information systems, enhanced machinery, and management systems to optimize production. Previous studies indicate that most of these technologies were not usually designed with cyber secure functionalities. In addition, these technologies are usually less capable to handle or alert users when compromised situations such as hacking occur. The extreme vulnerability of the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and the Smart Farming Technology (SFT) platforms is critical particularly in terms of data collection through wireless sensor technology (WST). There is a need to not only assess how the hacking could affect food safety and food security, but also how knowledgeable are the nutrition educators.

Goals: The goal of this study is to assess the emerging vulnerabilities/challenges (reliability, security, and performance.) of smart farming and how that could affect food safety, food security, and the consumers particularly the nutrition educators.

Methods: A literature review was conducted to assess technologies widely used in smart farming, food processing and packaging industries, and the vulnerability of the data related to food safety and food security. Approximately 150 nutrition educators’ knowledge of cybersecurity was also assessed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: The literature review indicate that the smart farming and food production operators have lack of knowledge about cybersecurity threats toward their assets such as the industry control system (ICS). The hackers could use a single entry point to infiltrate the entire food system and promote food contamination (food safety) or disrupt the food supply system (food security). The results also indicate a lack of work force training on adequate cybersecurity measures involving data protection strategies. In addition, the results of the survey indicate that more than 80% of nutrition educators are not aware of cybersecurity basic knowledge.

Conclusion: There is a need to protect the ICS, the Smart Farming Technology (SFT) platforms and sensitive data from hackers and prevent cybercrimes in US agriculture sectors, food production, and the food system in general. Cybersecurity education is needed to increase the awareness of cybersecurity threats not only among smart farming operators but also among the nutrition educators.

ABSTRACT. This study assesses the interplay between regional geography, management model, policy drivers, financing and timing of supermarket interventions. We find that community engagement and cooperative management models are important factors to opening and sustaining a new store, and subsequent ability to improve the foodscape, built environment and diet-related health. Findings show that none of the non-profit or community-driven stores have closed whereas nearly half of the commercial-driven and one-third of government-initiated cases resulted in cancelled plans or closed stores. Our research suggests community engagement is a critical component of effective policies for healthy food access. Highlights

• Our study highlights the overlooked role of community governance in implementing and assessing health interventions. • We use evidence from 72 supermarket interventions to reveal spatial and process-oriented trends in establishing a new supermarket in a food desert. • Our findings support the critique that the supermarket intervention model has been piloted largely in major urban centers, not rural areas. • Most supermarket interventions are initiated and driven by government interests at the urging of a non-profit. • A quarter of the planned supermarkets have closed or failed to open. • Plans that incorporate significant community involvement in design and store management show greater success in opening and staying open. • Findings suggest that the community governance framework should be considered in evaluating intervention plans and outcomes.

ABSTRACT. Across the U.S., farmland is increasingly subject to financial investment and speculation (Fairbairn 2014). In some rural regions, this has caused land values to rise, decreasing farmer ownership. Furthermore, trends of financial investment in farmland are complicated by the fact that many farmland owners are transitioning to retirement, with approximately 91.5 million acres of farmland expected to change hands in the next five years, and the West expected to be a particularly impacted region (USDA-NASS 2015). It is into this evolving context that, in the fall of 2016, California legalized the cultivation of recreational cannabis.

This research aims to better understand the challenges that all of these factors bring to non-cannabis producing farmers and ranchers across three Northern California counties: Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt. How might the burgeoning cannabis market impact farmland access for non-cannabis farmers and ranchers? Moreover, how might the ability to maintain their livelihoods on their own terms shift in the face of rapidly changing crop regimes? This research explores these questions by presenting data from a 2017 research project that includes in-depth qualitative interviews with key informants, all of whom work closely with farmers and ranchers in these counties. The goal of this research was to generate baseline knowledge of the current and potential future interactions between cannabis and food production in Northern California. Building on the existing farmland financialization and cannabis literature, this paper combines key themes from qualitative interviews with an analysis of land ownership and acquisition data in each of these three Northern California counties.

Initial results suggest financial investment in farmland is occurring in this region, particularly in the cannabis sector, and that land prices have increased along with these investments. Findings also show significant uncertainty in the sector that creates additional day-to-day challenges for both policy-makers and farmers and ranchers. This research explores questions regarding how land access may be complicated by new trends in financial investment and speculation, and whether legalization of cannabis might exacerbate or lessen conflicts between cannabis and non-cannabis farmers. This paper will contribute original analysis of farmland financialization and the impacts of this trend and has implications for farmland access in other cannabis-producing regions.

ABSTRACT. Farmers are responsive to opportunity. We now look to landowners to provide opportunity for farmers employing sustainable practices. Sustainable practices are profitable, in addition to environmentally and socially acceptable. Landowners can help drive agriculture to this next iteration by creating an incentive to employ these practices: the continued opportunity to tend the land.

Communication aimed at farmers is important; at the end of the day they work the soil. However, landowners are often neglected as a focus of outreach. 40% of farmland nationwide is rented, and in the Corn Belt, that number is higher. Often out of sight and off-site, many landowners are not involved in activities on their farm. When both operators and landowners are involved, changes can be implemented quickly at the scale of a watershed, region or other area of focus.

Landowners are a key ally in breaking the short-term focused cycles of agriculture that are propped up by government subsidies and artificially supported by unsustainable amounts of inputs. Landowners wield considerable power over the landscape, and can implement long-term vision which operators may not have incentive to consider. They have the power to decide how their land will be managed, effective immediately. Operators voluntarily adopt and take on the financial and technical burdens of implementing best management practices, but landowners can reduce this burden. Informed landowners can create incentive and reward for sustainable land stewardship through their lease agreements; they can provide land and resources, in high demand by small-scale sustainable enterprises, to operators who farm sustainably. Leases can include indicators for sustainable management, including participation in conservation programs, best management practices, acceptable soil loss, or land stewardship as lease-hold improvement. Competent land stewardship should be rewarded with access to land and advantageous leases. Unsustainable practices should be discouraged in the same way.

Landowners should be motivated by the eroding value of their land. The soil loss and degradation occurring in many farming enterprises decreases the value of the cropland, yet most rents reflect mercurial commodity crop prices, not the condition of the land. Landowners must be assisted in understanding the value of their land through its ability to provide ecosystem services and produce food for decades to come.

The challenge is to empower landowners with the tools and tactics to drive this outcome. We think that key components will be demonstration of successful models, tools for evaluating practices on the land, and broad communication.

ABSTRACT. Who owns farmland matters, for our agricultural economy and workers, local food system, environment, rural and peri-urban communities, and our landscape. In the next few decades, we anticipate that much of the farmland in the United States will change ownership. In this article, I ask: Who will be Oregon’s farmland owners? The focus on Oregon is interesting because agriculture is important to the economy, landscape, and to rural communities in Oregon. Oregon also has historically been a state of small-scale, family farmers. In this article, I analyze data on recent farmland purchases in Oregon in 2010-2015 (as recorded by county tax assessors), particularly focusing on the amount of farmland being transferred, its sales price, and the kinds of buyers are acquiring land. The findings reveal that the price of farmland is high in many places in Oregon, especially relative to the likely income from farming. Also, large-scale corporations, investors, and non-agricultural interests are buying a significant amount of farmland, a change from the past. The findings raise concerns about: • Urgency, since farmland properties are already selling at a fast rate; • The ability of all farmers, especially small-scale, beginning producers seeking small properties, to afford land particularly in regions with high-value farmland; and • The purchase of farmland by non-agricultural interests, which suggests that they may be buying for speculative value or non-farm use- a concern for the remaining agricultural land base in Oregon.

ABSTRACT. The disappearing “agriculture of the middle” (AOTM) has been characterized as a “market structure” phenomenon, with midsized farms being defined generally as “too small to compete in the highly consolidated commodity markets and too large and commoditized to sell in the direct markets” (e.g. see Kirschenmann et al. and Lyson et al. 2008). Considerable analysis examines the deleterious impacts of the “hollowing out” of rural America (e.g. see Salamon 1992) symptomatic of the decline in midsized farm operations for rural communities and economies (e.g., Lyson et al., 2008; Parsons et al., 2010; Ruhf, 2013; Malin and De Master, 2016). As a result of these negative impacts and the market vulnerability of midsized farms, research on AOTM has primarily emphasized renewing the sector through alternative, values-oriented markets and closely linked infrastructural solutions. A national priority research agenda aimed at reinvigorating the midsized farm sector has therefore largely emphasized issues of scale, economic impacts and incentives, and new models for fostering values-based supply chains (Clancy 2010). This research has successfully examined, for example, food hubs, dairy cooperatives, and mobile meat processing initiatives that emphasize product aggregation, new forms of distribution, and linkages amongst vulnerable small and midsized farming operations.

While these contributions have significantly advanced market and policy-oriented research on the AOTM, few investigations to date have delved into critical contemporary “land questions” (e.g. Wunderlich 1993) in relation to structural barriers faced by the AOTM. This paper presentation begins to address this gap, as we consider how emerging farmland access and financialization trends (e.g. see Fairbairn 2014, Gunnoe 2014, Desmarais 2016), including changing regimes of land ownership and control, will influence the midsized farm sector. Drawing upon nascent empirical research gleaned from a review of farmland tax parcel data in Illinois and California, this research will trace new developments in farmland ownership and investment. Our work suggests that shifts in farmland ownership and control, as well as changing farmer demographics, portend a blizzard of rural land reorganization that will significantly impact AOTM farms. This paper presentation concludes by suggesting that these contemporary land questions represent important new lines of inquiry in AOTM research.

ABSTRACT. Partnerships between private business and universities have long existed. In the US context, for example, research relationships between private industries and land grant institutions date back to the mid-19th century. More recently, these partnerships are developed inside the classroom, through internships or field studies both domestic and abroad, or through extension work.

In these contexts, students are the center of these collaborative enterprises. While such collaborations can often be mutually rewarding for all parties, they also come with a set of questions concerning ethics, benefits (financial and other), pedagogical rigor and intellectual capital rights.

In this roundtable, four different researchers draw from their experiences within such collaborations in order to collectively explore lessons learned. Each researcher will present a separate “case study” (each in a different geographical location), and will examine such questions as: (1) What ethical parameters safeguard benefit reciprocity? (2) How is ownership (e.g. intellectual capital rights) determined? (3) How is pedagogical quality ensured?

Projects to be discussed include: Besty’s Best Nutbutters R&D Project, Ball State University (Muncie, IN), Nutr 350, Food Science and Technology, (Deanna Pucciarelli). The project partnered an almna, Betsy Opyt, with 24 students to create recipes and media with aims of increasing product utilization.

Comté Cheese Practicum, American University of Paris (France), Food, Culture and Communications (Christy Shields). For the past seven years, students in this class have traveled to visit and work with the Comté cheese cooperative.

Extension Team Projects in Principles of Sensory Evaluation, Virginia Tech, Food Science (Jake Lahne): a yearly project in the FST 3024-Principles of Sensory Evaluation class tasks teams of students to provide sensory-evaluation support to small Virginia food businesses by working with the Departmental Extension office.

The Drexel Food Lab (Jonathan Deutsch) is a “good food” product development and culinary innovation lab that unites students to collaborate with non-profit and industry partners as well as facilitating student start-ups. The talk will feature a case from each of the lab’s areas of inquiry: sustainability, health promotion, and inclusive dining

ABSTRACT. Hospitality and Food Studies Programs often foster student (and faculty) understanding through firsthand experience, usually through culinary training and site visits. Innovative programs engage students and challenge assumptions about production, practice and consumption. By using fermentation as a metaphor or catalyst for creating cultural and societal change the culinary method becomes a platform for a larger cultural conversation. Through the Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) and the Food Studies Program at Chatham University, we aim to create a library for preserving starter cultures for all kinds of ferments, as well as documenting the origin, history, methods, and recipes associated with the culture. With this library, we aim to improve accessibility to starter cultures, increase fermentation education, and build a repository for important oral histories, recipes, and cultural knowledge.

Why is fermentation a great process to talk about in the intersection of culinary practice, agriculture, and cultural preservation? How do we teach and complicate the narrative of fermentation beyond superficial production and consumption? This roundtable will foster a discussion between participants and faculty practitioners using fermentation as a vehicle for interdisciplinary engagement and experiential learning.

Sally Frey, Riley Sunday, Trevor Ring, Maura Rankin

ABSTRACT. No discussion of Madison in the 60s would be complete without stories from the beginnings of Mifflin Street Grocery Coop, ICC, Common Market, organic farming, Driftless Region back-to-the-landers, the Dane County Farmers Market, and the early restaurant scene that grew out of this creative stew. Five presenters will share their stories of this time in the region’s food history. Then we will open up the session to hear the stories of session participants. • Anne Reynolds, Director of the UW Center for Cooperatives (retired) on the role of coops in the Madison food scene over the last fifty years; • Carla Wright, President of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, on the rise of the organic movement in the Upper Midwest; • Odessa Piper on the connections between the Driftless region and Madison’s food scene, focusing on the 60s-90s; • Jonathan Kauffman, author of “Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat” on other regional responses and the overall impact on the national food scene. This is a joint session with the Madison in the 60s conference. 

ABSTRACT. Seeds are the foundation of our food system. From the seed emerge deeply intricate and sometimes contentious linkages between people, inanimate things, insects, animals, and environments that delineate the sustainability, or unsustainability, of the individual agricultural networks of which the seed is a part. In this study, Actor-network Theory (ANT) is used to follow the seed through three different types of agricultural networks: traditional agriculture, industrial agriculture, and a “modern alternative” agriculture model. What new insights can one gain about sustainability within different agricultural networks when focusing on the seed within each one? The central question asks: how does the seed exist within and impact traditional, industrial, and modern alternative agricultural networks? Two closely related ANT-themed sub-questions ask: 1) what effects are generated by different actor associations with the seed? and 2) how do these effects impact the social and ecological resilience of agricultural networks? The first sub-question is answered for each of the three agricultural models to provide comparative analysis between them. The second sub-question is answered through critical analysis of each agricultural network’s level of resilience, or non-resilience, with regard to the role of the seed within it. An analysis of the effects that emerge from actor relations with the seed indicate lower levels of social and ecological resilience in industrial agricultural networks versus traditional and “modern alternative” models.

ABSTRACT. Heritage seeds are often discussed as the foundation of the food sovereignty movement, living relatives to be protected, but also tools for education and reclaiming health. This presentation begins with an analysis of how “seed sovereignty” has been considered in the broader literature (across 110 academic articles and books.) I then move to community-based definitions of seed sovereignty, as well as impressions about what constitutes an heirloom or heritage seed, based on interviews with participants from 39 Indigenous community-based food sovereignty projects across the US. Many of the definitions they provided highlight the importance of heritage seeds for connecting them to previous generations of seed keepers; as a symbol of how tribal governments and citizens needed to better protect their cultural property; and as a token of the “relationality” that many Indigenous people feel to aspects of their food systems. A major concern expressed by participants working with heritage seeds was how to protect what they saw as both living relatives and community intellectual property from tampering with or patenting by multinational corporations. Seeds were described almost as intergenerational relatives-- both as children that need nurturing and protecting, and as grandparents who contain cultural wisdom that needs guarding. I conclude with a description of the growing network of Indigenous seedkeepers that is coalescing to not only provide education to tribal people around seed planting and saving, but also to push for the “rematriation” of Indigenous seeds from institutions who have collected or inherited them, back to their communities of origin.

ABSTRACT. Across North America, public universities were founded with a mission to contribute to broad societal wellbeing, yet these institutions also have a history of advancing extractive economies. This dynamic has been amplified in the modern era by the privatization of public research, an aspect of what Sheila Slaughter calls “academic capitalism”. Privatization of research and extension in the agricultural sector, particularly in the fields of plant breeding and plant genetics, has led to missing links in the capacity to develop and disseminate flexible tools for resilient agriculture, including gaps in knowledge networks, democratizing processes in research agendas, and farmers’ access to diverse crop varieties. Recently a range of actors have sought to repair these links through interstitial interventions including grassroots revitalization of community seed sovereignty, efforts to disrupt intellectual property regimes such as the Open Source Seed Initiative, and the campaigns led by the organic sector to increase public cultivar development through participatory research with land grant universities. In this paper we examine the UBC Farm Seed Hub, part of the Centre of Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS) at the University of British Columbia, as a further case study of how community engagement from a university can reimagine the role of public university interventions in order to bring about change and present alternatives to the extractive economy. The UBC Farm, a 24 hectare, diversified, organic farm in the core of an urban university, itself exists because of a grassroots, multi-stakeholder movement to instate agroecological research and practice at the University of British Columbia. The Seed Hub is a nexus of community-engaged research, education, and seed production that connects the CSFS at UBC Farm with seed growers throughout B.C. It has emerged in response to local organizing around community seed systems and seed sovereignty, a prominent thread of agri-food movement in B.C. and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. We argue that, by fostering the repair of missing links through actions such as fostering the development of markets based on a solidarity economy and enhancing local knowledge systems, projects like the UBC Farm Seed Hub present a direct confrontation of the neoliberalization of the university. Finally, we consider the capabilities and limitations of this approach.

ABSTRACT. Open access and open source technologies are changing the way many scientists operate, providing increased levels of accessibility, freedom to operate, and reduced control over derivative works. These approaches have helped reinvigorate the landscape for public science. Despite such powerful trends, certain corners of the scientific community have witnessed an increase in the allure of intellectual property rights. One of those areas is agriculture. Crop seeds and the genetic resources they contain are becoming increasingly restricted and privatized in both the public and private sectors.

Public plant breeding in the U.S. is conducted by several primary entities, including universities, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and not-for-profit companies. Within the last thirty years, only the USDA has continued a policy of unrestricted access to crop germplasm, while universities have mirrored their private sector counterparts and moved aggressively towards patents and licensing. For many crops, a patchwork of accessible genetic resources exists within a larger framework of contractually protected, licensed, or patented seeds. Plant breeders, gardeners, and farmers must tread carefully in this new landscape, lest they trespass on someone else’s protected genetics. A common result has been a thicket of restrictions, which is cause for concern for the future of our food system.

Four years ago, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) was created to free the seed from proprietary structures. Inspired by the open source software movement that has provided alternatives to proprietary software, OSSI was developed to make sure that the genes in at least some seed can never be locked away from use by intellectual property rights. Through the OSSI Pledge, breeders and stewards of crop varieties make their seeds available without restrictions on use, and to ask recipients of those seeds to make the same commitment. The OSSI project has made small inroads into public plant breeding, but its potential has yet to be realized. The ability to mark derivative works as open source makes the OSSI initiative both powerful and challenging for public plant breeders, who must navigate a complex intellectual property landscape in order to serve the public good.

ABSTRACT. There is a growing crisis of generational renewal on farms in numerous countries. The average age of farmers is rising, many do not have succession plans, and some literature suggests that young people are leaving the countryside in droves. This narrative rings true in many countries of the Global North where agriculture is increasingly dominated by industrial large-scale farming characterized by farm consolidation, debt economies, and concentration of capital. Since the mid-1980s, Canada, for example, has lost one-third of its farms, while the number of young farmers (15-34 years of age) has declined by 70%. The global trend of disappearing farmers is undeniable and critically important to address, yet little is known about the young farmers who are bucking this trend by choosing to stay in farming and the new entrants (first generation farmers), who have no farming background but opt to become farmers. This paper is part of an international research project on young people's pathways into agriculture in Canada, India, China, and Indonesia. Based on 60 qualitative interviews (with a diverse group of farmers that includes small, medium and large-scale farmers who use conventional, organic or alternative production methods and differing marketing strategies) in rural Manitoba, the paper offers a counter-narrative, that young people actually do want to farm and they are motivated by a variety of factors, including, a love for the work in farming and the lure of a quiet life in close proximity to nature. Our research highlights the different ways that first generation farmers and continuing young farmers get into farming, the factors and forces that helped them along the way, their challenges, and the strategies they adopt to remain on the land. Importantly, the article also examines the gender dimensions of farmers' motivations, challenges, and strategies to better understand the needs and interests of both young men and women. By analyzing the experiences of these young farmers with government policies, programs, and regulations, we conclude by addressing the role of government in supporting or hindering young farmers. As futures in agriculture for young people everywhere are becoming increasingly elusive, this research comes at a critical time, giving voice to those young people currently farming and seeking to inspire and enable future generations of farmers.

ABSTRACT. Aspiring farmers of color face a multitude of hardships when starting their trade due to structural and often invisible factors. Agricultural education spaces tend to manifest and replicate these racial inequalities. Hands-on training is the best way to learn skills to become a farmer, yet people of color are underrepresented in agricultural apprenticeship programs throughout the United States further exacerbating these inequalities. Within the agricultural education literature, Hoerst and Whittington (2009) and Le Vergne et al. (2012) identified the need to include diverse curriculum, educators, and students in vocational and secondary agricultural education training programs. However, there has been no parallel investigation on diversity and inclusion within formal and informal agricultural apprenticeship programs.

Under the direction of Dr. Julie Dawson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I conducted an M.Sc. public practice project to facilitate the creation of an apprenticeship program for diversified organic farmers. I saw firsthand the barriers to inclusion when establishing an agricultural education program. The stakeholders included an ethnically diverse group of farmers, and the program organizers actively solicited participation from historically marginalized communities. However, the group of farmers that committed to the curriculum creation process were entirely white. My paper addresses the issue of inclusion within formalized apprenticeship programs with special attention to racial and cultural diversity. Specifically, in my project, I look at the demographics of leadership and mentor farmers and the curriculum requirements of formal agricultural apprenticeship programs across America.

I argue that there is a need for apprenticeship programs that are framed within a social justice lens. Formalized apprenticeship programs must be led by farmers and administrators that represent the communities they serve. Sustainable programs require heterogeneity and an affinity of differences rather than a consensus through homogeneity. Programs must be centered around culturally appropriate learning material that allows for a multitude of ways of understanding and valuing agriculture. Continuing to establish traditional apprenticeship models will lead to the reproduction of historical racial inequity and hegemony within agricultural education and food systems. In conclusion, by closely examining the structure of formal agricultural apprenticeship programs, I shed new light on the neglected issue of inclusionary practices within formalized hands-on agricultural learning opportunities.

ABSTRACT. Programs and research focused on young farmers (up to 35 years old) have thus far focused on the material, financial, and knowledge needs of this group. At the same time, the last two surveys from the Young Farmer Coalition have pointed to the cost of health insurance as a major barrier to farming. The human capital theory posits that individuals and communities invest in people to enhance and preserve productive capacities not only for present enjoyment but also for future financial and non-financial gains. Human capital theory has been used to establish the link between human capital and health insurance in the food and farm sector. Previous empirical evidence has shown that farm households’ inability to meet their social needs such as health care directly influence their business decisions such as division of labor, farm growth, and allocation of financial resources. Young farmers can be in particularly resource draining situations as they are not only working to build up their farm operations, they might also be working on creating a family of their own. Despite the knowledge that the cost of health care is an issue, we have little knowledge of how these costs affect the farm operation. In this paper, we use a sub-sample from a national survey to explore the intersection between health insurance issues and the farm operation for young farmers including access and cost of health insurance and health care, farm investment, access to labor and financial resources in case of an inability to work. Our preliminary findings indicate that lack of access to affordable health insurance and health care place young farmers in a precarious situation and first generation and beginning young farmers are particularly vulnerable. Furthermore, young farmers are very reliant on off-farm work to secure health insurance which takes time away from the operation. These findings are compounded by the fact that rural areas tend to have smaller labor markets with jobs offering lower levels of benefits tying in with rural development issues. We conclude with research, programmatic and, policy implications of our work.

ABSTRACT. Food justice scholars have cited a variety of inclusion issues with local and sustainable food movements, including the lack of participation among nonwhite and lower-class residents. The existence of these barriers leads to important questions about how to expand the reach of food movements to enable them to serve a broader constituency. Using ethnographic and interview data collected over the course of two years, this paper provides a deeper understanding of how these food justice issues arise in a specific context - a postindustrial urban farm located in a predominantly nonwhite and working-class neighborhood. In particular, the findings highlight four factors that influence inclusion at the farm: (1) historically persistent racial residential segregation; (2) cultural preferences that correlate with race, ethnicity and social class; (3) different methods of selling food that change the demographics of farm clientele; and (4) existing food networks that residents already participate in. After describing each factor, the paper concludes with a discussion about how they highlight possible nodes of intervention that can improve the justice issues plaguing local and sustainable food movements.

ABSTRACT. Urban agriculture (UA) has reemerged in the Global North as a ‘resilient’ alternative to industrial methods of food production. However, UA is a broad concept with an array of values and practices, necessitating a more nuanced typology. For example, some UA organizations utilize capital-intensive, indoor growing facilities, while others adopt communitarian-governed, agroecological production arrangements. UA organizations can thus be arranged on a spectrum from capital-intensive, market-based (CM) operations to non-capital intensive, commons-based (NCC) operations, with iterations in-between. How these organizations compare in their definition of socio-ecological resilience or their prioritization of values, remains less-examined in the literature. This presentation reports on a study that sought 1) to determine what socio-ecological values are common across CM and NCC-leaning groups; 2) to examine their respective outlooks for socio-ecological resilience; and 3) to identify overlapping or conflicting value-based interests, in hopes of outlining novel forms of resilient urban food systems. This study undertook an extensive literature review on UA in North America and Europe, followed by nine semi-structured interviews and content analysis of several existing on-line interviews, with key leaders in various UA organizations. Questions were developed across themes of: socio-ecological motivating factors, preferred scale of production and distribution, transparency, naturalness, and efficiency. Preliminary results indicate that organizations at the NCC end of the urban agriculture spectrum emphasize principles of community resilience, whereas organizations on the CM end of the spectrum advocate engineered resilience. In terms of values, organizations with NCC characteristics stressed the importance of direct, participatory-based food production arrangements; highlighted agroecology as a requisite practice for ‘safe’ and ‘natural’ food; and appeared most motivated by appeals to rights-based, qualitative considerations of food security, justice and sovereignty. Conversely, organizations with CM characteristics encouraged more passive as opposed to active food production participation; outlined broader definitions of ‘natural’ food; and appeared most motivated by consequentialist appeals to quantitative metrics of food security and resilience. Both forms of organizations placed greater value on local, as opposed to global-level, production and distribution networks. Moreover, both NCC and CM-leaning organizations defined efficiency similarly, highlighting the importance of using resources in sparing but productive ways. This study concludes that the integration of CM and NCC agricultural practices could be useful in developing more holistically-resilient urban food systems, blending technological and social innovation. Contrasting CM and NCC organizational values is a critical first step, to highlight hurdles and opportunities in designing such food spaces.

ABSTRACT. Hoophouses, chickens, permaculture gardens—all were part of the sustainable urban food systems Elmwood, Michigan residents were envisioning and enacting in 2014. They were also flashpoints in ongoing contestations over, on the one hand, specific aspects of zoning policy and, on the other, ideas about what a city should look like and who should inhabit it. While these contestations had particular consequences for the people of Elmwood, they also shed light on broader efforts to reconcile ecological sustainability and social justice in US cities, and on the role of urban farms and gardens within these efforts (Alkon and Agyeman 2011; Reynolds 2015). In this paper, I argue that debates over the role of urban agriculture in US cities are shaped in part by the raced and classed histories of these activities, and that the absence of these histories in public policy debates reproduces existing race and class based inequalities. In Elmwood, the presence of vegetable gardens, chickens, and weedy vegetative growth have all been used throughout the city’s history to signify race and class difference. Using the examples of urban chickens and weedy growth, derived from fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how these histories came to shape contemporary debates about zoning policies governing urban agriculture. In particular, I analyze the ways the absence of these histories from public discourse alienated many African-American and working-class gardeners, allowing white, middle-class gardeners to dominate debates about municipal land use policy. These dynamics served to further mark race and class difference in Elmwood and resulted in a form of “environmental gentrification” (Checker 2011). As rising social inequality and climate change make urban life more precarious for people around the world, ways of making our cities more socially equitable and ecologically sustainable are desperately needed. In conclusion, I suggest that recovering the histories of urban agriculture in places like Elmwood, and attending to the absence of these histories from contemporary policy debates, can help us understand how urban agriculture reproduces social inequalities, and can help orient us toward futures of greater sustainability and equity.

References:

Alkon, AH and J Agyeman 2011 Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Checker, M 2011 Wiped Out by the “Greenwave”: Environmental Gentrification and the Paradoxical Politics of Urban Sustainability. City & Society 23(2): 210–229.

Reynolds, K 2015 Disparity despite Diversity: Social Injustice in New York City’s Urban Agriculture System. Antipode 47(1): 240–259.

ABSTRACT. The Mississippi River watershed faces enormous social, economic, and environmental challenges. Its waters bear the burdens of excessive soil loss, heavy nutrient loads, wastewater and pollution, disrupted hydrological function, and misguided development. We propose an initiative to address these problems and renew the Mississippi River watershed’s health through our most basic human need: the food that we grow, eat, need, and crave. By reimagining our food chains, we can foster the resilience of our soils and waters, our landscapes, and our communities. The Great Mississippi River Foodshed Initiative will draw upon and connect the energy, innovation, and resources of people at the grassroots, community level throughout the watershed. It will work within the existing local food movement to better connect and amplify the skills and knowledge of farmers, processors, restauranteurs, small business owners, investors, and ethically minded citizens to amplify and accelerate the building movement toward sustainable, local food. It will do so by developing a network of farms, processors, and points of sale committed to selling locally/micro-produced products; coordinating training and investment in restorative local supply chains; building partnerships between farmers, local/regional processors, aggregators, shops, and restaurants that reconnect suppliers with their urban, suburban, and rural citizen customers; creating a “Great Mississippi River Foodshed” seal to denote a commitment to restoring the Mississippi River Watershed and our communities; encouraging farmers and their foodshed citizenry to collaborate in other ways to restore elements and functions of the watershed; creating a database to enable tracking and storytelling of the good works, allow actors to find one another, and support community connections and product development; and establishing a credible approach for farmers and their food system partners to demonstrate and scale conservation agriculture. The Great Mississippi River Foodshed Initiative will rebuild social and economic bonds through the food on our tables, and reinvigorate a citizenry dedicated to stewarding the land, its waters, and the future of our democracy.

ABSTRACT. Precision agriculture is being heralded as a panacea solution to the ever-growing demands of an increasing global population (Blomqvist and Douglas, 2016). While there is no denying the very real needs on the horizon, the remarkable speed with which ICT technologies are being adopted on farms should give anyone familiar with the challenges of data management, security, and upkeep pause. Drones and robots are replacing workers, and data-driven algorithmic decisions about where to plant, how much to water to use, the volume of fertilizer, and the amount of chemicals to apply are quickly supplanting generational human knowledge.

While there are many academic articles that address the growing role of technology - and big data, on farms (see Wolfert, Cor Verdouw and Bogaardt 2017 for overview), there is a noted gap in critical data scholarship (Bronson and Knezevic, 2016). This is especially problematic for those concerned about issues of data justice, as decisions and agreements about data availability, liability, ownership, privacy, and access are being decided as these systems are being created.

This paper looks specifically at governance and discursive structures in big data agriculture (Lemke, 2002). Who owns the data? Who has the rights to that data? How has historic pressures of agency and institutions lent itself to developing constrictures necessitating adoption? How secure are these databases controlling the machines which have become so essential to the global food chain? At risk are farmers at large and small scale; developed and developing nations. Failure to address these questions can lead to catastrophic losses in harvests, debilitating economic dependencies, and other unforeseen consequences.

Blomqvist, L. and Douglas, D. (2017). Is Precision Agriculture the Way to Peak Cropland. The Breakthrough. [online] Available at: https://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/issues/the-future-of-food/is-precision-agriculture-the-way-to-peak-cropland [Accessed 27 Nov. 2017].

Bronson, K., & Knezevic, I. (2016). Big Data in food and agriculture. Big Data & Society, 3(1), 2053951716648174.

Lemke, T. (2002). Foucault, governmentality, and critique. Rethinking marxism, 14(3), 49-64.

Wolfert, S., Ge, L., Verdouw, C., & Bogaardt, M. J. (2017). Big Data in Smart Farming–A review. Agricultural Systems, 153, 69-80.

ABSTRACT. Food system policy (FSP) has grown rapidly in recent decades as a means of identifying and ameliorating inconsistencies, inequities, and/or tradeoffs in the conventional food system. The process of developing food system plans and policies that aspire to comprehensively address these issues requires the inclusion of a diverse array of actors from all parts of the food system. Drawing on literature on network management we assert that interpersonal “boundary spanning” relationships – those that span institutional/organizational barriers – matter substantively to the development of FSP. Based on this assertion, we explore 1) how interpersonal relationships shape the FSP development process, 2) why actors involved in the process are motivated to develop and maintain those relationships, and 3) how the context of FSP and actions of the participants shape the development of these relationships. This research employs a qualitative approach to the study of four research sites – Seattle, WA, Lawrence/Douglas County, KS, a five county region in Minnesota, and Marquette County, MI – that are home to leading examples of food system policy development in the United States identified by Growing Food Connections (GFC), an FSP research group. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with policy actors in these locations working on FSP, we identify key motivations of participants for engaging in FSP development, four critical features of the “relational environment” in which FSP occurs and their impact on the policy development process, and four activities/actions of participants that contribute to the development of effective relationships in these study sites. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for research and practice and future directions for the study of relational networks in FSP.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, terroir has garnered increased attention in North American scholarly, culinary, and advocacy circles. While commonly associated with its French viticultural origins, various American articulations of terroir are emerging, as producers and consumers celebrate the distinctive “taste of place” (Trubek 2009) of region-specific products. In this paper, we will examine the potential for emerging terroir products in the U.S. to foster agri-food “cluster economies” and rural development. Like the terroir-based initiatives that have found rural development success in the European Union (e.g. GIs, PDOs, PDIs), cluster economies are situated in specific places and emphasize the synergies associated with the social and economic networks embedded in these places. Porter (2000: 15) defines clusters as “geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions...that compete but also cooperate.” Clusters emphasize inter-firm linkages, which often involve social relations and interactions, as well as geographical proximity or co-location (Martin and Sunley 2003). The informal and formal social networks that coordinate transactions between firms and institutions facilitate intra-local information flows (Dawkins 2003), foster innovation, and help firms respond more nimbly to changing market conditions (Porter 2000). Although scholarly attention has been given to industrial clusters, relatively few studies have been conducted on agricultural clusters. This void is in spite of the fact that agricultural clusters show considerable potential to contribute to the long-term resilience of small to medium-sized farms and rural communities.

We employ a comparative case study method to explore how two emerging U.S. terroir products, Wisconsin artisanal cheese and New England oysters, have potential to foster agricultural clusters in their respective regions. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with producers, as well as a social network analysis survey in the Wisconsin artisanal cheese and New England oyster sectors, we demarcate the spatial boundaries of each place-based cluster. We then trace the types and strengths of ties across each cluster, while also considering how each respective cluster is bounded in specific geographic and social spaces. Our findings suggest that flourishing agri-food clusters exhibit several notable characteristics: (1) strong institutional support for place-based products; (2) well-developed social networks characterized by knowledge exchange about production practices, business opportunities, and markets; and (3) a strong commitment to distinct, quality production practices.

ABSTRACT. Before the mid-twentieth century, cruises were largely the preserve of elites, however by 1970 there was a dramatic shift toward a predominantly middle-class customer base; this change generated a need to revamp menus to satisfy the tastes of a new type of client. The mass-market cruise lines that dominate the modern era of cruising—from 1970—increasingly offered passengers cuisine marketed as exotic—in ways that evoked ethnic or geographic ‘Others’. Companies used food as a way of mediating encounters between passengers and foreign cultures. Marketing plays a key role in determining the place of a dish in the familiar/exotic binary. In mediating cultural encounters, cruise lines demonstrate how they want passengers to conceptualize racial, social, and cultural Others. Today, cruise ships contain ethnically themed foods, spaces of consumption, and culinary service. Cruise lines offer these immersive ethnic themes to tourists on platforms that are constantly mobile, resulting in a fundamentally unique business model. In performing this combination, companies encourage tourists to immerse themselves in as many different cultures as possible, though in expedited ways that are inherently and intensely mediated.

ABSTRACT. This paper provides a food systems-focused analysis of wild rice production in the United States. The history of wild rice production in the northern Great Lakes region of the United States offers a necessary context for understanding the current controversies surrounding the marketing is of this unique aquatic grass. By comparing indigenous “traditional” methods of harvest to more industrial agricultural techniques, we can see how a regionally and culturally specific product changes as the marketed demand increases. While this analysis suggests that both techniques have a place in the global food system, there are unique differences in the products that have consequences for costs, labor, and cultural value. The analysis focuses on three companies that produces wild rice,,two of which (Uncle Bens and Lundberg Family Farms) are mass distributors who market across the United States. The production occurs in a “non-native” growing area, California, using non-traditional methods and a hybrid seed developed explicitly for this purpose. The third company is a small online business owned by the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota, selling both commercially grown wild rice and traditionally harvested wild rice. The comparison of production includes issues such as genetic modification, water conservation, and land use. On the consumer side, the demand for health conscious and gluten free options influence the scale and marketing of wild rice.

ABSTRACT. Claims of authenticity have recently emerged as a prominent descriptor for ethnic food in the United States. This paper examines possible patterns in what restaurant consumers consider authentic. I conducted a content analysis of 20,000 Yelp reviews to search for mentions of authenticity and related terms in the 10 most popular ethnic and immigrant cuisines in America: Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, Mediterranean, Soul, Korean and Indian (Ray 2016). The data shows that Mexican and Chinese food were the cuisines where Yelp reviews mentioned authenticity the most, trailed by Thai, Japanese and Indian. Building on Krishnendu Ray’s research around immigration, ethnicity, and assimilation, as well as Joe Pinsker’s writing about economic and military capital corresponding with the menu price of ethnic cuisines, I found that mentions of authenticity on Yelp reflect these global trends. Further, in all Asian cuisines sampled, the perceived ethnicity of people in the restaurant, as staff or patrons, was the basis on which reviewers characterized the restaurant as authentic. When discussing French, Italian, and Japanese restaurants, the three cuisines belonging to the most assimilated immigrant groups studied, reviewers based authenticity judgments almost exclusively on restaurant decor and ambiance, instead of food or clientele. According to this research, authenticity reinforces isolating nationalist notions of us versus them, and facilitates a familiarity with the expanding global culinary world in the United States. This work explores broader themes of authenticity usage and makes the claim that terms like authenticity serve as a cultural manifest destiny, laying verbal, American claim over foreign food.

ABSTRACT. The main purpose of this study is to examine how Filipino restaurants in the United States navigate specific culinary and cultural boundaries in order to be economically viable and, in fact, successful in an expanding and complicated "ethnic" and multi-ethnic restaurant market. Asian restaurants of different national and regional cultures have existed in the United States since the mid 1850s but have grown significantly within the last two decades (Ferdman, 2015). Because of migratory restrictions as well as other racially and nationality defined employment, many migrants from Asian countries have gravitated towards restaurant ownership, food service, and culinary work. In many cases, these restaurants are family owned and serve as an economic vehicle for multiple family members and generational migration.

Geographers, sociologists, and other food scholars have documented the complexity of consumption across culinary cultures and in particular, the role of Asian cuisines in the American landscape (Ray, 2016; Cwiertka & Walraven, 2002). Some of the issues include creating food for a non-Asian palate and sensibility while also reaching customers who share similar ethnic-racial and culinary backgrounds; addressing bias in restaurant culture that assigns higher economic and cultural value to other ethnic foods served to non-ethnic cultures; and navigating the landscape of family-owned business, labor costs, and autonomy within the field.

This paper explores this question through Filipino restaurants in the United States, focusing specifically on family owned restaurants, with attention to market position and the navigation of culinary expectations. By creating a typology of Asian restaurants in several east coast cities based on ownership, locale, size, scale, customer base, menu, pricing, and décor, I am able to select and analyze four case studies of Filipino restaurants that explores these issues.

ABSTRACT. Does eating other people’s food make us more open to engaging them as civic subjects? I thought it did with me in Delhi and it has in New York.... Yet I am sure there were probably some who loved chop suey and wanted to exclude the Chinese at the end of the 19th century and many who love tacos today but cannot countenance Mexican migrants. Probably there is no guarantee that eating another’s food makes us more tolerant towards him. Nevertheless, we have evidence that caste Hindus are routinely filled with disdain and disgust for the food of lower castes, outcastes, Muslims, and Christians. Refusing to eat another’s food out of disgust is symptomatic of xenophobia. It is no surprise then that eating (and sleeping together) have been the greatest threat to segregationists by race and by caste across continents where I have lived. Yet, the last time I presented my thinking, a young Indian woman in the audience retorted, politely but firmly, “What if sir, it is the opposite? We are filled with disgust because we have eaten kebab and cannot contain it within our moral universe?” So the hatred of the other may also be a form of self-loathing of the fallen self. The veritable ‘city of man’ ranged against ‘the city of god.’

ABSTRACT. Culinary tourism is usually critiqued as inherently colonialist and “othering”. There is no doubt that as an industry, it frequently participates in and perpetuates historically inequitable power structures. Such businesses draw upon the availability of leisure time and expendable income and focus on destinations as liminal spaces, venues set apart from everyday norms of existence and therefore functioning as places for escape, entertainment, edification, enlightenment. This paper explores ways in which culinary tourism can disrupt those structures. Sustainable tourism initiatives are addressing some issues and are impacting the industry as a whole, but reassessing and problematizing this activity, drawing upon current concepts and research in food studies, suggests deeper ways in which to understand the very human impulse to “eat out of curiosity” and its implications for how individuals and groups interact through food.

As illustration of some of the power dynamics inherent to culinary tourism—and attempts to disrupt that power, I discuss here a culinary tourism project in a small Midwestern city in 2006. Over the course of several years and in conjunction with a variety of stakeholders—the chamber of commerce, history museum, and university—I developed a trail, a foodways “expo,” exhibits, and public programs. The project emphasized the everyday, ordinary foods that represented the region’s food culture, rather than the fine-dining, unique and “exotic” foods that are frequently the focus of the industry. By exploring the meaningfulness of these foods, the project acted upon what can be called, culinary relativism, in its identification of the logic of this particular food culture, encouraging an appreciation and celebration of that food within its own evaluative parameters, rather than the more standard class-based ones used to judge what is “good” food. The project gave a new lens for looking at familiar foods and the ways in which those foods have been defined by power structures.

I suggest that this kind of culinary tourism can be channeled into exposing power structures and inequalities in those structures. It is also now one of the fastest growing niches in the industry and is appearing in a variety of forms, including walking tours, neighborhood tours, and even social justice and cultural education-oriented tours. The potential for these tours to challenge the status quo is tremendous. Whether or not that challenging can then be channeled into real shifts in power is another question. That question is also explored by examining the earlier project.

ABSTRACT. For most state and local tourism programs, the goal is to attract those from “away” to explore food and drink in ways that will bring external dollars into local and state coffers. The marketing rhetoric aims to entice outsiders to consume and purchase items that they cannot fully experience where they live. Yet although selling the experience is part of the pitch, promotional materials promise and deliver relatively shallow encounters with the locale. The resulting “product” commodifies and essentializes because the goal is economic development not enhancing cultural exchange or understanding. Many folklorists have been involved in disrupting this model with one that challenges purely economic interchange. My paper will explore such projects. As the Iowa state folklorist, I worked with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture to document Iowa’s food stories, in particular those of place-based foods. Place-based foods have a unique taste, often having to do with an ecological niche and/or the ethnic or regional heritage of their producers. These are the foods that we seek out to eat locally when we visit a particular place or purchase as souvenirs. The project’s purpose was to encourage people to purchase those foods whose stories signified Iowa. In Oregon, I’ve been involved in three different culinary tourism projects—a magazine, a local conference, and a state tourism initiative. For Take Root magazine, a quarterly publication for which I wrote ethnographic articles, the editor’s intent is “to take readers on a trip to local farms and gardens where the freshest ingredients . . . end up at your nearby farmers’ market, your family’s pantry, and … your favorite restaurants.” My role at the "Local Food Connections" conference was to facilitate a series of Culinary Tourism panels to provide replicable models and advice for farmers, restauranteurs, and other food businesses. I now serve on Travel Oregon’s Agritourism Network Leadership Team and with local consultants for a "Rural Tourism Studio." The goal is to build “tourism in a manageable, sustainable way [that] can stimulate the local economy, protect and enhance local resources and foster community pride—without compromising the qualities that make the place so special.” I have emphasized the value of food stories. I have also noted the need to help and encourage folks tell their own stories. Travelers want to have “real” experiences, especially with regard to local and place-based food.

ABSTRACT. As the field of food studies continues to grow, one of its priorities will be to demonstrate its importance, relevance, and collaborative potential for other fields and disciplines. This panel investigates the intersection of food studies with the histories of medicine and nutrition science. While the study of food has been codified separately within these fields, there is much to gain from more explicit and stronger engagement between them. This panel will begin with brief presentations from each participant on how they each define and navigate the intersection of food studies with histories of medicine and nutrition in their own research. We will then discuss one or two pre-circulated questions, before opening up the discussion for a community dialogue on these topics.

One of the challenges of working at the intersection of food studies and history of nutrition is that nutrition science has often been treated — by both practitioners and scholars — as though it has little connection to cultural and social dimensions of food and eating. According to these accounts, by simplifying foods into nutrients, nutrition researchers break free from (or, more critically, fail to account for) food’s connections to identity, history, culture, pleasure, labor, and much more besides. Building off of work in critical nutrition studies, I argue that cultural dimensions of food — their potential for making meaning and identity— have often shaped technical nutrition research itself. I use brief cases studies exploring how two of the most prestigious and culturally-laden foods in the American imaginary, that is, meat and milk, have been treated as nutritionally indispensable in much twentieth-century nutrition science. In designing nutrition research, American nutritionists drew on widespread cultural connections between meat and masculinity and between milk and white American identity, which then fed back into research results, nutrition advice for the public, and food engineering projects.

ABSTRACT. As the field of food studies continues to grow, one of its priorities will be to demonstrate its importance, relevance, and collaborative potential for other fields and disciplines. This panel investigates the intersection of food studies with the histories of medicine and nutrition science. While the study of food has been codified separately within these fields, there is much to gain from more explicit and stronger engagement between them. This panel will begin with brief presentations from each participant on how they each define and navigate the intersection of food studies with histories of medicine and nutrition in their own research. We will then discuss one or two pre-circulated questions, before opening up the discussion for a community dialogue on these topics.

My presentation examines debates over the definition of nutrition, which by the 20th century was less a coherent scientific concept than a discursive construct that provided intelligible and actionable explanations for many complex, elusive, or otherwise intractable problems of public health and political economy. It seemed to many nutrition experts that there was no science unutilized in the exploration of nutritional function, no disease in which nutrition did not play a contributive or ameliorative role, and no grave social or political matter in which the nutrition of the population was not implicated. Yet scholars who have deftly critiqued modern nutritional hegemonies in the context of food and diet have often failed to acknowledge the extent to which professional discourse around nutrition is fractured, contentious, and reflective of socio-political preoccupations.

ABSTRACT. As the field of food studies continues to grow, one of its priorities will be to demonstrate its importance, relevance, and collaborative potential for other fields and disciplines. This panel investigates the intersection of food studies with the histories of medicine and nutrition science. While the study of food has been codified separately within these fields, there is much to gain from more explicit and stronger engagement between them. This panel will begin with brief presentations from each participant on how they each define and navigate the intersection of food studies with histories of medicine and nutrition in their own research. We will then discuss one or two pre-circulated questions, before opening up the discussion for a community dialogue on these topics.

For decades following the passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, academic nutritionists developed close alliances with scientific leaders in the food industry. When health and environmental activists revealed the undesirable consequences of industrialized food production, nutritionists felt obligated to protect public faith in the mainstream industrial food supply. My presentation will examine how and why leaders of American medicine and nutrition leapt to industry’s defense in the 1960s and 70s, focusing specifically on academic nutritionists’ decision to categorize progressive food reform efforts as health fraud. By highlighting some of the major structural elements of this mid-twentieth century fight over “nutritional quackery,” my presentation will showcase some surprising ways in which the politics of food and medicine have overlapped.

ABSTRACT. As the field of food studies continues to grow, one of its priorities will be to demonstrate its importance, relevance, and collaborative potential for other fields and disciplines. This panel investigates the intersection of food studies with the histories of medicine and nutrition science. While the study of food has been codified separately within these fields, there is much to gain from more explicit and stronger engagement between them. This panel will begin with brief presentations from each participant on how they each define and navigate the intersection of food studies with histories of medicine and nutrition in their own research. We will then discuss one or two pre-circulated questions, before opening up the discussion for a community dialogue on these topics.

My presentation examines how protein has connoted strength, productivity, masculinity, and American exceptionalism, from when its discovery was first popularized in the late-nineteenth century to our twenty-first-century food moment. Today protein exists as a food industry trend unto itself, one that represents a sense of totalized wellness for many consumers. Considering histories of nutrition, food, medicine, fitness, and consumption, this presentation examines a phenomenon that I am calling “the macronutrient imaginary.” I consider how a nutritional component can become a cultural object imbued with significant meaning. In the case of protein, today’s food industry has capitalized upon its cultural meaning and consumer popularity in interesting and problematic ways, especially within a global context marked by inter-related concerns regarding meat consumption, plant-based diets, climate change, chronic disease risk, and food (in)security.

ABSTRACT. As the field of food studies continues to grow, one of its priorities will be to demonstrate its importance, relevance, and collaborative potential for other fields and disciplines. This panel investigates the intersection of food studies with the histories of medicine and nutrition science. While the study of food has been codified separately within these fields, there is much to gain from more explicit and stronger engagement between them. This panel will begin with brief presentations from each participant on how they each define and navigate the intersection of food studies with histories of medicine and nutrition in their own research. We will then discuss one or two pre-circulated questions, before opening up the discussion for a community dialogue on these topics.

My presentation critically examines the “1975 Diet,” a Japanese prescription based on statistical data showing that in 1975 the average Japanese person consumed an “ideal” balance of fat, carbohydrates, and protein. Through ethnographic data collected in different areas in Japan, my research shows that besides eliding consumption differences between generations, rural and urban areas, and mountainous and coastal areas, campaigns to promote the return to a "1975 Diet” also overlook important cultural economic shifts and romanticize the role of the professional housewife. I also consider what the “1975 Diet” has done successfully, namely articulating a vision of a nutritionally balanced and internationalized Japanese cuisine.

ABSTRACT. The Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast (EFSNE) project has reached its formal ending after seven years. It was a unique interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, complex systems project addressing many different components of food security in the Northeast region. A market basket of eight foods was central to the project and provided a collaborative vehicle for all of the research teams around which they arranged their work. Each team (Consumption, Distribution, and Production) undertook a variety of projects and analyses which in this presentation are brought together to offer a rich picture of the eight different foods through multiple lenses. These include: regional self-reliance production levels; consumer purchases of these items using primary and secondary data sources; inventories from supermarkets in nine different low- income locations which participated in the project: the percentage of the market basket foods in the stores that are produced regionally as well as the economic value-added across the supply chain; food prints; and models predicting the effect on production and other parts of the supply chain of changes in elements such as demand and climate change. The presentation describes some findings for each food and also in the aggregate such as the economic impact from downstream actors in supply chains, the prices paid for the foods by low-income compared to non-low income households, leverage points in supply chains to increase the quantity of regionally produced foods in low-income areas, and several scenarios for increasing production of some of the market basket foods in the region. The conclusion will offer recommendations about further research and the usefulness of inter-and transdisciplinary research on these and related topics.

ABSTRACT. Food access has long been considered a component of food security that relates, in the broadest sense, to people’s ability to procure food in their communities or neighborhoods. To-date, a sizeable fraction of the research on food access has concentrated on the distance consumers need to travel to food markets, the availability of transportation to those markets and the adequacy of the food within those markets to meet the consumers’ nutritional needs and cultural preferences. The Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast (EFSNE) project used multiple methods to investigate food access from various viewpoints. In aggregate, these approaches examined five elements of food access, including availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and accommodations. This presentation will emphasize perceptions of food access from the viewpoint of community leaders, community members who participate in government funded food programs and community members who are not food program participants. Methods used to inform researchers of food access perceptions included focus groups, phone interviews using the Community Readiness Model and store intercept surveys, all of which took place across multiple sites in the Northeast. Contrasts will be made between rural and urban communities and across various stakeholder groups.

ABSTRACT. Most Americans consume food that is sourced through international, national, regional, and local supply chains. Given seasonal availability, production capacity, interest in food diversity, and resiliency challenges, all scalesare important in the food supply, and each plays a role in meeting food needs and preferences of residents of any locale. Emphasis on local foods and local food systems has often meant that the importance of other scales goes unrecognized or underappreciated. While each scale has limitations, some food system experts now assert the benefits of the regional scale for its ability to foster a more sufficient, diverse, affordable, and resilient food system.

As part of the research project, Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast, we conducted seven focus groups with a total of 51 participants across four locations in the U.S. Northeast. Topics discussed included the importance of knowing where food is sourced, how people describe their region, personal connections to the region, globalization of food, importance of food origin, perceived benefits and drawbacks of regional foods, and the sense of efficacy and engagement involving food.

When we organized our findings thematically, we found that, as we anticipated, the concept of regional—especially compared to local, national, and global scales—is difficult for many people to explain and understand, and that people have conflicting views about the attributes of local and regional food systems, and the larger food system in general. Their perceptions of the regional scale were weaker, less formed, and more divergent. We also found that immigrants frequently articulated more nuanced perspectives on the different scales of the food system than non-immigrants. These focus groups provide foundational insights into emerging consumer definitions and values related to regional food systems, which may help develop appropriately targeted messages to reinforce regional benefits. In addition to our findings, we will also discuss opportunities for regional foodproducts to become more visible.

ABSTRACT. Agrihoods- Privileged “foodie” community or Resilient Solution to Food, Housing and Community?

Can the act of planning a community include using the qualities of resilience to benchmark successful planning of food, housing, community models and integrated systems as they evolve and thrive over time? Can those resulting, future forward thinking models and systems supplement current efforts to meet the most basic needs of life, and move the “bar” a bit higher? We believe systems planning and implementation and the effect of those decisions ripple through our lives and to ignore that fact results in an imbalanced effort for improvement causing problems and wasted dollars long term.

Using the analogy of building a barn we will explore the process to build and become a community that will help life to thrive and grow in resilience. Not cast in stone, we believe those posts to be: 1) Healthy Growing Environments and year round growing, 2) Healthy Food for all, 3) Resilient healthy near zero energy or passive house indoor environments and infrastructure that builds community and 4) Healthy personal values systems which allow for collaboration and sharing across disciplines, agencies or entities within the larger community while teaching individual responsibility. Defining those goals and measurable outcomes and the ability to quantify both immediate and long-term consequences of those holistic systems would be a reviewable ongoing process.

Sustaining life takes water, food, shelter and community and individual responsibility. How can an eclectic group of professionals, planners, students, farmer growers, architects, builders, business, bankers, permaculturalists, future residents and a landowner fashion a thriving community of people and environments to serve as an experiential model for others to share and refine? Challenges like affordability, creation of place and access to land while demonstrating the free market principles of profits for developers to further common good require due diligence and will face challenges. Cooperative efforts in building and marketing opportunities for developers may help reduce costs and or provide incentives. What other business spin-offs might result- a bed & breakfast in a passive house environment, aquaculture enterprise or alternative crops and value added products?

The path forward may involve looking back; re-examining our common held beliefs, and looking at existing models of agrihoods and or community integrated agriculture or farms. How is food more equitably shared and where does personal responsibility fit in? We are given much to plan for at Neighboring Fields! Please support efforts.

ABSTRACT. Grounded in a critical theory of planning which values a communicative and democratising practice where planners invite a diversity of voices and knowledges beyond placation, to address pressing issues, this study explores the reality of the decision-making process between the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) – an Ohio State University (OSU) Discovery Theme initiative and the faith-based community group Building Responsibility, Equity and Dignity (BREAD). Both organisations have expressed interest and commitment in working together to improve employment – particularly for returning citizens (previously incarcerated), in the Linden (South) Neighbourhood – located just south-east of OSU’s Columbus campus. South Linden is a predominantly African American (81%), once-stable working-class neighbourhood that suffered massive dis-investments with factories leaving the area in the 1980s. Simultaneously, The Ohio State University (OSU) has taken on the challenge of positively transforming the local food and agricultural system. It is committed to a sustainability related goal of purchasing 40 percent or more of the food throughout the system from local and sustainable sources by 2025. In addition, the University is vested in its surrounding neighbourhoods and is working hard to improve community-university relationships.

One strategy to develop sustainable local food systems and to rebuild and fortify neighbourhoods is via the development of a food hub that many scholars point to as a vehicle to pursue socially, economically and environmentally just local food systems. This study utilises a single-case design to investigate the collaborative effort between two community stakeholders – OSU and BREAD. And with the researcher as a participant-observer, various data types were collected and analysed. This research study adds to our understanding of the role of anchor institutions in local food systems planning, and how these institutions can help to improve conditions for returning citizens as well as community-university relationships in low-income neighbourhoods.

ABSTRACT. Land is an essential component of agricultural production but we take for granted that we know how farmers rent, purchase/sell, and transfer land. From a strict legal perspective, land access is a set of rights and responsibilities to an object. While this description seems sufficient, it implies that meaning and behavior are determinate and it assumes that people interact with land in a neutral and objective manner. Yet, we know this is not true (Geisler, 2000; Hann, 1998; Parker, 2013). Current knowledge on farmland access is driven by practice-oriented organizations. They develop educational resources that help farmers navigate routine yet complex problems, such as executing intra-family, intergenerational land transfers and obtaining public, private or public-private lending, but their knowledge of the issue is anecdotal. When farmers access land, they integrate social, environmental, and cultural relations with economic processes. These relationships represent behavior about past, present, and future users and the activities that bring them together. This presentation presents a conceptual model on how farmers access land. It describes the processes associated with renting, purchasing/selling, and transferring land and the relationships to different social, political, and economic institutions. I developed the model by establishing personal experience as the basis for theory and following grounded theory methods to develop an intimate relationship with participants and data and to systematically discover, analyze, and explain approaches that impact farmland access. It assumes that people understand and use policies and programs in a passive manner because they develop legal consciousness throughout their life and through everyday experiences and they mobilize policy according to those understandings (Falk Moore, 1978; Tamanaha, 1997). Wisconsin is a rich agricultural state and people are accessing farmland in a variety of ways so the jurisdictional boundaries provide an appropriate and constant policy context. I collect interview and observation data through a framework of planning, market, and finance elements that affect farmland access (Daniels 1999). Planning includes land use policies, farmland protection programs, and tax incentives; market includes business ownership structures and tenure arrangements; and finance includes estate regulations and lending options. Each element is a dependent variable so the framework drove sampling decisions but the inductive nature of grounded theory leaves room to evaluate mixtures and interactions within it. Thus, the conceptual model describes how farmers realistically employ social, political, and economic processes to access land and I relate the findings to emerging issues within land and agriculture policies and markets.

ABSTRACT. Food access is not only a health issue but also a community development, urban planning, and equity issue. In Minnesota, we face serious disparities related to health and food, from insufficient access to grocery stores to obesity and diet-related diseases (Minnesota Food Charter, 2016). Some populations are disproportionately at risk for food insecurity. As research has documented, adult and child food insecurity is higher among Latino households than among the dominant population (Chavez, 2007). Although past studies have provided understandings about the constraints that Latino immigrants face in accessing nutritious, affordable, and culturally-relevant food, there is little information about the actual experiences, perspectives, and needs that Latinos share in accessing food. Increasing equitable access to healthy food is vital to ensure the development of healthy and sustainable communities. This study will address the issues that Latino immigrant populations in Southeastern Minnesota face in relation to accessing healthy food by documenting their experiences, needs, and perspectives through an experimental research design approach based on focus groups and participatory mapping techniques. Findings from this project will be used to improve community outreach, programming design, data collection methods, and food advocacy efforts for Latinos and disenfranchised immigrant populations in Southeastern Minnesota. We will measure success by assessing the impact this project will have on informing the efforts of the Minnesota Food Charter and other local advocacy organizations working to increase access to healthy affordable food in ways that meet the needs of minority populations. The findings aim to provide recommendations that address equity goals in food systems planning and shape new policies oriented towards the improvement of food access and health indicators among Latinos and underrepresented communities in general.

ABSTRACT. “You’re not learning to cook; you’re cooking to learn.” Several times each day at a John Dewey Kitchen Institute (JDKI) workshop, Cynthia reminds our participants of this fundamental feature of the learning experience in which they are immersed. As its name indicates, the JDKI draws upon the educational philosophy of John Dewey, a pragmatist philosopher and progressive education theorist, to introduce adult educators to using cooking as a mode of inquiry. 

Dewey treated cooking, sewing, woodworking and other activities as means of introducing children to the practices of structured curiosity, and from which they could leap to more “mature” forms of inquiry such as the physical and social science, ethics and art. We believe that kitchen inquiry need not stop with elementary school. In the JDKI, adults (including high school, college and community educators) explore Dewey’s concept of inquiry by cooking. 

The JDKI is built on the premise that cooking is, in its own right, an absorbing, complex, multifaceted, mature form of inquiry that may be employed to teach and learn in virtually any discipline or field. Here, the point of cooking (as Cynthia’s aphorism suggests) is not to become a skilled cook. Rather, it is to use the skills, tools, and principles of cooking (and tasting and eating) to explore, question, investigate the world--be it the world of Spanish language and culture, of marsh ecology, of linear algebra, or of the sociology of homelessness.

Cooking, used in this way, is not only absorbing; it’s also playful. And while we emphasize that this is not a “cooking school,” we also emphasize the fact that food must be the result of their inquiry; participants are always cooking for each other. Their needs and interests should always influence one’s cooking efforts. This inquiry is a community endeavor

The JDKI is rooted in a metaphysics, epistemology, and political philosophy, embedded in a set of ten tenets derived from Dewey’s thought. Important tenets include these:

• Education is a practice of democracy

• All inquiry is value laden; there is no such thing as “value neutral” learning.

• Chance and change are features of reality, just as much as stability and certainty.

• “Mind” is a verb, not a noun.

This presentation will use methods of the institute to introduce participants to the principles of the John Dewey Kitchen Institute.

ABSTRACT. A January-long course periodically given at Williams College, Williamstown, MA engages students with the diversity of agricultural practices in California on farms ranging from winter fruit and vegetable production, to orchards and vineyards, to livestock and dairy along the Central Coast through hands-on experiences on a variety of farms. In 2013 and again 2016, 8 undergraduate students and a faculty member from Williams gained hands-on knowledge about agricultural systems by working on farms and vineyards on the Central Coast of California. We concluded the month-long courses by participating in the Ecological Farming (EcoFarm) Conference.

The course was the most rewarding teaching experience that the faculty member had in his 40+ years at Williams College and the student responses were likewise positive. The learning-through-working experience was designed to both de-mystify and de-romanticize agriculture by having the students gain a fuller sense of the realities of producing food by working shoulder-to-shoulder with farmers and laborers. Our collective experience was that our investments of time, labor, thought, and sweat by engaging in the actual practice of farming created a depth of understanding not possible in the classroom.

The courses were ambitious logistical academic endeavors. The field course was structured to give students as much hands-on experience as possible by engaging them in work experiences in exchange for interviewing the farm operators and touring the facilities. The days were exhausting, yet the students were relentless in discussing their daily experiences and putting them in context of the course readings and their work observations on various farms. Perhaps the most important unexpected outcome for the students in the course was their universal appreciation that farm work requires considerable skill (as well as effort) and farm-workers are highly skilled in their essential role in the food production system. One of the most successful aspects of the course was that each student kept a journal of their experiences and the ultimate product of the course sessions were collaborative journals with chapters written by each student and edited by other students in the course.

ABSTRACT. The value of learning through doing, or more specifically, integrating hands-on experience with structured and critical reflection, has long been advocated across age groups and fields of study as an effective model for learning. As such, many higher education programs incorporate experiential components into their curricula, including in the areas of food studies, agroecology, culinary elements, and sustainable agriculture.

But, as they sit in a curriculum, and in (or out of) the classroom, what specific aims are being met through these experiential activities? In other words, what is (implicitly or explicitly) being sought or taught through the experiences that are curated? What drives the shaping of these experiences? And, cumulatively, what do they bring to, or mean for, a degree program and a student experience?

We address these questions through a case study, a self-study of experiential learning in the Food Studies program at Chatham University. First, we catalog the varied and multiple kinds of experiential learning activities being used in courses across our curriculum. Second we analyze each activity or category of activity’s role in its course through content analysis of syllabi and planning documents, and through interviews with instructors (work to understand student perspectives on these activities will be forthcoming). Third, we look across these activities to analyze how experiential learning modules shape the program as a whole, in particular as a non-technical degree program, and how they influence the skills that students take with them into their later work in the food system.

Ultimately we hope to understand how experiential learning is currently being used as a tool and how we might further shape it to enhance and enable student learning. We also hope to provoke reflection on various kinds and uses of experiential learning and to spark discussion among educators (writ broadly) on the role and potential role of experience in teaching and learning about agriculture and food.

ABSTRACT. Defining and achieving sustainable diet is a complex, multi-layered challenge. Recent efforts to define a sustainable diet reduce the concept to nutrition, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare and local economies. There are many other aspects that ideally are considered, such as how cultural factors shape foodways, the historical context of food provisioning, and power dynamics. There is little discussion and no agreement on what constitutes a sustainable diet, leaving it up to market instruments and fashion. A hackathon fulfills two purposes: gathering peoples’ creativity to solve a problem, but also redefining a problem by discussing it. Discussing the problem transforms our own perspective of it, sheds light on how others interpret it, and collectively develops a shared understanding.

Speakers for this panel session will share highlights from two day-long workshops - one in Oaxaca in November 2017 and the other offered as a conference workshop on Wednesday June 13th, 2018. (Speakers representing the 6/13/2018 session will be determined that date.) The groups will have explored sustainable diets through gaming, deep conversation, and experiential activities to create a complex framework for thinking about what makes a meal sustainable. Hackathon participants will bring those data collected at www.sustainablemeal.net into the framework development. Participants in the hackathon will discuss what emerged in the day-long event and share a framework representation for conference goers to consider.

This is the second in a series of workshops convened by Spatula & Barcode (http://spatulaandbarcode.net/). The first was convened together with Juan Carlos Rocha at the Programme on Climate and Society conference in Oaxaca, Mexico (November 2017).

ABSTRACT. This four person panel (moderator plus three presenters), using a question-and-answer format, will generate a conversation about proposed changes to particular parts of the Farm Bill that have been announced in recent weeks (Jan-Feb 2018) and will continue to be discussed in 2018 and beyond. During the first 30 minutes, the speakers, all of whom are university researchers, who also teach and do community outreach, will share their professional experiences responding to particular issues in their particular academic and community contexts. Issues of interest will include proposed changes to the structure and content of food & nutrition programs such as SNAP, and proposed reductions or elimination of certain sustainable agriculture initiatives. For the next 15 minutes, speakers will pose and respond to each others' questions. The second half of the session will be dedicated to questions and discussion generated by participants from the floor. The goal is to provide a working session, where food, agriculture, and nutrition professionals can indicate how they are incorporating updates and responses to these proposed changes in their theoretical and practical instructional and research activities and writings.

ABSTRACT. The organic community has rejected use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on organic farms, but beliefs about GMOs are heterogenous within the community including varying reasons for (and degrees of) opposition. Objections to GMOs may be intrinsic (e.g. they are inherently “unnatural” due to crossing of natural species barriers) or extrinsic (e.g. possible environmental and health risks or negative socioeconomic impacts). Debates about biotech and organic are newly relevant in the context of current policy debates. There have been recent legislative efforts towards GMO labeling and debates over GMO and organic “coexistence,” but perhaps the most pertinent policy debates are around the NOP “excluded methods” standards. There are ongoing discussions with the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) on the acceptability of biotech methods other than traditional GMOs (e.g. gene editing, protoplast fusion, cisgenesis, doubled haploids, induced mutagenesis) in organic systems, which will have important impacts on variety development for organic agriculture. In light of current policy debates regarding the relationship between biotech and organic agriculture, it is critical to examine the ways the organic community has approached biotechnology. Previous studies have used content analysis to examine the discourse around biotechnology in opinion-leading newspapers with national distribution (e.g. The New York Times and The Washington Post). This study uses these methods to examine the discourse in publications distributed by and for the organic community. I use materials from the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Collection to examine biotechnology discourse in organic and sustainable agriculture periodicals and reports from the late 1980s to the present. I use content analysis to examine changes in frequency, tone, frames, and sources over time, with special focus on the types of objections (intrinsic and extrinsic) to biotechnology emphasized in the publications.

ABSTRACT. During the 1960s and 70s, numerous social movements developed under the umbrella of Second Wave feminism in the United States; however, all had a common goal: to react “against institutions and power structures that controlled main cultural patterns” and to transform the social order by blurring the line between the personal and political. For feminists, the social order was comprised of institutions where women lacked power. While some activists targeted education, labor, and reproductive rights, others focused on consumption and the environment as their way of voicing dissent and resisting the system. Food was one of many personal concerns that became political during this era, and it served as a flashpoint for women activists because it represented the intersection of different aspects of the consumer and environmental movements, which included anti-corruption efforts, the rise of nonprofit consumer watchdog organizations, and legal activism.

Feminists created numerous narratives in the area of food activism. Two of them—women’s involvement food safety and nutritional labeling, and their role in farming and rural life—can serve as case studies or windows of insight into how factors such as gender, class, race, culture, and politics, played out in different regions of the United States. These case studies place food activism at the American dinner table and agency at the grocery store in the larger context of what was occurring politically and socially across the United States.

Focusing on archival research in Boston, Iowa, Oregon and Wisconsin, this paper will discuss findings as a way to extend common discussions concerning food by connecting food activism to consumer activism and social and civil rights, particularly within the environmental and women’s movements. Issues such as food safety, regulation, and labeling paralleled concerns within the environmental movement—such as smog, pollution, nuclear power, and the use of chemicals. Moreover, their impact on what we ingest, paralleled concerns in the feminist movement, such as the dual, and closely intertwined, exploitation of American women’s bodies and the American ecosystem, and the power of rural and farm women to change the way food was produced and consumed. However, the narratives of these activist women were, and still are, mired in the politics of archives and the politics of food. Thus, to a certain extent, excavating these women’s stories still involves challenging many of the same hegemonic hierarchies targeted by the feminist resisters and dissenters of the 1960s and 70s.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, I consider twentieth-century articulations of sustainable or organic agriculture as part of the long process of settler colonialism in the United States. In Of Plimoth Plantation, William Bradford describes the Pilgrims’ initial exploration of Cape Cod as involving an uncovering of “fair Indian baskets filled with corn…which seemed to them a very goodly sight.” Given this early acknowledgment of native skill in agriculture, how is it that settlers came to consider themselves privileged stewards of the land? Today, scholars often cite John Locke’s 1689 Two Treatises of Government in order to help explain settler justification of native dispossession: according to this logic, labour plus land became property. But, importantly, if Locke’s (and Jefferson’s) concept of property has indeed help to facilitate settler colonialism, it is predicated on the idea that native people did not and do not labor on the land, a fantasy with manifold transhistorical evidence to the contrary.

This paper turns to iconic figures in the development of sustainable and organic agriculture of the twentieth century in order to examine a common trend: rather than looking to antecedent native practices of agriculture, these individuals look to Asia (Rudolf Steiner to South Asia; Albert Howard to India; and F. H. King to China, Korea, and Japan) for portable methods, such as soil amendments and crop rotation. In other words, this pivot to Asia for agricultural knowledge is predicated on a disavowal of Native American presence and knowledge. My paper probes these tensions between the settler colonial processes that disavow indigeneous knowledges and sustainable agriculture, which decenters or troubles the practitioner’s exclusive claim to a piece of land.

ABSTRACT. This workshop/poster discusses ways to use humanities perspectives on food to better understand the processes and power dynamics involved in cultural and social issues. It presents curriculum materials developed for K-12 and community education through a collaborative project sponsored by the American Folklore Society between the Center for Food and Culture and a folklorist-education specialist. This project identified key concepts in discussions about race, ethnicity, discrimination, and social justice, such as culture, social construction, identity, aesthetics, symbol, and ritual. The participants developed pedagogical strategies for using food to understand those concepts, then apply that understanding back to social issues. For example, race is oftentimes described as a “social construct.” Students (and many adults) find that nonsensical since they can see skin color and therefore assume that racial categories are visually objective. Food similarly seems to be an objective and self-evident category, yet definitions of can be food and what is good food differ across cultures. Defining food as “matter considered appropriate for ingestion” enables us to see that it is a fluid and dynamic construction, shaped by history, culture, and personal experiences. That understanding can then be applied to race, demonstrating how, why, and by whom the category was constructed.

Food offers a universal subject for such discussions since everyone has experienced it and can understand on a personal level the concepts being explored. Differences in those experiences can oftentimes be ascribed to taste or to factors beyond one’s control, so that it is a relatively “safe” arena for exploration. When emotional responses are elicited, it forces individuals to recognize that identity and values are embedded in food, in the same way that our identities and values are tied to larger cultural and social issues.

The workshop/poster intends to elicit discussion around this project in order to refine it and to develop additional materials.

ABSTRACT. A world with limited resources requires difficult decisions about how to allocate those resources. Economics provides a way to understand decision making under the constraint of scarce resources. Economic evaluation is about judging the merit, worth, and significance of resource use (King, 2017). It provides decision-makers with information on the feasibility, scalability, and sustainability of implementing an intervention within a particular context and helps organizations maximize the impact they make (Svistak & Pritchard, n.d.). Therefore, economic evaluation is a valuable method for informing evidence-based program and policy decisions. The Evidence-based Policy Making Collaborative suggests that the importance of economic evaluation is increasing as states and cities systematically examine their spending and direct resources to program that provide the greatest value for money (White & Silloway, 2016). Although economic evaluation is the critical link between program evaluation and evidence-based policy, it is often overlooked or avoided by evaluators and decision-makers (Skolits, 2017). This represents a missed opportunity to understand the full value of a program investment for the public good.

Community gardens are promoted as an evidence-based strategy for improving community food security (McCullum, Desjardins, Kraak, Ladipo, & Costello, 2005). Therefore, many cities in the United States are implementing policies to increase the land base for urban food production, and contributing grant funding to support community gardening (Codyre, Fraser, & Landman, 2015; “Establishing Land Use Protections for Community Gardens,” 2009). Despite growing interest in community gardens as a component of local food systems, the economic considerations of community-based food production policies and programs remain problematic. Although emerging research on community gardens indicates they benefit individuals and communities, a review of the literature reveals a gap in economic evaluation. This poster describes the Value for Money (VfM) framework of economic evaluation and illustrates how it could be integrated into a broader valuing strategy using the case of community gardens. By integrating economic evaluation into a more holistic framework for assessing merit, worth, and significance, this poster invites discussion about how researchers, policy-makers, and program leaders can think more constructively about valuing investments in community-based food systems.

ABSTRACT. Improving and measuring the performance of environmental conservation programs is increasingly important. Conservation easements (CEs) have grown in popularity for preventing development and protecting ecosystem services on working land. However, designing CEs to supply ecosystem services - and render the supply of those ecosystem services visible - is a major challenge. This study provides an in-depth examination of CEs selected from a quantitative review of CE terms in six U.S. states. We examine CE purposes, land use rules and performance standards, and processes for adaptive change that attempt to reconcile competing needs for specificity and flexibility. We focus on three ecosystem services that present unique tests for these CE characteristics: provision of food, fuel, and fiber; water quality; and wildlife habitat. We find that CE design has evolved to increase specificity and expand options for adaptation, but measurable performance standards and causal connections to landowner actions remain challenges.

ABSTRACT. Our overall goal is to support the development of a food production network among households with vulnerable children, to improve family livelihoods and the children’s diets.

The Ohio State University has set a goal of increasing locally and sustainably sourced food to 40 percent of the up to $39 million in annual food purchasing by 2025. This new focus on local sourcing commits approximately $8-12 million annually, creating economic pull to incentivize new food enterprises in surrounding communities, many of which are classic food deserts in communities of color with well above the national average household food insecurity rates. The overall goal or this project is to support the development of a food production network among households with vulnerable children, to improve family livelihoods and the children’s diets.

The Ohio State University has set a goal of increasing locally and sustainably sourced food to 40 percent of the up to $39 million in annual food purchasing by 2025. This new focus on local sourcing commits approximately $8-12 million annually, creating economic pull to incentivize new food enterprises in surrounding communities, many of which are classic food deserts in communities of color with well above the national average household food insecurity rates.

Our project will provide the human and social capital to provide coordinated technical training and support for land access, production, processing and food safety, logistics and distribution, business and leadership.

The ultimate goal is long-term contributions to livelihoods for low-income families, particularly in communities of color, by providing technical assistance and training to start new, mostly small-scale food enterprises that will sell to Ohio State, and other institutions as the capacity of the producer network grows.

An important additional benefit will be improved food and nutrition for the children in these families. The focus will be on families and households with young and vulnerable children, engaging the children and their adult caregivers in producing, processing and preparing food for both the household and for sale to Ohio State.

In this presentation, we will describe the way that both objectives and resources are being shared in this project between University personnel and community partners, how the project is being evaluated, and a number of the unique relationships and new collaborative work that is emerging from the project to enhance the relationship between the University and its surrounding community.

ABSTRACT. Livestock have long been perceived as damaging to natural and native systems. Rotational management of goats in brush-invaded landscapes has been proposed as a restoration tool, but data on the impact of the goats on the flora and soil in the Upper Midwest is not available. The objectives of this study were to apply rotational goat browsing at 2 intensity levels for 3 years in a degraded oak savanna and measure changes in 1) shrub height, cover and species richness, 2) herbaceous species richness and cover, 3) light penetration, 4) litter depth, and 5) soil compaction. Our hypothesis was that goats managed for shrub biomass removal could reduce shrub height, cover and species richness, increase herbaceous species richness and cover, and increase light penetration, while not causing a significant removal of litter or soil compaction. This information would help landowners and managers evaluate the potential of goats as a conservation tool in degraded oak savannas. After three seasons under the heavy browse regime goats (1) reduced shrub cover and height, (2) increased light received at the groundlayer and (3) increased cover and richness of sun-favoring herbaceous species, without increasing soil compaction.

ABSTRACT. Over the past 20 years, the number of farmers’ markets has grown substantially from 2,000 in 1994 to over 8,000 in 2014. Farmers’ markets offer a direct connection between a producer and consumer as well as increased access to fresh, seasonal produce to all communities. Despite their attempts at inclusivity, studies show that the typical farmers’ market shopper is white and more affluent; however, the literature rarely focuses on the experiences of low income communities of color hypothesizing affordability, convenience, or lack of values as possible barriers to access. In this study we therefore focus on the experiences of low-income participants with farmers’ markets. Our aim is to identify the barriers of access to farmers’ markets as well as the factors that impact the decision to both attend and return to various Atlanta farmers markets. In order to explore barriers other than affordability, we focus on markets that implement the Double Dollar Program, an initiative that doubles each dollar from SNAP at farmers’ markets. Using semi-structured interviews with 34 low-income participants (frequent shoppers, occasional shoppers, and non-shoppers) at and around three markets varying by neighborhood income, we explore perceptions of farmers’ markets. We find that participants attend farmers’ markets because they value sense of community and health, including a desire for fresh produce and to support local farmers. Barriers to participation include price, proximity, awareness of the market in general, and transportation-related convenience. Our analysis reveals that perceptions of markets do not differ between neighborhoods and do not differ from the responses of the majority of shoppers identified in literature. This implies that market perceptions do not depend on neighborhood exclusivity as suggested by some research. In addition, market attendance is not an issue of difference in values between people of different socio-economic classes; instead, it is a matter of knowledge, affordability, and convenience. Therefore, our recommendations for inclusivity include increased advertising in low-income communities, expansion of the Double Dollars initiative, and having markets near major public transportation routes.

ABSTRACT. Rationale As of 2014, over 1,812,000 people in North Carolina were eligible for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), an overall 18.24% of North Carolina’s population (2014 USDA Reaching Those in Need Estimates). To address concerns of health and nutrition inequity in these eligible low-income populations, the USDA has developed a SNAP-Ed program for administering nutrition education services to targeted populations.

Background Recipe for Success (RFS) is a SNAP-Ed program targeting SNAP-Ed eligible individuals and families in three North Carolina counties. To advance the economic viability, food security and sovereignty of all people, RFS implements direct education, social marketing, and Policy, Systems, and Environment Change (PSEs) interventions. These interventions focus on improving participants’ knowledge and behavior regarding dietary habits, healthy foods, physical activity, meal planning and food budgeting. Additionally, our program hosts school and community gardens at multiple sites, two of which are located at elementary schools with predominantly low-income families.

Interventions Recipe for Success interventions include direct methods of education, social marketing, and PSEs. The direct approach involves classes for SNAP eligible children, adults, special needs adults, veterans, and senior citizens. In addition to classes, we worked with 150 elementary students to design a viable garden space and establish rules for maintaining its growth and success. Students engaged in weekly interactions with the gardens through planting, weeding, and watering. Our second intervention, social marketing, targets over 150,000 people a year, through social media platforms, mailed educational lessons to SNAP eligible families, and events where we collaborate with other local food system partners. Our third intervention, Policy, System, and Environment (PSEs), seeks to engage school policy and local food-oriented collaborative teams to advocate for the economic viability and food security/sovereignty of SNAP eligible individuals and families.

Results The direct education approach resulted in positive knowledge increase and promised behavioral change in program participants. Through pre- and post-test evaluative questions at each direct education site, RFS demonstrated a 60% or better knowledge increase following each lesson - covering topics ranging from gardening skills, healthy foods, meal planning, food budgeting, and physical activity.

Conclusion Implementing direct education, social marketing, and PSE interventions across topics of gardening, healthy foods, physical activity, meal planning and food budgeting demonstrates an increase in knowledge and promises behavioral change in participants from target SNAP-Ed eligible populations - favoring the potential of participants’ economic viability, food security and sovereignty within food and human systems.

ABSTRACT. Agricultural production is vulnerable to climate change. Specialty crop (fruit and vegetable) production can be sensitive to climatic change, because of shorter growing seasons, shallower root systems, and preferences for certain soil moisture and temperature ranges. Specialty crop production represents a significant and growing sector of Midwestern agriculture, and many public and private stakeholders see a need for climate change adaptation outreach to this sector. Although research on farmers’ climate change beliefs, attitudes, and adaptation practices has increased over the last decade, in the Midwest most of that research has focused on producers of grain commodity crops. Little research on specialty crops producers’ perspectives on climate change exists. To address that gap in the research, we conducted a survey of specialty crops growers (n=881) in Michigan and Ohio. Uncertainty about climate change and its potential impacts was a major theme among specialty crop growers. For example, in response to the item “my farm operation will likely be harmed by climate change,” 23% growers agreed, 26% disagreed, and 51% selected the uncertain category. To understand what factors predict specialty crop growers’ perceptions regarding climate risk, we employed a multinomial logistic regression model to examine relationships between risk perceptions and 1) faith in human ingenuity and best management practices (BMPs) as technical fixes; 2) climate change skepticism; 3) farmer identities including: community activist, productivist, conservationist; 4) self-efficacy in managing weather-related threats; 5) extreme weather experience; 6) current use of climate adaptation practices; and 7) concerns about increases in weather extremes and associated impacts. We found that concerns about increases in weather extremes and belief that available BMPs may be insufficient to cope were related to higher risk perceptions. Belief in human ingenuity, climate skepticism, and higher levels of current adaptation practices were associated with lower risk perception levels. Farmer identities, extreme weather experience, and self-efficacy did not have a direct effect on risk perception; however, we found mediation effects through measures of concerns and adaptation practices. Specifically, the conservationist and community activist identities were positively associated with both concern and adaptation practices. The productivist identity was positively associated with concern. Extreme weather experience was positively associated with both concerns and adaptation practices. Self-efficacy was positively associated with adaptation practices, and negatively related to concern. This research represents one of the first large-scale surveys of specialty crops producers’ perspectives on climate change, and the results can inform outreach to promote effective adaptation actions.

ABSTRACT. Upon entering the war in WWI 1917, the U.S. Government organized an effort to increase food and material resources necessary for the war-front. There was also a parallel centralized American patriotic propaganda campaign. In the state of West Virginia, major industrial efforts focused on coal production. The increased coal production came primarily from mountainous “coal camps” where mines and miners existed together.

There were also centralized food production and preservation efforts. This resulted in a state led effort to promote War Gardening resulting in increased individual food production. There is evidence of War Gardening taking place in “coal camps”. However, the degree of participation and willingness to participate in War Gardening efforts is unclear.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the West Virginia State Government, coal companies and individual gardening efforts during WWI in West Virginia coal camps. The extent of War Gardening in “coal camps” and the willingness of miners to participate in gardening efforts will be determined. Data for this study include WV government documents, coal industry trade publications and extant historical documents from 1917 to 1919.

In 1917 the West Virginia Department of Agriculture directly worked with 31 coal companies to distribute gardening publications and actively encouraged their miners to increase food production through gardening. This resulted in a reported 4,795 gardens worth $457,000. In addition, there was a decrease in war opposition and increased patriotism in these camps, according to government documents and Coal Age magazine. Preliminary evidence suggests this could have been influenced by financial rewards for vegetable gardening.

ABSTRACT. In Iowa, the heart of the United States Corn Belt, a small, publicly funded research center has championed alternative agricultural practices and fostered the creation of a sustainable agricultural community over the past 30 years, but its future is now uncertain due to funding cuts and increased corporatization of the university. In spring of 2017, the Iowa state legislature passed a bill to defund the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. The cuts were a part of a broader round of austerity measures advanced by the 2017 Republican-controlled legislature; the cuts were complimented by claims that the center’s work was “finished.” We have been active participants in an ongoing grassroots campaign in partnership with community and national organizations to re-imagine the center’s future as part of a decolonized food system. We document our efforts as an act of ecofeminist praxis. We find opportunities to begin a new dialogue about the place of a sustainable agricultural center, the role of science created by and for the public, and a new relationality among scientists, farmers, animals, and the Earth.

ABSTRACT. Certain sustainable agricultural practices have the potential to provide ecosystem services that are beneficial for farmers and the environment and at the same time can conserve wildlife. However, there are a number of barriers to the adoption of conservation practices, including cost, how well a particular practice fits into the farming calendar, and the need for information about their efficacy. Is there potential to increase the adoption of conservation practices by utilizing their marketing influence with consumers? In order to assess this question, we administered an online, national survey to blueberry and cherry growers. The design was informed by group mental models we analyzed from previous interview research with growers, as well as survey research with consumers, the latter of which indicated a willingness to pay slightly more for certain conservation practices embodied in fruit. For this grower survey, we gathered information about the prevalence of current conservation practices, and examined their potential for more widespread adoption within these industries. The survey also provided information about the efficacy, economic potential, and implementation of a particular conservation practice: the use of nest boxes to attract American kestrels, which are natural predators of smaller, fruit-eating birds. We inquired about farmers’ interest in adopting the nest box practice as individuals or as an industry, to simultaneously lower bird damage and appeal to consumer interest in natural production methods. We found a significant level of interest in both individual adoption of nest boxes and in adoption as an industry for marketing purposes. We identified several other conservation practices that are currently being used by farmers and which might feasibly be adopted by the cherry and blueberry industries as a whole. Our results suggest that there is potential for increasing industry-wide efforts to implement and market conservation practices.

ABSTRACT. Local food is associated with many pro-social benefits, and consequently, local governments and non-profits seek to support local farmers and local food systems. In an effort to better understand local food consumers, and promote local food systems, much work has explored consumer perceptions related to local food. This analysis adds to that growing body of work by focusing on normative perceptions. Normative perceptions relate to what we think others do, and what we think others approve of. Normative perceptions have been linked to pro-health and pro-environmental behavior in other contexts, but few studies that have involved local food consider normative perceptions. This work also examines how different communication channels inform normative perceptions, using the social exposure framework as a guide. The social exposure framework suggests that information in symbolic, social, and physical environments can contribute to our normative perceptions. Data that inform this analysis were collected in 2015 through survey sent to a random sample of Wisconsin households. The results found that normative perceptions were associated with purchasing local food. Information from all three domains – the symbolic, social, and physical environments – appear to contribute to normative perceptions in this context as discussion with others about local food (the social environment), attention to food-related information in the news (the symbolic environment), and being a farmers market shopper (the physical environment) were all related to normative perceptions.

ABSTRACT. The food movement (LFM) is widely recognized as a collective effort focused on countering the economic, ecological, and socio-cultural inequities and injustices associated with the dominant global food system. The LFM is understood to be motivated by agendas that include, but are not limited to community renewal and development, cultural preservation, ecological protection and rehabilitation, economic and food justice, health and wellness, and economic re-localization. The notion of local food is now evident across a variety of community and market spaces (e.g. community gardens, farmers’ markets, festivals, grocery stores, roadside stands, and you-picks). Despite the ubiquitous nature of the LFM, there remains a diverse and inconsistent range of interpretations of what does and does not constitute ‘local food.’ This nebulousness can create confusion among consumers, as well as lead to entrepreneurs and retailers representing their food products as being “local” with little to no accountability to the economic, ecological, and socio-cultural agendas that underpin LFM. The current study uses photo analysis to illustrate the various motives that are represented through the presentation of ‘local food products’ in conventional and unconventional market spaces located in the Southeastern Arizona Local Food System (SALFS). More specifically, the market spaces included in the study are five grocery stores, which are considered to be conventional market spaces, and five farmers’ markets, which are treated as unconventional market spaces. Three sociological theories are drawn on to frame the study. First, principles of reification (i.e., illusion, ‘thinglikeness’) are used to illuminate how product representation constructs and conveys for consumers what is and is not considered to be ‘local food.’ Second, principles of commodification, the act of turning something with intrinsic value into a commodity, are used to show how product representation helps determine and reinforce the monetary value of ‘local food.’ Third, the principles of taste regimes, which explain the processes of power and status that work to perpetuate aesthetically-oriented cultures of consumption, are used to compare and contrast the representations of local food across the ten market spaces. Over 500 original photos are analyzed using visual anthropology and sociology methods to 1) reveal how local food is represented to consumers across conventional and unconventional retail spaces and 2) consider the various ways in which such representations either promote or counter the economic, ecological, and socio-cultural agendas of the LFM. Implications for both practice and future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Sweet corn is a ubiquitous summer vegetable throughout the United States. Over the past few decades consumer preference for sweet and juicy cobs have driven breeding priorities. This has led to a gap in the market for more savory vegetable corn varieties. In the Sweet Corn Breeding and Genetics Program led by Dr. Bill Tracy, we are working with a number of heirloom varieties from the northern United States as well as Chilean choclos to breed more savory varieties of vegetable corn for the upper Midwest. We hope to improve these varieties for both eating quality and field performance in organic systems in order to bring a larger range of flavor and kernel quality to vegetable corn. We are using sensory techniques, such as tastings with local Madison-area chefs with the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative, to create flavor profiles and dishes using savory corn. In addition, we are performing carbohydrate and tenderness analysis in the lab to identify favored kernel components to inform the breeding program.

In order to help gauge interest and promote different markets and consumers for farmers to sell culinary corn we have distributed choclo to farmers across the upper Midwest. We then surveyed and visited farmers growing choclo to learn more about how a savory corn can add to local vegetable diversity. This year we are continuing to distribute and connect growers with markets for their corn. This project contributes to the regional cuisine of Wisconsin, using insight from the farmers and tastemakers in the community, to develop vegetable varieties with benefits for both the local environment and economy.

ABSTRACT. Two recent university initiatives have attempted to address a variety of concerns between university students and food. The Campus Learning Garden, established in Spring 2016, was meant to reconnect students with where their food comes from and how it is produced; initially, the output from the garden was sent to the city's food bank. A year later, in Fall 2017, the university also established a Food Pantry to address food insecurity among the student body (a recent survey indicated that 43% of the student body had experienced food insecurity as students).

Though both initiatives are very much in their infancy, each has significant potential to address a variety of material and educational needs among the student body at this midsized urban university. One significant challenge has been finding a way for food from the garden to end up in the food pantry; currently the pantry is only able to stock nonperishable goods.

This research project offers preliminary insight into the challenges and opportunities behind these distinct-yet-related food initiatives on campus. Data come primarily from interviews with key stakeholders and participants (including students, faculty, and staff) in the garden and pantry settings. Among other things, interview questions ask respondents how and why they became involved with the garden/pantry (as appropriate), challenges and opportunities they see for each initiative, outcomes they hope to see of each initiative in the future, and how their involvement has impacted other areas of their life. I explore both the practical issues surrounding food production and provisioning on a university campus as well as the more theoretical question of how such initiatives contribute to greater levels of food democracy and food citizenship among students.

ABSTRACT. A need persists to improve the quality and quantity of food available to individuals facing hunger throughout the United States, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee. Food insecurity impacts between 10% and 22% of Wisconsin’s population. In the Fourth Wisconsin US House District – of which Milwaukee is a part – 22% of the community is considered food insecure. As a result of the continued need, communities in eastern Wisconsin have identified hunger/nutrition as priority health improvement areas. A community-academic partnership between Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin (FAEW) and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is striving to both understand the food system that exists from “seed to plate,” and – through this understanding – to take a systems approach to streamline processes. The partnership aims to transform FAEW’s existing infrastructure into a community food hub (“FarmLink”) to repair the fragmented food system and help communities improve overall health and nutrition.

This approach requires a shift from traditional food bank practices, aiming to create a business model that focuses on improving availability and affordability of healthy food, and engages key players in innovative ways: local producers demonstrate interest not just in sales/profit, but in altruistic approaches to serving food bank clientele; FAEW is shifting to an approach that prioritizes the health benefits of fresh locally grown food over the ready availability of processed shelf stable options.

FarmLink food hub is currently a wholesale marketplace virtually connecting local producers with wholesale buyers (schools, hospitals, restaurants, small grocers, other institutions). This platform is designed for ease of upload, navigation, and purchase of local food products; allows diversification of vendors and buyers; and can easily be scaled. FAEW will begin proactively purchasing – and making available to food pantries – fresh local items through FarmLink. Food pantry locations will require capacity building to ensure they are equipped with adequate infrastructure to accept/store increased volumes of fresh, locally purchased products.

In this community-engaged research project, community partners from FAEW contribute practical expertise in hunger relief processes while the academic researchers provide expertise in evaluation and in the application of systems change approaches to health initiatives. A key research component of the project is interviews and focus groups with the wide spectrum of partners (e.g., farmers, producers, food pantries, FAEW leadership) to explore perspectives on emergency food distribution and recommendations for ensuring the success of FarmLink within the broader regional food system.

ABSTRACT. In spite of the fact that the educational sector has been existing with a lot of already made policies to increase the food and nutrition security of her students in terms of knowledge of improved dietary habits, food insecurity is still prevalent among students. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the food purchasing behavior and food security status of agricultural students in tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria. Primary data were obtained from one hundred and thirty seven (137) agricultural students through the use of questionnaire. Purposive and proportionate sampling technique was used. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA with post-hoc test and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Results showed that 57.5% of the students received an average amount of N20,701.00 monthly as their monthly stipend. Also, 41.6% and 37.9% of them spent an average of N3024.12 and N11,138.32 on food weekly and monthly, respectively. About 51.0% of the students spent 15.85 minutes on the average to get to where they mostly purchase their food. A greater proportion (41.6%) of the respondents purchased legumes while 35.4% of the respondents purchased their food from on-campus restaurant. Also, 36.2% of the students spent an average amount of N 241.87 on food daily and 23.1% spent N84.84 on drinks, daily. Although the most frequently purchased food by the students were sweetened drinks, fast foods, legumes, fats and oil, roots and tubers in its processed form, but they purchased less of fruits, vegetable and beverages. Furthermore, 80.0% of the students were categorized as food insecure, while 20.0% of them were food secure. Also, 65.0% of the students were classified as having high dietary diversity. Also, 44.5% of the students perceived that food insecurity had a moderate effect on their academic performance. The coping strategies to food insecurity used by the students were; reducing the amount of food consumed ( = 2.12), buying food in bulk ( = 2.93), among others. The government should establish an educational and food policies aimed at creating and implementing an enlightenment programme to educate the students on the effects of their food purchasing behaviour on their food security situation.

ABSTRACT. Biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), as an identified solution to problem of Vitamin A deficiency, has been promoted through the research and extension efforts of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), and other collaborating institutions for farmers to adopt. However, it is important to note that farmers routinely make complex decisions, based on a number of factors, especially regarding the adoption of agricultural technologies. Hence, this study sought to determine the factors that drive the adoption and constrain the non-adoption of OFSP varieties among farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. Multistage and purposive sampling procedures were used in selecting sixty sweet potato farmers (thirty adopters and non-adopters each). Focus group discussions, key informant interview and sample survey were employed in eliciting responses from the respondents. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used in eliciting information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Greater percent of both adopters and non-adopters of OFSP were males. Although the adopters were older than the non-adopters, but they were more educated, cosmopolite, cultivated larger farm sizes, earned more income, had more extension contact, farming experience and access to credit than the non-adopters. These characteristics may have driven the adoption of OFSP among the adopters. The majority (73.3%) of adopters and non-adopters (90.0%) had high knowledge of OFSP. The major areas of training on OFSP received were in the area of crop production (land preparation and plant spacing). The motivational factors that affected the adoption of OFSP by adopters were; pleasant taste of OFSP ( = 2.90), profit from sale of OFSP roots ( = 2.73), and profit from sale of OFSP vines ( = 2.47). On the other hand, the factors that inhibited the adoption of OFSP by the non-adopters were: unavailability of OFSP vines needed for planting ( = 3.20) and lack of capital to carry out necessary farm activities ( = 2.27). Result of the factor analysis showed that the major factors loading as perceived constraints to the adoption of OFSP by non-adopters were: technological, and production/institutional. Hence, in addition to creating more sensitization and awareness on OFSP, concerted efforts should be made by the research institutes and other collaborating agencies to provide adequate inputs (vines and other planting materials) so as to encourage more farmers to produce vitamin A rich OFSP.

ABSTRACT. The majority of culinary school contains kinesthetic demonstrations by decorated chef instructors who demonstrate techniques that students must become proficient in. This photo essay catalogues one lesson which challenges students to participate in ways that they have not before. Through the breakdown of a pig in a butchery class, students were presented with an enhanced learning experience that connected flesh and bone with multiple socio-cultural concepts. The common rubric in the photos shows a link between learning the skill of turning raw products into food with higher order concepts that create an enhanced learning environment in culinary school kitchens.

THIS IS A POSTER AND NOT A PAPER. I CAN SUBMIT A SAMPLE IF PROVIDED WITH AN EMAIL ADDRESS.

ABSTRACT. Development of garden signage for community food spaces is often an interative and collaborative process, although it often involves a bounded community of participants to decide on the function and message of the signs (for example, making programming legible to a community, setting boundaries, rules, or hours, or providing explanations or contact information for getting involved; see Nassauer 1995 Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames; Bang-Jensen 2013 How to Read a Garden).

The projects described in the signs highlighted in this poster have been using the medium of garden signs to play with the balance between making project information engaging and sharing detailed stories about the background, justifications, and process of a number of urban food system interventions to the communities who participate in and pass by the network of involved gardens and farms. This project also seeks to further engage those outside the perceived boundaries of the projects, in the ongoing development of a rotating series of temporary explanatory signs.

Our goal as a network of community organizations is to invest in urban community food systems to support our neighborhoods; we often write explanations as part of projects, grant proposals, and community engagement efforts – but we rarely connect the radical roots of our projects’ origins and goals with the invitations to be involved that we exhibit: garden signs are more often about botany and nutrition than about racial equity, regenerative economies, environmental justice, or improved urban planning.

In this poster (which corresponds to a series of garden tours), we explore the development of a series of garden signs designed to support neighbor- and youth-led tours of the emergent garden, orchard, and farm network around the Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods in Saint Paul. Accompanying a tour of Twin Cities gardens, we will create an interactive poster conveying highlights of related signs and use this interaction as a mini collaborative workshop inviting thoughts from researchers, community groups, and parallel projects, discussing the challenges of thorough yet also engaging presentation of the intents and impacts of these gardens.

ABSTRACT. Seeds are a critical component of developing a more just, diverse, place-based and agro-ecological approach to agriculture. There are several new initiatives that are modeling innovative partnerships and ways to develop new varieties such as participatory and farmer driven projects, freelance plant breeding outside of institutional contexts, and research to support plant breeding and seed production using organic practices. These new organizations include the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) and its seed company and plant breeder partners, the Society of Organic Seed Professionals (SOSP) and the Student Organic Seed Symposium (SOSS) along with an array of related organizations and research networks.

OSSI connects a network of 38 plant breeders, 53 seed company partners and other seed related non-profits. Many of the plant breeders in this network are freelance plant breeders, or those people doing plant breeding outside of institutional contexts. In addition, OSSI also works with various participatory breeding projects, highlighting successful examples of de-centralized plant breeding where farmers and gardeners are participating in plant breeding projects in various ways. OSSI has been popular in the organic seed movement and the vast majority of the 400 OSSI pledged varieties were selected under organic growing conditions.

The Society of Organic Seed Professionals (SOSP) and the Student Organic Seed Symposium (SOSS) are focused on the research end of the spectrum and are connecting students and professionals conducting research on organic plant breeding and organic seed systems. Now in its seventh year, SOSS is an annual event organized by and for graduate students across the country who are interested in organic plant breeding and sustainable agriculture. The four-day symposium combines presentations with in-the-field experiences and exposes participants to innovative initiatives in organic seed happening around the country. SOSP is a new professional organization committed to growing a research and professional community passionate about the advancement of organic plant breeding and seed systems and oversees SOSS.

ABSTRACT. The erosion of farmer sovereignty over seed—via corporate appropriation of plant genetic resources, growing monopoly power in the seed industry, the development of transgenic crops, and the global imposition of intellectual property rights (especially patents)—has become a pivotal issue for farmers the world over. Increasingly, the access of farmers and breeders to genetic material is subject to use-restrictions drawn from both intellectual property and contract law. In response, the Open Source Seed Initiative was created to “free the seed” from such use-restrictions. This is accomplished with a “copyleft” Pledge attached to newly bred cultivars. Recipients or purchasers of OSSI-Pledged seed are assured of the freedom to do whatever they wish with the seed, with one restriction: that they give that same freedom to anyone to whom they give or sell that seed or any of its derivatives or progeny. Through its educational and outreach activities, OSSI creates awareness of the social value of purchasing “freed seed.” Via its website and outreach materials, OSSI guides farmers and gardeners to its Seed Company Partners. For its Seed Company Partners, OSSI is thereby creating a niche market for ethically produced, “freed seed” analogous to the markets for “fair trade” and “organic” products. OSSI’s portfolio currently includes over 400 OSSI-Pledged cultivars contributed by 38 OSSI Variety Contributors. Seed of these varieties is available from 53 OSSI Seed Company Partners. Colleagues all over the world have been excited and inspired by the potential of open source approaches to freeing the seed. OSSI has Variety Contributors and Seed Company Partners in Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and the UK. Further, OSSI is cooperating with these initiatives and others to build an international platform for supporting open source, freed seed.

ABSTRACT. In 2014 the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) created a seed commons to which plant breeders were invited to pledge their unique, new plant varieties. Varieties pledged to OSSI may be used by others, without restriction, for food production, seed saving, seed sales, research and plant breeding. Those who use OSSI-pledged varieties as parents in the development of additional new plant varieties agree to pledge those new varieties to OSSI upon their release, which helps build the seed commons. The OSSI seed commons encourages fair and open access to plant genetic resources worldwide for farmers, gardeners, plant breeders, and communities of this and future generations.

To date the OSSI database includes 383 pledged varieties with more submitted for acceptance every month. Most pledged varieties originate from independent or freelance breeders who own or are affiliated with small companies rather than from large breeding programs such as those at public sector universities, agricultural institutions or multinational crop breeding corporations. Most of the pledged varieties are horticultural food crops rather than agricultural commodity crops. The most frequently cited characteristic of pledged varieties is enhanced edible quality. Other characteristics include increased genetic diversity, adaptation to specific conditions such as organic production systems, general and stable pest resistance, novel appearance and ease of human or small machine harvest. The users of these varieties are typically hobby gardeners, smaller scale market gardeners, CSA growers and other independent plant breeders.

The driving force behind OSSI’s creation was to push back against the wave of patents and contracts currently used to legally restrict how and by whom seeds may be used. This ethical stance resonates with plant breeders who pledge their varieties to OSSI. Beyond providing an ethical alternative however, in the long term, the OSSI seed commons may have an impact on the agricultural ecosystem through the introduction of new crops that offer opportunities for improved rotations, availability of varieties with resilience to environmental stress, encouragement of ecological farming systems and support for communities of breeders, marketers, growers and eaters who collaborate on issues of food system change.

ABSTRACT. In 2012, Iowa and much of the Midwest experienced the worst drought since 1988. The decade leading up to 2012, which had been the coolest and wettest since the late 1800s, saw a major increase in livestock production in the state. The increase in livestock was especially high in the Northwest portion of the state, due to growth in numbers of large-scale animal feeding operations (AFOs). Over the past ten years, the total number of swine, cattle, and poultry raised in AFOs have each doubled, and overall animal units increased from 1.4 million in 2007 to 5.1 million in 2017. Water supply in the region comes mainly from shallow alluvial aquifers that depend on relatively frequent precipitation to recharge. The 2012 drought, combined with the increased demand from AFOs, depleted groundwater supplies to the point that rural water suppliers were nearly unable to meet daily minimum water requirements. Timely rains averted a crisis, but since that incident, livestock numbers have continued to grow. Since the 2012 drought, Iowa's Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has attempted to bring stakeholders, including rural water systems, livestock producers, and other major water users together to develop collaborative water management strategies for the region, but with limited success. Climate scientists predict that region is likely to experience another major drought in the near to medium-term. This precarious situation requires a change in resource management strategies to minimize future contention over scarce water supplies. This USDA-funded research uses a collaborative governance framework to inform development of a comprehensive understanding of how the region's water managers, animal feeding operations, grain farmers, food processors, other major water users, and the IDNR anticipate and adapt to changing water availability. We employed in-depth interviews and participant observation to explore and document the range of stakeholder interests, perspectives, and needs that are impacting efforts to implement collaborative governance processes and potential outcomes. We will summarize key findings that have provided insights into stakeholder roles and expectations and helped identify facilitators of and barriers to collaborative governance efforts.

ABSTRACT. Bottled water has rapidly transformed from a niche object into a ubiquitous commodity, which in 2017 surpassed soft drinks as the most-consumed beverage in the U.S. This relatively new commodity is situated at the nexus of debates over the social and environmental impacts of the commodification of nature and the dynamics of countermovements to neoliberal globalization. The $160 billion global bottled water industry, dominated by four major agrifood corporations (Nestlé, Danone, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi-Cola), has generated substantial contention over its extraction of water for bottling in communities in both the global North and South. This paper examines two main questions: 1) How are narratives or discourses of water scarcity mobilized by a range of actors in local conflicts over groundwater extraction for water bottling?; 2) What are the implications of the findings for efforts by environmental advocates and communities to protect local water supplies? We explore these questions through an ethnographic case study of contestation over groundwater extraction by the leading firm Nestlé Waters in rural southwestern Ontario, Canada, a region affected by recurring droughts and groundwater depletion. We find that the scarcity narratives deployed by local residents, water and environmental activists, local and provincial public officials, and bottling industry representatives invoke divergent scales and forms of scarcity: biophysical versus socially-produced, current versus future, and local versus regional or global. We argue that these competing discourses illuminate deeper issues of economic and social justice at the heart of the conflict, and suggest potentially effective routes for mobilizing local coalitions around water decommodification.

ABSTRACT. Nutrient runoff from agriculture in Iowa has negative impacts on the state’s water bodies and is a major cause of Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. To help address nutrient-related water quality issues, in 2013 the state of Iowa established the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS). This comprehensive policy instrument proposed major reductions in nonpoint source pollution from agricultural nutrient runoff, goals that would require that most Iowa farmers implement significant new soil and water conservation best management practices. We employ a conceptual framework that synthesizes elements of the theory of reasoned action and Heberlein’s environmental attitudes framework to develop a model of factors that shape farmers’ attitudes toward the NRS. Using data from a 2014 survey of Iowa farmers, a structural equation model is employed to evaluate the relationships between attitudes toward the NRS, as measured by a multiple-item scale, and variables measuring environmental awareness and concern, economic barriers, influence of actors in agricultural social networks, and self-rated opinion leadership. Findings show that farmers’ concerns about agriculture’s impacts on Iowa’s water quality was the largest positive indicator of farmers’ attitudes towards nutrient reduction strategy. Farmers who view themselves as opinion leaders and those who learned about the NRS from public agency agricultural stakeholders also tended to have favorable attitudes toward the NRS. On the other hand, farmers who were more concerned about economic impediments to BMP adoption had significantly less positive attitudes toward the NRS and its goals. Overall, the research shows that most farmers have favorable, supportive attitudes toward the NRS, but results also suggest that outreach and technical assistance should focus on helping farmers to overcome economic barriers to BMP adoption.

ABSTRACT. We share some results from an ongoing participatory research project created in partnership with women farmland owners in 2016. This project focuses on the Des Moines and Raccoon River watersheds, two watersheds targeted in a now-dismissed state Supreme Court lawsuit. We wondered how photovoice, a participatory research method, might contribute to community-based dialogue about water quality concerns, agricultural conservation, and landscape change during a time of increased politicization about agricultural water pollution. The Raccoon River’s nitrate-nitrogen export is among the highest in the United States. Nearly 70 percent of the watershed’s farmland is owned by non-resident landowners, a majority of whom are women. Partnering with women landowners elevates their local experiences and their agency as change agents on the landscape. In collaboration with existing environmental, agricultural, and civic groups, including the Raccoon River Watershed Association, Women, Food and Agricultural Network, Whiterock Conservancy, City of Jefferson, and Dallas County Extension, we organized field days in the Des Moines and Raccoon River watersheds during the fall of 2015. At these meetings, we recruited project leaders for the photovoice project before facilitating the first photovoice project meetings the following spring 2016. Project leaders convened to share photos and narratives among themselves before making plans to share their photovoice project with community audiences as a traveling exhibit entitled “River Stories: Views from a Watershed.” We found this approach creates community among the project participants and inspires project-ownership. Project participants continue to share their project at various community events around the state and to be involved in conservation advocacy.

ABSTRACT. Agricultural use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides often has negative environmental and human health impacts, particularly regarding water pollution. Several studies have explored farmers’ perceptions of water quality and how they view their own role in managing pollution concerns within their watersheds. Previous surveys have shown that farmers and farm residents are more likely than urban residents to have a positive view of their water quality and to believe that agricultural chemicals are not a source of water pollution. Additionally, surveys reveal that farmers often view regulations that aim to control runoff from farms as unnecessary, costly, and burdensome. Much of this research has been concentrated in the Midwest, and few studies have examined these perceptions in the western United States. My research addresses this gap by seeking to understand the perspectives of farmers in north central Montana. In this presentation, I will present research based on semi-structured interviews with conventional farmers in Teton County, Montana, an area that has historically experienced water quality concerns from agricultural runoff. In the interviews, I will explore their perspectives of water quality within their watershed and its relationship to their agricultural practices. These interviews will provide understanding of farmers’ environmental views and beliefs, their reasons for their current production practices, and the connections they make between their agricultural land, their practices, and their water quality. Data and its analysis will be presented and discussed.

ABSTRACT. This paper uses a comparative perspective to compare theoretical approaches to urban agriculture (UA) throughout the Global North and Global South. Throughout the Global North and South, there has been an emergence of research examining urban agriculture’s role in creating urban sustainability and realizing social, economic and environmental payoffs. Topics addressed by researchers have spanned a large range of topics, yet the recent iteration of interest in urban agriculture has been loosely characterized by a divergence and disconnect between research conducted in the Global North, compared to that in the Global South. In cities of the Global North, engagement with urban agriculture is often framed by literature in political ecology, political economy, environmental activism and justice, and social movements, linking urban agriculture to citizen rights, movements against industrial agriculture, farmworker exploitation, urban food deserts, and sustainability. The picture of agriculture in cities of the global South, meanwhile, is more often analyzed in terms of food production and individual or household-level contributions of urban farming to food security and livelihoods. We will examine different approaches to urban agriculture, with the goal of framing theoretical perspectives that unite UA discussions and themes in the Global North and Global South. Several perspectives such as Sustainable Livelihoods, Urban Political Ecology and Critical Urban Studies offer rich potential in creating convergences between North and South perspectives.

ABSTRACT. Access to food through urban agriculture is increasingly viewed as a way to address both sustainability and equity issues in cities, yet very little attention has been given to attempts to increase access to food through the creation of intentional sites of public fruit production in urban food forests. Urban food forests are part of a growing trend in efforts to mitigate problems associated with inequitable access to food. Such endeavors are consistent with the rise in foraging of non-timber forest products in cities as well as efforts to increase urban agriculture as part of efforts to actualize sustainability policy-making at the neighborhood level. In this research, I examine the fruit- and nut-bearing woody perennial spaces of urban food forests, considering whether they contribute to healthy food access in low-income and minority neighborhoods in the City of Philadelphia. In interrogating these dynamics a goal of this work is to contribute new ways to thinking about urban food access that is attentive to not only issues related to sustainable food initiatives, but also to broader structural inequalities in urban areas that perpetuate inequities in food access. This paper draws on ongoing data collection (since 2015) to provide a preliminary examination of the impact of urban food forests on equity in Philadelphia. Utilizing interviews with key stakeholders and observation from select food forest sites and planting events in Philadelphia, I argue that urban food forests may contribute to ‘green gentrification’ in the neighborhoods where they are located and that more work is needed to determine their potential as sites of equitable food access.

ABSTRACT. Unlike community gardens, community orchards are a relatively uncommon type of community food project in the United States. Community orchards have gained momentum in recent years, however, with at least 100 being planted in US cities since 2007. While the outcomes of these new projects have yet to be analyzed, one potential benefit of an orchard is improved access to fresh fruit for residents in the surrounding neighborhood. Uneven access to fresh produce means this benefit could have greater impact in food-insecure neighborhoods. This research asks two broad questions: 1. Where are community orchards being established and what is the level of food security in the surrounding neighborhoods? 2. If there are orchards being planted in food-insecure neighborhoods, who and what (grassroots community organizing, non-profit organizations, or local government policy, for example) made that happen? Using GIS and census data, researchers found 61% of orchards studied (n=89) are in neighborhoods with higher food insecurity than the national mean and 21% are in neighborhoods with >3x the mean. The next stage of research will focus on orchards in the most food-insecure neighborhoods. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with local governments and relevant non-profit and community organizations examine how these orchard projects got organized, sited, and established where they did. Findings may inform efforts to establish other community orchards and may instigate further research on this growing trend within urban agriculture.

ABSTRACT. Disparities in food access are well documented in areas identified as food deserts, with residents in poorer communities disadvantaged in terms of access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods. Community gardening has regained importance as one way in which to ameliorate issues of food insecurity and food access. A nationwide trend towards establishing community gardens is evidenced by the now approximately 18,000 community gardens found throughout North America. Yet, the efficacy of these types of garden projects is understudied and it remains to be seen how effectively they can affect the core issues of food security and food sovereignty. Community garden projects frequently take the form of two specific models; 1) allotment gardens, which allocate individual plots of land to community members for the gardening seasons, and 2) communal growing spaces used to produce food for populations not directly involved in the garden, usually by donating garden food to a local food pantry. This second model typically focuses on getting fresh food into the hands of food insecure food pantry users. Our research evaluated a donation-model community garden project in DeKalb, IL that partners with several local food pantries in the area to evaluate the impact of these garden donations on food security in terms of access to fresh produce and impact on dietary diversity. We draw on interviews with food pantry staff and clients, community garden volunteers, and surveys of food pantry clients to understand the effectiveness of donation-model gardens in distributing food in the community, and situate this in the broader context of challenges to addressing community food security.

ABSTRACT. Hospitals contribute to the maintenance and improvement of health within local communities, and function as valuable economic engines (Connor et al 2017). Hospitals are adopting policies and practices that reflect a growing concern for social, economic, and environmental issues facing the communities they serve. Healthcare administrators recognize how their organizations can influence eating habits catalyze sustainable food systems in their communities. Thus, they need metrics that incorporate non-medical determinants of health, as well as metrics associated with ecological and economic health.

Despite the importance of hospitals to both local food systems and health outcomes, limited economic research has been dedicated to understanding their unique roles in this space to date. This presentation attempts to address this gap by first developing a model of consumer choice of food purchases across storefronts within the UW-Health system. In particular, I discuss the role of price and non-price changes such as product placement in influencing consumer decisions. To produce this model, I rely on biweekly sales data collected over the last 30 months from two specific UW-Hospital storefronts: Four Lakes Cafeteria, and Mendota Market. Using discrete choice methods developed within the economic literature, I produce and present estimates of both own and cross-price elasticity for a select number of products across these stores.

I will then move into a brief discussion of ongoing work with stakeholders within the UW-Health to develop and implement controlled trial experiments to operationalize the results from the demand analysis. Here, I will highlight both the potential of the ongoing work for public health outcomes and behavioral economics, and the continued needs in data management and collection to mainstream this approach across health systems nationally.

ABSTRACT. Metrics & Indicators for Impact (MIFI) (mifimarket.org) is an online toolkit that empowers individual markets and market organizations through proven data collection strategies, actionable interpretation information, and customizable reports. By using MIFI, managers develop specific knowledge about their market that enhances internal-decision making and external communication activities with partners, sponsors, and the public. Managers select from a list of metrics that relate to different economic, social, and ecological aspects of their market and the data they collect through the program are baseline numbers for calculating economic impact and other outcomes associated with the market. Faculty and graduate students at the UW-Madison developed and tested the program to give markets the ability to confidently describe many different impacts - especially over time.

The presentation does two things: first it describes MIFI and how markets around the country have used MIFI and the outcomes they have achieved, and second, the presentation shows the philosophical roots of applied social science.

ABSTRACT. Sales at farmers markets have risen consistently over the last two decades, driven in part by the proliferation of such market spaces and also by the ease with which prospective (food and other) vendors may engage with such spaces. The benefits to market producers and vendors – as well as the surrounding community – are enormous. Benefits include public health, economic well-being, social/political life, and ecological. (Morales, 2011)

The Williamsburg Farmers Market (WFM) is among the most prominent markets supporting direct agricultural commerce, and exemplifies many of the benefits of community markets. Markets are initiated by a variety of grassroots community stakeholders (Friedlander 1976), and as such, their goals are aligned to the unique assets found in that place. The Williamsburg market is no exception – and distinct from other markets, Williamsburg has a significant history of collecting information on its practices and outcomes.

In an effort to further realize these benefits, one enduring question among scholars and market participants alike is what factors increase overall market sales. In particular, how do the characteristics of the market impact overall sales at that market and what can these markets do to help further boost sales for their producer and vendor participants? We seek to answer this question by drawing on longitudinal data from WFM.

We examine both weekly sales data and customer counts in relation to other factors both internal and external to the market. External factors include weather, both temperature and rainfall. Our findings quantify the positive customer count and impacts on sales of good weather days. More prominent positive market impacts come from the diversity of vendors present and the occurrence of special events planned for market days. We created a specialization (sums of squares) index based on the count of vendor types at each market. Where vendors were categorized into those who sell produce; meat, eggs, and dairy; specialized crops; value added products; potted plants; and non-edible items.

This analysis provides insight into the role of vendor diversity in markets. The results also provide a framework by which farmer market collected data, and relationships among data components, can be visualized and understood. This is an important tool set for vendors and market managers. These managers make decisions in response to external factors, and plan for long-term success.

ABSTRACT. Farmer markets perform multiple functions and they weave together diverse interests (e.g., local economic development, social justice, food access, environmental sustainability, etc.) and people (e.g., farmers, community residents, business owners, elected officials, etc). Between 2006 and 2012, the number of farmers markets in the US increased by 180%. The growth is largely due to shifting consumer preferences for food and changing economics of agriculture but despite the surge, there is a relative absence of general knowledge about farmers markets. Existing farmers market research advances two extremes - academic research agenda v. market decision-making and neither follow processes that enables detailed, systematic impact analysis or generates information that produces practical evaluation outputs. The former refers to studies performed by academic or government personnel on one or multiple markets to advance a personal or institutional research agenda. They follow strict social science research standards and publish the results in formats that have little value to the markets that they study. The latter refers to studies conducted by the market organization on themselves to inform their decision-making. They focus on measurements that are simple to execute but not always valid or reliable. Metrics + Indicators for Impact applies a citizen science research design to address issues with existing knowledge and scholarship on farmers markets. This article describes the research processes and methods that constitute this innovation. It explains how we conceptualized research at farmers markets, how we created citizen science research tools, and how markets interact with the tools and it discusses the implications for future research at and on farmers markets. The design focuses on interaction among individual actions, physical environments, and research methods so it is relevant for scholars and practitioners that perform research with people to develop a systematic and applied understanding of phenomena. Specifically, the paper provides valuable information about how scholars can use citizen science to study complex social environments (i.e., the processes for designing and implementing citizen science research methods and instruments) and about how farmers markets, or other social entities, can participate in scientific research to advance multiple agendas (i.e., the need to develop a comprehensive data set and the desire to advance organizational objectives through data).

ABSTRACT. Agriculture-related activities account for nearly 10% of Iowa’s GDP, yet Iowa ranks 46th in the nation for fresh fruit and vegetable consumption (America’s Health Rankings, 2015; Iowa Data Center, 2017). Additionally, 12% of Iowa’s population experiences food insecurity (Feeding America, 2018). Two Iowa State University Extension & Outreach programs- SNAP Education and Master Gardeners- are innovatively addressing these disparities through the development of a network of donation gardens and emergency food sites. Through coordinated partnerships with ISU research farms and county Master Gardeners, as well as capacity-building efforts with grassroots community groups, local pantries and food rescue organizations, the Growing Together project has donated approximately 75,000 pounds of locally grown produce since 2015. Aimed at supporting sustainable and equitable community food systems, Growing Together seeks to “strengthen existing links between different sectors of the food chain, or create new links” (Anderson, 2008). As such, we suggest, donation gardening provides an apt lens for examining food systems communication (Gordon & Hunt, in press), and to problematize and re-imagine discourses of food access and the roles played by various institutions in our food systems.

The current study explores the decision-making processes undergirding the procurement and utilization of produce donated to two pantries affiliated with Growing Together. Using community-engaged field methods, we assess the degree to which produce grown and donated through Growing Together aligns with clients’ capabilities of food access. Specifically, we investigate the experiences, preferences and needs, as well as barriers that influence clients’ choices at the food pantry sites. Drawing from Sen (1990) and Nussbaum (2011), we apply the “capabilities approach” to re-conceptualize food access in terms of the discursive (material and symbolic) relations that enable and constrain food (in)security. Capabilities, or functions of well-being- such as education, income, transportation, housing, and health and nutrition-are disparately afforded to social groups. Typical strategies focusing on the re-distribution of comestible resources can obfuscate the complex relationship between the conditions of poverty and food hardship. Foregrounding the agency and choice-making already available to marginalized communities instantiates a more empowering approach to food access interventions. In this way, we argue, integrating capabilities of food access with anti-hunger advocacy efforts like donation gardening can productively innovate typical commodity-based interventions by articulating anti-hunger advocacy in systematic terms. This research contributes to interdisciplinary exploration of community gardening, anti-hunger and food reform communication, and the political economy of food systems.

ABSTRACT. In recent years innovative approaches have emerged across the United States to improve access to healthful foods. Mobile markets – traveling food retailers that specifically target food deserts – are one such strategy. Given the recent emergence of mobile markets, and their positioning as a solution to disparities in healthful food access, research on mobile markets is needed to understand potentials and limitations. In this paper we report on the findings of a descriptive survey of mobile market operators, providing a baseline understanding of mobile market structures and functions, and the role they might play in addressing food system inequalities. Results identify tensions between the intended goals of mobile markets and constraints of the model itself. Further study, including applied research, is needed to better understand potential opportunities to strengthen mobile markets.

ABSTRACT. Urban food deserts are defined by the US Department of Agriculture as neighborhoods with over 20% of households in poverty, or a median family income at or below 80% of the state-wide median (low income census tracts) and without a large grocery store or supermarket within .5 or 1 mile (low access census tracts). The phenomenon of urban food deserts makes nutritious food scarce in low-income neighborhoods, leaving residents to feed their families on what they can get from gas stations, convenience stores, and fast food chains. Many of the current solutions to food deserts only address geographic access, not economic access: they bring fresh produce to low access neighborhoods, but often, the residents cannot afford to shop at these mobile markets and other programs. In this paper, I argue that the problem of urban food deserts in the United States is solvable with resources already at our disposal. I review food insecurity by the numbers and examine the impact of food deserts. I analyze some existing programs attempting to resolve food deserts, assessing their successes, challenges, and shortcomings. I examine the economic access side of food insecurity: poverty and the unaffordability of healthy, nutritious food, and survey current US federal programs working to provide nutritional support to low-income families and individuals. I propose that resources already at the disposal of the USDA be redirected to fund a nation-wide food rescue project, expand current farm-to-freezer programs, and create “food oases” through community-based food co-operatives dedicated to serving low-income populations. I explore community-based programs already functioning in Detroit, Michigan that can serve as a model. One such program is the partnership formed between the Eastern Market, a Detroit farmers market that operates throughout the city, and Michigan Farm to Freezer, a company that flash freezes produce on site at area farms, packages it, and makes it available to schools, community programs, and other clients. This partnership, funded in part by a grant from the Healthy Food Funding Initiative, a federal program overseen by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and Treasury, is creating jobs, helping local small farmers get more of their produce to market, and making minimally-processed produce available to more low-income Detroit residents through a Bridge Card doubling program.

ABSTRACT. The City of Syracuse, New York was classified in 2015 as having the highest
concentration of African American and Hispanic poverty in the United States
(Garjowsky, 2015). The Near Westside is one of Syracuse’s marginalized
neighborhoods, a predominantly African American and Hispanic residential area
where 40% of residents live below the poverty line (Maxwell Community
Benchmarks Program, 2015). The area was previously home to Nojaim Brothers
Supermarket, an independently owned business and the Near Westside’s last
full-service grocery store, that operated for 98 years until it closed in September
2017.
An ethnographic study of an emergency food program in Syracuse’s Near
Westside neighborhood reveals the intersections between poverty stigma and
waiting on state support. Looking beyond food access disparities, I find that
through stigmatization by low-income people of low-income people, an unspoken
precedent for appropriate, acceptable behavior is developed. Neighborhood
residents constantly reproduce stigmas first created by higher classes of their
own class as a mechanism to illustrate their individual self-worth and social
status. Keeping in line with expectations defined by judgment, residents fail to
acknowledge their autonomy when applying for support from the state or a
neoliberal organization funded through the state. I argue that this lack of
acknowledgement and resulting passivity or acceptance of waiting is a result of
residents avoiding being stigmatized or judged.

Key Words: Food access, poverty, grocery stores, financing initiatives, healthy
foods, participant observation, semi-structured interviews

Sources:
Garjowsky, Paul. 2015. Architecture of Segregation. The Century Foundation.
Retrieved from https://tcf.org/content/report/architecture-of- segregation/
Maxwell Community Benchmarks Program. 2015. Below the Line: An Analysis of
Concentrated Poverty in Syracuse. Syracuse University.

ABSTRACT. The City, Park District, and Public Schools of Chicago have adopted the Good Food Purchasing Policy (GFPP), following in the footsteps of Los Angeles County, among others. The GFPP functions under five core values that work to: strengthen regional food economies to create new, good-paying jobs; reduce the environmental impacts of food production; promote fair treatment for food system workers; ensures the humane treatment of animals; and encourages healthy food procurement and preparation and a healthy food service environment. In Chicago, the adoption of GFPP was promoted by the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, which is now working to set up an evaluation of the program and impact, particularly on minority communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides. This presentation outlines the work of GFPP in promoting the program, the form that GFPP has taken in the Chicago area, and outlines the developing evaluation program of the impacts of GFPP for Chicago workers, entrepreneurs, consumers, and the environment.

ABSTRACT. I am submitting as the chair of the proposed pre-organized panel, Place and Time in Food Memory: Migration and Nostalgia. The other presenters in this panel are Dr. Marina Heck, Dr. Mark Kehren, and Esther Martin. Below, I include the abstract for the panel and for my own presentation as a part of the panel.

Panel Abstract:

Food bridges place through past, present, and future. This panel seeks to understand how food builds personal and shared memories of place and time, and how food memories reproduce values. This panel will include presentations of original research in the lusophone world and meditations on methodology for studying food memory.

Individual Abstract:

Food scholars agree that everyone brings something to the table - literally, in the case of a research dinner party. Conversation over food is a widespread practice, but when food itself is the object of study, the dinner party transforms from an opportunity for insightful discussion into a research site. This paper will examine dinner parties as a method for researching food and memory, using as a case study my Nostalgia Dinner Series.

In my Nostalgia Dinners, I have used the dinner party to explore food memory as a medium for linking place and time. At each Nostalgia Dinner, a small group gathers and each guest brings a dish that evokes 'nostalgia' for them, to be shared at the table. Guests introduce their dish, explain why they brought it, and share memories of the dish. In serving their dishes at the Nostalgia Dinner, participants not only consume one another's food memories but also re-inscribe their own. Eating foods in particular times and places creates specific memories, and in each instance of consumption, the food memory is re-written in a nostalgic palimpsest. Eating the dish at the Nostalgia Dinner becomes one distinct time and place of consumption for a guest, embedded within their personal narrative of repeated engagement with the dish. The dish, and the living memory of it, constitute the thread connecting disparate times and places.

This presentation offers up and examines the dinner party as a food research methodology. Dinner parties are a collaborative research environment, inviting interdisciplinary exploration of food themes outside of traditional academic spaces. By creating an intentional space to engage with food physically and intellectually, the food memory researcher accesses a wealth of data and converts a guest list into a cohort of co-researchers.

ABSTRACT. This paper will serve as an ethnographic exploration of living history museum visitors perception of the “past” and hearth-cooked food as a nostalgic experience that should be missed. Methodologies and research techniques will include first person experiences as a hearth-cook and docent at a living history location, conversations with visitors, and personal cooking and historically accurate farming techniques. All of these will reflect upon a visitor’s imagined memory of the past, exploring the idea that one’s grandma used to make it that way or that living in the past was a simpler, preferable time to now. In addition to discussing the nostalgia of the normal, every day living history visitor, there will be discussion of those who have chosen to “return” to this supposedly simpler way of life, living off the grid and doing their own farming and preserving.

Other topics included in the paper will be the idea of self-sufficiency as an enviable way of life, which is a common misconception of the American past, and the whitewashing of cooking within living history. There will be some discussion of how visitors often overlook the roles marginalized peoples who are producing foodstuffs that would have been used, and how this whitewashing serves to feed the nostalgic and idyllic idea of a past that may or may not have actually existed.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to demonstrate how many elements of foodways such as recipes, cookbooks, and the establishment of "African restaurants" in contemporary Lisbon offer insightful and fresh perspectives on many complex issues surrounding the legacies of 20th century Portuguese settler colonialism in Africa. The Portuguese Revolution of 1974 led to the end of the brutal colonial wars and the independence of the African colonies in 1974-5. Subsequently, approximately one million Portuguese citizens from the former colonies (known as Retornados), in addition to another million African immigrants from countries such as Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau have settled in the Lisbon Metropolitan area since the mid-1970s.

The main questions of this research will consider how recipes, the establishment of restaurants, and other sensorial elements of cuisine have played a critical role in the construction of geographical imaginations of "home" for the city's African immigrants and Portuguese Retornados over the past several decades. Additionally, the research will examine how recipes and "African" restaurants are also vital in constructing notions of Africa and the former empire among the descendants of the Retornados and African immigrants who have never "experienced" Africa firsthand. Rather than focus on nostalgia and the "economy of homesickness," this study will investigate how "African" cookbooks and restaurants in contemporary Portugal are a productive conduit to learn about complex issues related to race relations, ethnic identity, and the history of colonialism.

While a good deal of scholarship has considered how postcolonial migration and foodways have impacted social relations and sensory landscapes in other former postcolonial contexts such as the United Kingdom and France, there is still very little research that investigates how this is very unique and different in contemporary Portugal. Thus, this project will uniquely display how recipes, cooking, and other elements of foodways from the former Portuguese African colonies contextualize many critical historical issues that are relevant to imperialism, nationhood, race and identity, and migration in comparative perspective.

ABSTRACT. Sugar based treats and desserts serve as a strong example of the role of food in forming and eliciting sensorial experiences rooted in emotions and memories. As part of my ongoing broader dissertation research, The Meaning and Place of Sugar and Sweets in Social Life, I am interviewing middle and upper middle class New Yorkers in their twenties and thirties to learn how their personal lives shape their attachments to sugar based sweet foods. During this research I have learned that men’s sensorial descriptions of sweet foods are dramatically shaped by their most intimate interpersonal relationships. The greatest influences on these descriptions are their earliest family memories and romantic relationships. While interviewing men, I noticed some intriguing patterns that were evident within the sensorial language they utilized in descriptions of their own sweets consumption. Men considered much of the language they used to describe their own enjoyment of and pleasure derived from sweets consumption as being more typical amongst women. Male respondents often portrayed sweets consumption as being more common amongst women as eaters. They saw their own satisfaction while eating sweets as being exceptional and unique for them as men. At once they described rich sensorial memories surrounding sweets consumption, while trying to downplay such experiences as being more commonplace amongst women. Through my findings I have learned that men’s most intimate interpersonal relationships with women tended to have a greater influence on their sensorial experiences surrounding sweets than their closest relationships with other men. The women they were closest to in their lives; sisters, mothers, romantic partners, and close friends, were the ones who most strongly shaped their attachments to sweets. Their memories surrounding favored sweets appeared to be heightened because of their close relationships with women. They provided more evocative descriptions of enjoyment of sweets that they experienced with women who were important to them than with other people. From the interviews I conducted it became clear that while men and women both enjoy sweet foods, men often still see ‘indulgence’ in sweets as a feminine emotional experience and one that becomes heightened for them as a result of their relationships with women.

ABSTRACT. An intergenerational and intercultural conversation on food sovereignty is a critical one within the current context of the increasing corporatization of the food system as well as growing resistance by local food activists, the resurgence of Indigenous communities as teachers about the environment, and the broader political economic context of the renegotiation of NAFTA. Moreover, in Canada, the government has recently committed itself to redress two historical systemic inequities: to develop a national food policy that provides healthy and sustainable food to all and to reconcile with Indigenous peoples, the original inhabitants, whose food system was destroyed by colonization (residential schools, loss of land, industrial food).

Initiated in 2015, the Legacies Project undertook exploratory research with both settler and Indigenous grass-roots food projects in Ontario, Quebec, BC, and Mexico. Two gatherings in 2016 revealed a convergence of the visions of local food sovereignty activists working to create more holistic and just, environmentally sustainable and culturally appropriate food practices. The most important outcome was the formation of an intergenerational and intercultural team of participants committed to an ongoing exchange and co-productions. They identified cross-cutting themes, such as: the future of farming; reclaiming food, culture, and community; Indigenous history and food-related struggles; corn in the NAFTA context; migration; and diverse perspectives on food sovereignty – concepts, practices, movements.

With a commitment from the U.S. publisher and funding from SSHRC, ten colllaborators in the Legacies Project are now co-creating a transmedia educational package around food sovereignty for use in schools and communities. This multi-media approach combines text and online material, and speaks to the younger audience we are targeting.

We are proposing a workshop format to engage participants as educators and activists who might make use of the multi-media package. After offering an overview of the exchange with a 20-minute video and an introduction to our arts-based participatory methodology, we will share drafts of short on-line videos, photo essays, and instructor’s guides to gather focused feedback from other food activists interested in interactive media strategies for critical food education.

Both Mexican and Canadian Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators will be present: Fulvio Gioanetto, agroecology consultant, and Maria Blas Cacari, natural medicine expert, autonomous Purépecha community of Nurio in Michoacán, Mexico; Chandra Maracle, Mohawk community food leader, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Ontario, Canada; production Deborah Barndt, Legacies Project coordinator, York University, Toronto, Canada; John Murtaugh, Legacies advisor and co-producer, Toronto, Canada.

ABSTRACT. The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) is a model dietary plan that determines the maximum entitlements for participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Last calculated by the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, this dietary plan covers the cost of current consumption patterns and most of the national dietary and nutritional guidelines for Americans. In this paper, I outline the limitations of the TFP and examine the material implications of this institutional calculation of basic food needs for millions of Americans. I deconstruct the USDA’s geometric programming model and practices to find mathematical adjustments unsupported by policy and further, the influence of agrofood industry values on the resulting TFP market baskets. Archival analyses reveal the historical neoliberalization of the TFP calculation. I review potential changes to the TFP that may account for a more holistic, agroecological conception of food and the heterogeneous needs of households experiencing poverty.

ABSTRACT. Work to date has highlighted the need to consider food insecurity broadly. As geographers, we are sensitive to the manner in which spatial location and time constraints complicate access to affordable food. The very poorest Americans navigate food insecurity by spending cash, utilizing SNAP benefits and other government programs and making use of food pantries. Being food insecure opens the door onto a set of complex decision-making problems that have both commodity and spatio-temporal dimensions. Commodity decisions include deciding what items to spend cash on versus SNAP benefits and what items are best received from a pantry. Spatio-temporal dimensions include travel times to work, shop, and access pantries, as well as pantry hours of operation and location-specific rules concerning number of visits per month and number of items available each month. In this preliminary research we describe food access outcomes for three composite families in each of three locations in Southern Indiana. By rotating composite families across different geographical settings – urban, small town, rural – we are able to see the effect of location on access. Not only does location matter when it comes to access, but it also can determine whether a family’s resources are sufficient to provide adequate nourishment each month. On a methodological level, the computational approach we use is a good complement, but not substitute for, detailed ethnographic work.

ABSTRACT. Hunger and food insecurity continue to exist in the United States. Many individuals must face the reality of not having enough food or inappropriate food to eat. Nonprofit restaurants are employing a Pay What You Want (PWYW) pricing strategy in the fight against hunger. PWYW has been identified as a participatory pricing method by promoting customer participation in the establishment of the final price the consumer will pay for a product or service. Consumers are encouraged to pay for the cost of the meal and leave an additional amount to pay for meals for individuals in need. Panera Cares, a nonprofit foundation, operates a PWYW community café in Boston with the goal of providing meals to needy individuals and families in the local community. Recent studies have identified constructs such as fairness, altruism, guilt, self-image, loyalty, price consciousness and reference prices as motivations behind consumers’ participation in PWYW. This paper seeks to examine the alignment of the messaging conveyed by PWYW organizations’ written literature, commercials, websites and other forms of communication with identified consumer motivations to ascertain its congruity. Correspondence between the nonprofits organization’s advertising and marketing promotions and consumer motivations will enable the organization to develop more effective promotional communication with the potential to increase consumer participation and payment amounts in the PWYW environment. This may have a positive impact on the viability and sustainability of these enterprises enabling them to reach their goal of meeting the needs of the local community.

ABSTRACT. Dozens of city and county governments have voted to adopt higher minimum wages to counteract the rising costs of living and circumvent federal wage laws than have remained stagnant since 2009. In 2014, Seattle became the first city to adopt a $15/hour minimum wage. On January 1st, 2017, many low wage workers saw their first minimum wage increase to $15/hour. Although these higher wages have been adopted to improve the economic environment and increase the economic security of low wage workers and their families, economic theory predicts that increased labor costs will lead to a rise in the cost of goods. Of particular concern is the potential rise in food prices. Indeed, should the cost of food increase overall, or differentially by food group or level of processing – diet quality could decline, leading to poorer health. This study examines the potential impact of two years of higher wages on food prices overall, as well as by food group and level of processing. Using a validated market basket, food prices were collected for 106 items at affected and unaffected supermarket chains inside and outside Seattle at four time points: 1-month pre-enactment, 1-month post-enactment, 1-year post-enactment, 2-years post-enactment (March/May 2015, May 2016, May 2017). Food items were assigned to food groups, based on United States Department of Agriculture designations, and food processing categories, based on Monteiro, et al. (2010). Data were analyzed across time using a multi-level, linear differences-in-differences regression model with robust standard errors, clustered by store chain, overall and across food group and processing strata. In May 2015, the overall market basket cost for Seattle stores was $313.79, an increase of $1.32 from May 2016 and a decline of $1.19 from March 2015. For King County stores, the overall market basket cost was $311.03, a decline of $1.18 from May 2016 and a decline of $1.19 from March 2015. There was a non-significant, two-year increase of approximately one cent attributable to the Seattle Minimum Wage Ordinance ($0.01, SE = 0.1205, p = 0.923). No significant changes in price were observed by food group or food processing strata. There continues to be no indication that local area supermarket food prices are impacted by Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance despite longer exposure to the policy and an increase to $15/hour. In addition, there is no evidence of differential effects on prices across food group and food processing category.

ABSTRACT. (1)Historical Reflections on the Evolution of Terminal Food Markets & their Emerging Role in the Local/Regional Food System: A USDA Perspective (Tropp) (2)Distinctions & Convergences between Terminal Food Markets and Food Hubs (Day Farnsworth) (3)Thresholds in Food Flow (Miller) (4)The Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative: A Case Study in Regional Food Distribution (Lloyd)

Demand for local food has increased dramatically over the past two decades, creating new marketing opportunities and challenges for local food producers. Early in the local food movement, growth was primarily in direct-marketing channels in which producers and consumers interacted face-to-face. As demand for local product expanded, direct-marketing sales plateaued while sales of local, source-identified foods to wholesale customers increased. The latter typically involves distribution through intermediaries, often local food hubs or food distributors. With the rise of intermediated food supply chains, local food distribution systems-once largely distinct from the conventional food system in scale, infrastructure, logistics, and market orientation-faced new challenges. First, there was the question of how to preserve the transparency and social, environmental, and economic benefits long-associated with direct-marketing channels. Second, scaling up local food aggregation and distribution requires sophisticated knowledge of food freight and logistics, safety regulations, grading and packing standards, and industry practices, which many small and mid-sized producers simply don't have. Third, the expansion of local food distribution-in both volume and distance-raises questions about how intermediated food supply chains could and should intersect with existing infrastructure, such as wholesale terminal markets and vertically integrated, private distribution centers. These challenges notwithstanding, research has shown that full-load, mid to high volume, regional values-based food supply chains potentially offer greater social, environmental, and economic benefits than some direct-marketing models precisely because of their economies of scale. For example, studies have variously indicated that intermediated supply chains can yield higher profits for local producers, be more fuel efficient than partial-load short hauls, provide better working conditions for agricultural labor, and foster greater regional agroecological, economic, and food supply resilience. This researcher/practitioner panel will discuss how benefits such as rural prosperity, environmental sustainability, health, and food system resilience can be advanced in the nascent and dynamic space that characterizes intermediated food supply chains. Panelists will discuss tested and emergent innovations in food freight and logistics, wholesale markets, and food hubs with an emphasis on multifunctional infrastructure and practices, illuminating the state of the subfield and identifying future research questions.

ABSTRACT. Contexts and impacts are two of the obsessions that drive scholars and students to ask food studies questions. Where did this contemporary food system reality come from and where is it going? What interventions can we and should we make? Whether we are working on issues of values or actions, or the confluence of the two, our work is always profoundly grounded in the real, edible universe. Students are often drawn to study food because they want to solve problems but in many cases have to check this willingness to act at the classroom door. While pausing to develop a theoretical framework for action is essential, it also makes sense for students to roll up their sleeves and begin work in the local context.

Each of the participants focuses their pedagogical practice on problems in very concrete contexts that are frequently lumped under such headings as community development, problem based or experiential learning, and activism/social justice, to name a few. On this roundtable, we discuss definitional issues (how do we, as faculty and program administrators, talk about what we do to satisfy both students and institutions?), social relationships (is it possible for these approaches to be both mutually beneficial to the students and the organizations or groups we’re “helping”), and work (to what extent does this work fit with expectations within our field, our institution, our careers?)”

Participants in the panel will discuss their experiences of the following community projects: Using a Food Studies Lens to Reboot Community Dinners for Cancer Patients; Using Oral History and Community Workshops to Document and Promote Regionally Specific Skills; Collaborating to Explore and Create Community Food Histories; Interning with Local Food Organizations to Study Food Policy in Action.

Featuring faculty from Boston University (Megan Elias), Chatham University (Alice Julier), the Culinary Institute of America (David Flynn), and Drexel University (Jonathan Deutsch), this roundtable invites participation from the audience to develop strategies for meaningful engagement.

ABSTRACT. In this workshop we want to acknowledge the role of higher education for the transition towards more sustainable food and farming systems. As our world continues to be more interconnected from commerce to climate issues, future challenges and their accompanying solutions become more complex. Therefore higher education must engage students on a practical level to prepare them as responsible global citizens working towards their futurevocations. Traditional methods, approaches and structures in higher education often have an over-specialized focus hindering systemic thinking and the ability of students to make broad connections from their courses and programs to real world application. In thinking about the future of highereducation and the recent increase in interdisciplinary collaborations among university departments, we see a significant need to shift from traditional, sometimes outdated pedagogical strategies to more transdisciplinary approaches: innovative, engaging and action-based and case-study oriented strategies, preparing students—eager for practical experiences—to tackle real world problems, without excluding the broader theoretical perspective on such issues. This workshop stems from being engrossed in the question of what innovations exist and how to integrate them in our teaching efforts and in higher education in general. Our engagement and activities have taken place at different levels: (1) From participatory, needs-based curricula development, to (2) the design of transdisciplinary teaching modules and lectures, to the (3) implementation of already existing and creation of new didactic tools methods as well as theoretical approaches that can be applied in casestudy learning. In this workshop we seek to create a space for exchange and discussion of what innovative approaches exist on all three levels and how they can facilitate change towards sustainable food and farming. If accepted, there will be a mix of short presentations, panel discussions and group work. Ideally we aim for a 2,5hour workshop, which will be organized as follows: • We will organize a panel of presenters, each providing a short input highlighting successes, challenges and needs of one of the levels mentioned above. • For each level the organizers will facilitate smaller group discussions with the workshops participants using participatory methods. Such participation from the audience encourages participants to share ideas and connect with other educators. • After each session we will document the major outcomes of the discussion. • Those outputs will be brought back into a final plenary discussion. • From this the main points will be documented and be made available to the workshop participants.

ABSTRACT. Transitioning farm operations from one system to another involves risk and is driven by a multitude of factors – personal, financial, cultural, etc. Through a facilitated panel discussion, we intend to deepen our appreciation and understanding of what it takes to adopt new models of sustainable agriculture.

To tackle this topic, we are inviting four to six panelists who offer a diversity of perspectives. The panelists include a few farmers from Wisconsin – with differently sized operations, business models, and social positions – who have initiated significant changes and can share their personal narratives. We will cover what conditions need to be in place for them to adopt a new practice, where they get their information, etc. In addition, the panel will feature one or two individuals who support sustainable agriculture transitions at a systems-level and can speak to broader trends and solutions.

Since periods of change offer a vulnerable moment for learning, we hope to tap into this to cultivate rich discussion about the dynamic conditions that shape behavior change in agriculture. During this session we also hope to further attendees’ personal reflection and exploration of how to support farmers and our food system through these transitions.

ABSTRACT. Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is used to produce a wide range of products including foods, beverages, nutritional supplements, fabrics, and textiles. Domestic market estimates for hemp-based products are valued at more than $580 million annually, demonstrating that commercial hemp production in the US could provide opportunities as an economically viable alternative crop for growers. Although interest is high and there are encouraging signs that industrial hemp may soon be legal to grow again in the United States, where the crop has not been grown for the last 80 years. We lack fundamental knowledge regarding agronomic performance, and research is needed to not only address production issues but also to determine attitudes, perceptions, and concerns of organic farmers regarding the potential adoption of this “new” crop. Organic farmers are traditionally less risk adverse and fall earlier than their conventional counterparts on Rodger’s diffusion of innovation curve. This may position them at the forefront of hemp production. A survey of certified organic farmers from seven Midwest states was conducted to identify pre-existing knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of hemp and determine the different characteristics within organic farmers that impact potential hemp production adoption. Preliminary results indicate that demographic factors important in predicting hemp adoption were farmer age and type of farm. Younger farmers were more open to hemp adoption than older farmers. Grain farmers were significantly more open to hemp production and wanted to learn more about it with p-values of 0.0037 and 0.0079, respectively. Results determined grain farmers felt strongest that hemp production would allow them diversify their farm. These results corresponded in part with demographic factors identifying innovators within this organic farmer population. Grain farmers were again most likely to adopt new technologies (as well as vegetable farmers). Additionally, farmers that strongly value contributing to the local food movement as a reason for organic production were early adopters. We are not aware of any research in the U.S. that specifically seeks to understand the attitudes towards and perceptions of hemp by organic farmers, thus the results of this research can provide a foundation for future work.

ABSTRACT. Globally, the organic movement has been active for decades, and resilience research has shown that organic farming systems show significant capacity for adaptation, mitigation, and vulnerability reduction. Yet, organic agriculture constitutes just a fraction of the global food supply and policies for organic transition remain at the fringes of agricultural development. In the Philippines, several provinces have been declared “organic zones”. Yet, the slow speed and degree to which organic agriculture has been adopted in the Philippines is a stark contrast to the rapid agricultural shift that occurred with the Green Revolution, whereby institutional mechanisms fostered a rapid transition from non-chemical to chemical based farming. This paper takes an institutional analysis of paradigm shifts in agriculture in the Philippines, in particular focused on organic transition as a mechanism for climate resilience.

We evaluate institutional-level variables influencing the state of organic agriculture in the Philippines, based on fieldwork conducted between August and December 2016. An institutional analysis and development framework (IAD) is used to assess the role of key agricultural organizations and institutions in directing agricultural development, and more specifically, shifts in farming practices adopted by smallholder farmers. Integration of an actor-oriented political ecology lens and resilience theory are used to draw attention to maladaptive power relations and prescriptions for agricultural development that obstruct pathways for building climate resilience within the agricultural sector; underscoring the wider implications on farmer vulnerability and other socioecological indicators for climate resilience.

Our findings suggest that organic agriculture has become contested space with the rise in institutional support. In its earliest iterations in the Philippines, organic agriculture was part of broader advocacies for social justice and sustainable development. However, with the rise of institutional support emerged a new conceptualization of organic agriculture that centers on standardization and certification, severing organic agriculture from its social justice roots. We conclude that, despite recent institutional support for organic agriculture in the Philippines, the current agricultural sector and infrastructure remain “locked” in the Green Revolution paradigm, obstructing the speed and degree to which Philippine farmers shift to organic management practices. Hence, climate interventions that fail to address maladaptive institutional mechanisms and adverse social conditions are, at best, inadequate measures for cultivating climate resilience.

ABSTRACT. Food justice is the concept that all humans should have access to adequate amounts of ethically produced, safe, nutritious food that is culturally appropriate and enjoyable to eat. Food justice theorists are concerned with an extensive range of issues relating to human food systems, such as agricultural workers’ rights, the environmental and social impact of various agricultural policies, what constitutes ethical and sustainable food production, what is required to develop a just distribution of food, and what structures and institutions exist that grant or deny access to food to various human groups, among others. These concerns, and others I have not listed, are anthropocentric (i.e. human-centered). Considerations of animal rights in regard to food justice are often constrained to discussions about whether it is or is not ethical to eat animals or use them in food production. While these topics are important to discuss, we fail to do right by both animals and humans when we confine debates about animal rights in food justice to the utility of animals to human food production and food choice. In this paper, I argue that a complete conception of food justice requires human groups be aware of and respectful to the food relations and collective self-identities of non-human animal groups. First, I will provide a brief clarification of what I mean by food relations and collective self-identity using Kyle Powys Whyte's 2016 article "Food Justice and Collective Food Relations," and show how these concepts apply in the case of animals. Next, I will use the concept of moral patiency to justify why we ought to consider the rights of animals to adequate amounts of ethically produced, safe, appropriate, enjoyable, and nutritious food. I will then address the most pressing objections to my argument. I conclude that to respect the food relations of animals, humans must take certain actions: First, we must adopt a social norm that urges us to consider how our collective food relations interact and interfere with those of animal groups so that our actions do not prevent animal groups from participating in their food relations. Second, human groups must reevaluate our use of land and other resources to reduce wastefulness and ensure that adequate space and resources are available to support the food relations of animals. Finally, human groups must amend our perspective of animals and learn to value animals for their own sake.

ABSTRACT. The deleterious consequences of productivist agriculture and rural restructuring in the United States are well documented but only limited attention has been given to the emancipatory prospects of agroecological food production and provisioning schemes. In particular there is a lack of discussion on the role of young and beginning farmers, a group actively imagining more egalitarian alternative futures and prefiguring those futures through the cultivation of alternative institutions and infrastructures. In this paper I reflect on the discourses and practices of a young farmer activist movement known as the Greenhorns—a non-profit coalition of aspiring agrarians who bill themselves as “the next generation of American farmers”—to consider the role of food and agriculture in cultivating a “politics of possibility” (Gibson-Graham 2006) in contemporary agrarian America. Through ethnographic analysis and semi-structured interviews with organization leaders and coalition beginning farmers in New York’s Hudson Valley, and a close reading of the Greenhorns diverse media, I argue that an alternative imaginary of good farming, food sovereignty, and social/environmental justice is being strategically cultivated alongside organic vegetables and cage-free eggs. I highlight the subject-making potential of grassroots advocacy in which farmers learn to identify, to imagine, and to desire in ways that align with the political economic/ecological ends the movement seeks to engender. Finally, I examine how these imaginaries shape and are shaped by the development of potentially “post-capitalist” institutions in alternative agriculture—land trusts, peer-to-peer knowledge networks, open-source appropriate technology design. This paper foregrounds promising social and productive forms—processes of commoning and decommodification—that may offer “hope in blasted landscapes” (Kirksey, Shapiro, and Brodine 2014). I argue that emerging agrarian activism nourishes an alter-politics, a utopian project actively cultivating a world to come, in the soiled space between salvation and apocalypse with no prospects of transcendence and no guarantees.

ABSTRACT. On November 8th, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president with a strong boost from people living in rural places. Suddenly, everyone is remembering the rural. But the rural is not just a spatial fact, the place where most of our food comes from and where people are more typically conservative. Indeed, our sometimes obsession with the rural as space alone has made scholars nearly drop the concept altogether, as in the long debate over gemeinschaft versus gesellschaft and the inaccurate contention that community is stronger in rural versus urban areas. But space is not, in and of itself, the basis of what we will term the rural question. Rather, we propose that the rural question is one of exploitation and what to do about it. In this paper, we provide a new theoretical synthesis for understanding the bases and dynamics of rural exploitation and the resulting substantially higher levels of poverty in rural areas. We weave together and extend our previous work, especially Ashwood (2018), Ashwood and MacTavish (2016), Bell (2018), and Stull et al. (2016). We show that, from the start, urban wealth has gone hand in hand with extraction of resources and wealth from the rural, the dynamic Bell (2018) terms the conflict of bourgeois life with pagan life. Moreover, the material and ideological characteristics of the rural have often been used to deliberately marginalize peoples, for example through what Stull et al. (2016) term "environmental apartheid." Building as well from Ashwood (2018), we further contend that this dynamic continues in liberal democratic societies with their use of utilitarian appeals for the greatest good for the greatest number and the sense of the rural as largely empty. We show how these trends have long found ideological resonance in the notion of the rural as the realm of primitive natures. These dynamics of exploitation lead us to ask scholars to consider rurality a major factor within analyses of the intersectionality of power. We conclude with some thoughts about how a new rural politics -- a truly agroecological politics -- might more successfully and justly confront and mitigate rural inequality through finding common cause with other bases of injustice, rather than the exclusionism so common to our political moment.

ABSTRACT. Soil is a critical resource for human society. On the small, two-dimensional scale, soil in the Western world is mostly privately owned. But below the surface, organisms and water move laterally, connecting one private parcel intimately to another, so one owner’s stewardship deeply affects the next. The establishment of the soil conservation service in 1935 began the process of regulating stewardship for the common good, mitigating soil loss. The vital and enduring work of building soil is enveloped within this framework, but it is difficult to encompass a millennial process in contracts that last 5 or 10 years. Soil health, which conceptualizes soil as a living provider of food and habitat, has emerged as a compelling framework with the potential to make soil building relevant and personal to landowners and broader society more broadly. It evokes positive change to the private landowner, inspiring people to believe in their own capacity to improve the land pass on a better world to the next generation. While the principles of soil health are not new, the evocation of a beneficial relationship between land stewards and soil has the potential to transform conservation on managed lands, with myriad benefits for the environment.

ABSTRACT. Scientific knowledge and farmer experience both have integral roles to play in building knowledge on soil health management; however, this knowledge may not always be congruent. One concept, in particular, that is embraced by many independent consultants and farmers is the idea of soil balancing, which argues that maintaining an ideal basic cation saturation ratio can improve soil properties and crop performance. While a large number of farmers and consultants have reported positive benefits from following soil balancing principles, the scientific community has yet to replicate consistent evidence to support soil balancing theories. This paper reports on a major project to bridge the knowledge gap between practitioners and scientists on the topic of soil balancing. Using support from the USDA Organic Research and Extension Initiative, an interdisciplinary team of academics has worked with farmers and crop consultants to study the impacts of maintaining an ideal cation saturation ratio on crop yields, crop quality, soil biology, and weed dynamics. Practitioners were involved with the study through hosting on-farm trials and serving on an advisory committee overseeing the on-station experimental trials. Semi-structured interviews with scientists, participating farmers, and crop consultants are used to illustrate the benefits and challenges associated with participatory approaches to scientific research. Findings suggest that differences in the conceptualization and practice of soil balancing used by practitioners and scientists limited the ability of the project to bridge the knowledge gap. To increase analytical power, scientific experiments have focused on the effects of manipulating soil chemistry (e.g., base cation saturation ratios). Meanwhile, practitioners report approaching soil balancing as a more integrative concept in which maintaining soil health can involve simultaneous efforts to manage soil chemistry, soil biology, and soil physical structure. It can be difficult for conventional scientific designs to address these complex interactions. Additionally, the focus of the current project on organic farmers has limited the ability of the team to compare their work with the experiences of a large community of soil balancers who are conventional growers. Finally, selection of sites for scientific research was driven by factors other than cation exchange capacities, such that much of the work was done on soil types that practitioners felt were not well suited for a soil balancing program. Our findings also suggest steps that could be taken to increase the impact of scientific research on soil balancing practitioners.

ABSTRACT. Future practitioners of agroecology need authentic experiences negotiating the relationships between people, the environment, and sustainable agricultural production. The Basic Agroecology course is a core requirement for both M.A. students in Food Studies and B.S. students in Sustainability at Chatham University. At both the graduate and undergraduate level, the course focuses on building a collaborative classroom environment that helps students build an understanding of agroecological principles through decision making cases. This presentation discusses the development and enactment of one of these cases anchored in an urban agriculture context in Pittsburgh, PA. During the spring 2018 semester, students collaborated with Pittsburgh community members involved in a large-scale neighborhood transformation project located in the low-income neighborhood of Larimer. The goal of this collaboration was to situate the agroecological issue of urban soil health within an authentic urban planning scenario. As part of an ongoing project that began in 2007, the Larimer Consensus Group (LCG) from the Larimer neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA, is actively engaging residents and community organizations around the city to build a new identity for an old neighborhood. Green space development for agriculture and recreation is one of the focal areas within the broader visioning plan for the community. In 2016, the Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD) performed soil tests on three proposed sites in the neighborhood and found lead contamination levels substantially above EPA thresholds. Given the high levels of lead found in the soil, students considered strategies for remediating this land and evaluated the extent to which this land is appropriate for agricultural land use goals. Additionally, students were challenged to consider other social concerns such as access to land and the role of urban agriculture in gentrification. This presentation will describe the process of: 1) using real-time and relevant agroecological decision making cases as an instructional model, 2) assessing and supporting student learning in agroecology, and 3) participating in reflexive community engagement.

ABSTRACT. While the number of operating farmers’ markets in the US has continued to increase over the past decade, growth has recently slowed. Many parts of the country are witnessing a saturation of farmers’ markets, particularly in urban areas. The long-term viability of mature markets has come into question, as newer, rival markets establish in close proximity. The resulting increased competition for consumers begs the question, what factors drive consumer expenditures at farmers’ markets?

Using survey data from the largest producers-only farmers’ market in the US, we examined what factors were correlated with consumers’ expenditures. A total of 732 market attendees were surveyed throughout the 2015 market season. The market surveyed is a mature market operating for over four decades; they are one of 14 markets in a city of approximately 200,000.

We found that 95% of attendees surveyed made purchases, and of those, the average amount purchased was $28.46. The data collected reflects purchases made at a single visit. While income was significant and positively correlated with purchases, the only other demographic that was marginally significant (a p=10%) was age. Instead, we found that consumers’ perceptions of market characteristics, as well as their shopping and eating behaviors, significantly impacted purchases. Perceiving the market as being too crowded to comfortably shop, or it being too hard to carry items through the market, reduced purchases by $5.22 and $6.10, respectively. Shoppers who routinely purchased from the same vendor(s) bought an estimated $4.13 more than shoppers who did not. Each additional vendor one purchased from increased expenditures by an average of $5.

The results suggest strategies farmers’ markets could adopt to encourage purchases, particularly as markets mature. These strategies include: developing a sense of rapport with shoppers to ensure repeat business, encouraging buying from multiple vendors, and featuring value-added products. Market layout is also important; as attendance at mature markets increases, steps must be taken to ensure sufficient shopping space and highlighting less-crowded shopping times. Markets should also consider strategies to aid consumers in carrying items while shopping and in transporting their purchases home. From a nutrition perspective, we found following MyPlate was not correlated with purchases, but eating five fruits and vegetables a day was. This raises questions as to whether MyPlate is effectively influencing nutritional behaviors. Rather, appealing to consumers who are eating 5-a-day and who regularly cook at home could increase purchases at farmers’ markets.

ABSTRACT. Farmers markets have emerged as important venues for improving healthy food access for low-income Americans who qualify for federal nutrition benefits. While acceptance of nutrition benefits (SNAP) has been shown to increase nutritious food access for low-income shoppers, research shows that market shoppers are disproportionately white, middle/upper class, highly educated, and female. With funding from a two-year systems-change grant, Medical College of Wisconsin and Fondy Food Center partnered to establish a city-wide farmers market coalition aimed at: 1) increasing federal SNAP benefit redemption rates at Milwaukee area farmers markets, and 2) creating a cultural shift resulting in a wider diversity of shoppers patronizing markets. Our work has been informed by a growing body of scholarly literature that illuminates the unintentional ways that the burgeoning alternative food movement privileges white middle- and upper-class consumers while overlooking mechanisms that contribute to inadequate food access for people of color and individuals of lower socioeconomic status. With this in mind, key coalition activities have included a “Farmers market as food justice” workshop, cultural competence training for coalition members (many of whom are market managers), a social marketing campaign highlighting SNAP acceptance at farmers markets, and ongoing conversations aimed at improving racial/ethnic diversity among shoppers at Milwaukee’s markets. This presentation will describe the processes guiding the coalition and will provide data collected throughout the grant, including: surveys exploring SNAP recipients’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about shopping at farmers markets (a key finding was that the primary barrier to shopping at markets is a lack of knowledge that farmers markets accept SNAP); results from two season-long fruit and vegetable prescription programs; Milwaukee area farmers markets’ SNAP redemption data; and numbers of farmers markets accepting SNAP. The connection of more diverse shoppers to farmers markets not only improves access to affordable local produce for shoppers, but also increases farmers markets’ customer base, which can increase business for local small producers, positively impacting communities’ economies through increased dollars remaining local. In light of the myriad challenges created by the current unsustainable and exploitative global food system, communities will benefit from initiatives – such as this one – that engage innovative multi-sector partnerships aiming to connect more residents to affordable healthy local food sources.

ABSTRACT. While farmers’ markets have grown in numbers over the past twenty years, some critics point out their lack of accessibility or affordability to low-income populations. At the same time, others have questioned the values of those who do not attend farmers’ markets. In this study, we offer a unique perspective of farmers’ markets through the eyes of low-income customers of a novel market venue. Fresh MARTA Market is an Atlanta-based food access initiative that attempts to create both geographically accessible and affordable venues in four underserved neighborhoods. Instead of a traditional farmers’ market, Fresh MARTA market is a single market stall with fresh produce on display offering 50% discount to SNAP recipients in four busy heavy rail stations. At the end of its second year of service, we interviewed 33 shoppers, all SNAP recipients, across all four Fresh MARTA locations about their perceptions of and behaviors at different food venues: Fresh MARTA markets, traditional farmers’ markets, and regular grocery stores. All customers demonstrated excitement about this initiative and expressed regret that the market will close during the winter season. They were concerned about their health and lack of nutritious food in their neighborhoods. In addition, the participants emphasized the importance of convenience, affordability, produce quality, and service, that all contributed to their overall positive experience at Fresh MARTA. Very few participants heard about traditional farmers’ markets or visited them despite dozens of farmers’ markets that offer similar discount operating in Atlanta, demonstrating lack of visibility of these initiatives due to their location and limited hours. This paper thus describes a viable and valued alternative to traditional farmers’ markets, presenting additional possible configurations for the construction of a just local food system.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the evolution of a food access project between a public transit authority and local food access organizations in Atlanta, GA. The paper outlines several ways that this collaboration both supports and challenges the idea and actualization of "local" food systems, bringing to light how differing goals of stakeholders have been managed throughout the project. In particular, it looks at how the different motivations and work cultures between a large, public government entity and smaller for- and non-profit partners have shaped the initiative. Competing definitions of what constitutes local food, as well as differing levels of awareness of and visions for inclusive food systems, are played out in the processes of expanding the Fresh MARTA Markets to meet customer needs. Bringing to light these narratives, paired with the observations and desires of customers, is instructive in showing the tensions and possibilities generated by new models of food distribution and the bringing together of novel partners. This experience may be informative for others attempting to build multisectoral partnerships in terms of imagining possible food system interventions and the processes of bringing them to fruition.

ABSTRACT. Social movement theory suggests that effectively framing the cause of a problem (diagnostic framing), its solutions (prognostic framing), and reasons to support its solutions (motivational framing) is likely to be essential for reaching movement goals. In this paper, we apply social movement framing theory to empirically identify prognostic, diagnostic, and motivational frames in the growing food justice movement in the U.S. We use the case of the Food Dignity project, a five-year, USDA-funded, action and research collaboration between academics and leaders at five community-based food justice organizations. We coded multiple data sources, both public and internal to the project, to identify the strongest and most common diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames used by 25 individual collaborators in the Food Dignity project. Results suggest that the majority of diagnostic frames used by Food Dignity partners did not relate directly to food, but instead included insufficient resources, loss of place, degraded community, and constrained choice and response-ability as causes of problems – though a broken food system also emerged as a causal frame. Similarly, solution framing included one overarching food-related strategy, which we labelled “great food.” The other prognostic frames were reclaiming power, growing the local economy, strengthening community, fostering sustainable organizations, and networking. We did not find any motivational frames in the first round of semi-open coding. However, when we returned to reexamine the data with a hypothesis informed by our project experience beyond the textual data, we identified the motivational frame that we call recompense. Recompense suggests that those who have benefited from our current food systems should now work toward justice for those who sacrificed, usually unwillingly, to create them. This frame was mostly used indirectly and by community-based (rather than academic) partners in the project. Identifying these food justice diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames may help movement leaders to more explicitly examine and employ them and is an essential step for future research in assessing their effectiveness for creating a just, sustainable and healthy food system.

ABSTRACT. The mountainous terrain, cascading rivers, and dramatic valley make Southern Kyrgyzstan one of the most beautiful places in the world. However, that beauty is not synonymous with row-crop agriculture, as the high elevation leads to limited field cultivation and a long-standing tradition of animal husbandry. The valleys, passes, and rivers in the Tien Shen mountain range are lined with lush pastures that are perfectly suited for seasonal grazing. With a rural poverty rate exceeding 60%, the Kyrgyz Republic is still very much a developing nation. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a rapid political and economic change occurred in the Kyrgyz Republic. Gone were the days of Soviet imposed livestock specialization and collectivization. The ending of the era of forced settlements brought about a return by many Kyrgyz to the pastoral practice of vertical seasonal transhumance. These rapid forces of change manifested themselves within aspects of subjective well-being and human development indicators. This paper focuses primarily on household food security within its analysis. The Kyrgyz Republic, and much of Central Asia, is rarely the focal point of rigorous scientific research, especially in food security and development research. This study contributes to an emerging scholarly dialogue and out development issues in Central Asia. It also has the ability to inform policy and food security initiatives from a local scale, up to the global development community. The study utilizes a mixed methods approach consisting of a representative survey sample of households in one Southern Rayon (district). Survey data collection were conducted across 24 villages in 1,234 households. Survey data collection controlled for variation across elevation, population, and market access. 52 additional in-depth interviews and participant observation were conducted for further data triangulation to provide enhanced detail and context within the study. The study collected six different measures of household food security; the reduced coping strategy index, household food insecurity, household hunger scale, food consumption score, household dietary diversity scale, and percent of total household expenditures spent on food are all utilized. Preliminary analysis suggests that financially vulnerable, asset-poor, and geographically isolated households display particularly high rates of chronic food insecurity. Micronutrient deficiencies among children and women's dietary sufficiency are assessed. Findings and discussion are hoped to inform future research and influence public policy on a local, national, regional, and global scale. The study has contemporary scholastic relevance to development studies and analysis of other montane agropastoral communities around the world.

ABSTRACT. Siddi women farmers (Indians of African descent) are invisible. The shape and contour of their layered lives are little known, and less valued within and outside South Asia. I present a glimpse into the farming and day-labor lives of Siddi women farmers, who are also quilters in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka. Siddi women farmers work within the larger global farming context. They endure the on-going Indian agrarian crisis while confronting tribal, caste, religious, and color discrimination. Sowing their lands and sewing their quilts, the women deserve recognition and support for their multiple contributions to all aspects of a life of farming and labor. I focus on three Siddi women farmers from three villages - Mainalli, Kendalgiri, and Gunjavati.

This paper will be published in 2018:

Khan, SK. (forthcoming 2018). "To Sow and To Sew: Siddi Women Farmers (and Quilters) in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, India." Article in edited volume on Africans in South Asia, Edited by Kenneth X. Robbins, Omar Ali, Beheroze Shroff, and Jazmin Graves. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing.

ABSTRACT. The paper examines a new ‘actor’ that has appeared in a supporting role in recent popular film and television: alcohol. From television programs such as The Good Wife and Scandal to nationally released movies like Trainwreck and Bad Moms, popular visual media of the 21 st century uses alcohol as a prop in the storyline to further the narrative and define its female characters.

Thomas Jefferson’s attempt to grow vineyards in the 1700s gave wine a place in American history. Yet the nation’s underlying Protestant ethos foreshadowed the conflicted relationship it would have with alcohol. Morality has steadily been overshadowed by capitalism and the wine business increased throughout the 20 th century. In 2017, the U.S. wine economy was estimated at $219.9 billion and 2016 sales of California wines (the largest U.S. market) was $36 billion compared to $17 billion in 2000. A 2017 Gallup Poll found that 39% of those surveyed drank wine. The reasons for the growth include increases in the number of wineries, distribution channels, dining out and winery tourism, as well as targeted marketing (especially on social media) to women: Gallup reports the typical wine drinker as a white female and college educated, although African American and Latina women are making drinking gains. Marketers portray wine drinking as a mark of sophistication and freedom with the consequences of excessive behaviors seldom addressed. A 2015 government report on women and alcohol found it a growing problem among all ethnicities and age groups, and a Washington Post analysis of the federal data found that binge drinking among white women was up 40% since 1997.

Some have posited drinking with abandon and without consequences as a metaphor for freedom and female pushback to social taboos. It also has been cited as an antidote to workplace stress as women have increasingly populated the workforce since the 1970s. Yet questions persist, including is the promotion of excessive drinking simply about sales? Who are the key actors? What messages are being communicated about female behaviors and identities? This presentation examines the phenomenon through the lens of cultural history, gender and marketing as communicated by mass media.

ABSTRACT. Txakolina, a typically Basque wine, has evolved over time as an drinkable concept rooted in culture and language, into various styles of wine. I will present several Basque wines that show off distinct varietals and styles from various provinces, all sold under the name "Txakolina". By providing a brief history of the product itself, the etymological roots of the word, and how this wine is characterized by its producers, one can see a lack of agreement in how this alcoholic beverage is defined. The importance and evolution of Basque identity will be showcased through the ever-changing qualities of this wine over time and space, while maintaining its importance as a way to to honor the past while moving into modern tastes.

ABSTRACT. Union Wine Co. is an Oregon-based winery focused on producing affordable and approachable Oregon wines. They have three different collections with various wines included in each one; the Underwood collection features canned wines. Unlike traditional wines, the Underwood line offers more than just an alternative closure style. The accessible social image, cost efficiency, and environmentally conscious persona of canned wine allows a burgeoning opportunity within the wine industry. Their wine is of higher quality than other canned wines and capitalizes on its Oregon locality. Furthermore, Union Wine Co. has established itself as a leading example of modernized social media marketing amongst wine producers via their advanced use of web technologies. An extension of this proficiency and current policies is that they are able to ship directly to customers, skipping the traditional three-tier system. This business model is a real world example of Arjun Appadurai's theories of global cultural flows, landscapes, and the production of locality. It presents an opportunity for wine producers to modernize while maintaining their quality.

ABSTRACT. This paper considers the use of wine as markers of status and distinction among American rap artists. Rap is a musical art form that is built on content (what is being said), flow (the ability to rhyme and keep a rhythm), and delivery (the variations on tone and cadence), and it is given over a beat. Rappers use their art to speak about any number of experiences, ranging from personal reflections from childhood to commentary on current events. Therefore, it is not surprising that alcohol, and more specifically, wine is referenced in rap lyrics, for wine can be part of everyday life. But as rap has evolved, going from an underground musical form to the mainstream, what rappers rap about has also changed. This paper suggests that the evolution of wine references in rap may be connected to the changing status of rap as a musical form, as well as the respectability of rappers as artists – and as businesspeople.

This paper will consider wine references from its earliest days, starting with the advent of “old school” rap during the late 1970s to early 1980s, when wine was mentioned broadly as part of having a good time and enjoying life, to rap’s so-called “golden era” from the 1980s to 1990s, when wine was referenced conscientiously as a status symbol through mentions of brand names and famous chateaus. In some cases, rappers made pointed efforts to raise how to pronounce the name of a specific wine, such as the case with Cristal, a luxury champagne made by Louis Roederer. References to wine in rap today have moved in yet another direction, as rappers have moved beyond names to specifying varietals, regions, and even vintages as displays of status and capital. And in some cases, the rappers own the vineyards they speak of in their lyrics. Ultimately, this paper suggests that wine is being used to signal aspiration, taste, and distinction, and, increasingly, to reinforce the legitimacy of rappers as people of taste and people who can afford to conspicuously consume.

ABSTRACT. 1. Panel and 2. Individual Paper Abstract: Moderator: Leda Cooks Panel Abstract In the wake of global concerns about hunger, food system sustainability and climate change, research on food loss and food waste has become central to the agenda of national, worldwide organizations such as the UN, USDA, EPA and many other government and multinational agencies. Across these efforts, food waste is defined as food that is discarded, lost or otherwise goes uneaten. Although awareness of food waste is on the rise, based on global, National and local, initiatives to recover or repurpose otherwise unused food, reduction of waste due to surplus food production has not been adequately addressed. Beyond delving into what kinds of waste (edible vs inedible) is measured, or how such waste might be repurposed, food scholars can offer perspectives into what food lost or wasted might signify— about human behavior, culture, identity, and power. This panel takes that alternate view, and brings together papers on the discourses, aesthetics and ethics that signify food/waste.

Individual Paper Abstract Food, whether viewed as entertainment, fundamental to health and fitness, hobby, vocation or issue for social justice, has enjoyed increased visibility and popularity in the US and UK for the past two decades. Food products have appeared accordingly to fill the niches created by consumer demand for food/lifestyle products. Contemporarily, campaigns to raise awareness of food waste have likewise increased its value as commodity, gift, or donation—even as waste is decried as excess in an obesogenic and unsustainable environment. Discourse about food waste in the US and UK popular media belies the dichotomies presented by food/waste in capitalist democracy: food is clean, waste is dirty; food is safe, waste is dangerous; food has value, waste does not (Cooks 2018). With these tensions in mind, this paper turns to the discourse on food waste produced by those who produce, prepare and distribute food. Drawing from a larger study, the focus here is on descriptions of at what point food becomes waste (or whether waste is a consideration) for those who grow prepare and distribute food. Further, the paper examines whether or how the discourse of those in the food industry converses with mainstream mediated discourses of food waste.

ABSTRACT. My research explores how food photography reinforces the notion of “perfection”—and what that means in terms of distancing viewers from the realities of an imperfect agricultural system. Extending semiologist’s Roland Barthes’ analysis of imagery as artifice, how do photographs of “beautiful” produce influence our perception of blemished foodstuffs and overall culture of food waste? How can that perception be changed, to bridge the gaps between artistic aesthetics, what comes out of the field, and consumer choice in the grocery store?

Food waste is a universal concern, as evidenced by the blossoming “ugly” produce initiatives and declaration of 2014 as the European Year Against Food Waste. Laws preventing the sale of misshapen fruit or vegetables, rendered unmarketable due to cosmetic imperfections, are buoyed by consumer demand. Normalizing “ugly” food, by having it play a role in modern food photography—a popular, and thus powerful contemporary visual currency—could yield powerful results.

My theoretical research focuses on three sequential concepts: (1) the definitions of “ugly” and “beautiful” food, contextualized in the cultural practice of food waste, (2) the history of food photography and styling, and (3) how “ugly” produce has been represented so far. I am researching this third component using semiotics, to deconstruct existing shots of ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ produce. To apply these findings, I am curating a gallery of “ugly produce” photographs for a local food waste nonprofit. The images will be used to market 412 Food Rescue’s third Ugly CSA season, and serve as visual aids to raise consciousness about food waste. My goal is that instead of exacerbating unrealistic cosmetic expectations, these photos will reflect our natural, imperfect world.

ABSTRACT. Today’s immigrant workers turned farmers are unique in the context of global agrarian change, finding ways to maintain small-scale family operated farms by combining subsistence-based practices and farming styles acquired in Mexico with those learned by working on farms in the United States. Their motivation to farm is rooted in their agrarian identities; they see farming as a way to both revive their past and create a new future. Immigrant farmers’ ability to reclaim land and succeed as farmers in the United States is constantly being defined and redefined in relation to racial, ethnic, and economic social hierarchies. This presentation will employ the complex notions of home, identity, and place to understand how and why immigrant farmworkers are starting their own farms in the U.S., despite boundaries based in their racial and ethnic social positioning. I argue that the rationale and motivation of immigrant farmers in the United States can only be understood through the lens of identity, as their challenges as well as their motivations, are unique to their racialized and ethnic social status. I show the ways farmers are recreating a new sense of home through cultivation and consumption practices, ultimately proposing that it is these connections to an agrarian identity that keep them farming, despite challenges.

ABSTRACT. My contributions to this panel on rootedness concerns the intersectional identity of gatherers of wild edibles in community garden and urban farm locations in and near Burlington, Vermont, and the connections between identity, place, and practice. I will focus on participants who share the identities of New American and gather of wild edibles, though they may also share other identities, or differ in many ways. The participants discus their collection practices and explained their choices for gathering wild edibles in the spaces between and around the plants growing in farm and community garden plots, intentionally propagated. Ultimately, through a number of field walks and interviews, I learned of their deep connection between identities – woman; refugee; parent; provider; outsider – and their practice of gathering wild edibles in these spaces.

The personal pride felt by practicing the art of gathering meets the physical contention of garden sites as sites of transgression and hidden meaning. Participants describe the spaces where their practice transforms an ostensibly congenial, collective garden area into a site of disobedience. These internal tensions often turned external as other gardeners expressed uncertainty, distrust, or curiosity at the collector’s actions (Why can't they just garden in their plots like the rest of us? Why are they picking weeds by MY garden?). These issues mimicked the pressures these New Americans experienced through other daily performances - their experience as the other was pervasive.

So why continue the practice? As part of this panel, I will discuss the issues above and will highlight the power of place through practice - these participants gather specific wild edibles because it provides sustenance that is familiar (many plants related to species collected in home countries have near relatives in the U.S.), a connection to their homelands (through food memory), and an ability to salvage the reproduction of traditional knowledge despite their relocation and resettlement (by teaching their children about gathering and traditional foods). Ultimately, the site of community gardens and an urban farm area act as surrogates to their homeland - allowing a certain level of connection despite the complicated power dynamics cast upon the gatherers due to their intersectional identities.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the relationship between race and memory in 20th century German food discourse. It will focus on the racialized nostalgia that Germans voiced after the collapse of the Third Reich, after they lost huge quantities of their most fertile farmland (current-day Poland and the Czech Republic.) Memories of those “ethnic German” foods and farmlands remained deeply rooted in West German identity throughout the Cold War, and still today are strong. This often explicitly racist and anti-Semitic idea of having racialized ‘roots’ in particular tracts of land is not only a legacy of the Third Reich, but also has older 'roots' in imperial discourse and in memories of defeat after the First World War.

ABSTRACT. Rooted activates memory through the investigation of and engagement with gardens, gardening, farmers and the land. This panel proposes to engage with current and historical projects and people dedicated to rootedness in a geography, crops, ethnic identity manifest through plantings and community connectivity, as well as dialogues of displacement, when people rooted to a land, a place, and the foods that grow in that region, are removed from that place. How do we honor the stewards of our land and their foodways? Building on the history and the agricultural legacy of enslaved African provision grounds gardens that dotted plantation slave quarters, this multidisciplinary performative project gratefully funded by the Lynden Sculpture Park imagines an emancipation garden of a semi-fictional character, Lizzie. She is an amalgam of Portia Cobb’s Gullah-Geechee ancestors who have worked the land for generations. In 2016 sculptor, educator and designer, Fo Wilson created an installation, Eliza's Cabinet of Curiosities, a full-scale structure that is both wunderkammer and slave cabin; imagining what a 19th-century woman of African descent might have collected, cataloged and stowed in her living quarters. What did she find curious about the objects and culture of her European captors?— https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/exhibitions/fo-wilson-elizas-peculiar-cabinet-curiosities. Portia and I have occupied Fo’s structure to imagine Lizzie, Eliza’s field slave counterpart, who tends her first garden post-emancipation. This work is concurrently an actual garden, as well as a historical-performative project that engages oral history, video, and performance. It will occur over the 2018-growing season in the Lynden Sculpture Gardens of Milwaukee.

Portia Cobb Gardener, Video Artist and Associate Professor of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Scott Alves Barton Gardener, Assistant Adjunct Food Studies Professor, NYU and Queens College

--other panelists (who will upload their own abstracts--

The Power of Place Through Practice

Elissa Johnson Food Studies Internship Placement Coordinator, Syracuse University

Immigration, Identity, and Agricultural Practice: Recreating Home Through the Family Farm

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern Assistant Professor, Food Studies Syracuse University

Blood, Soil, and Roots: German Claims to Lost Foods and Lost Lands after the Second World War

Alice Weinreb Associate Professor, Department of History—Loyola University Chicago

ABSTRACT. A group of scholars and activists who have been collaborating through a Community of Practice on Food Systems Pedagogy will present results of their deliberations, discussions about food systems competencies from the last Food Systems Pedagogy conference, and a survey of food system college and university programs in the United States. They have concluded that food systems transformation in the direction of more sustainable practices must include explicit attention to equity in pedagogy, since historical and increasingly pervasive racial and financial inequity have had such powerful impacts on access to healthy food, political voice, and resources needed for full participation in the food system. While many college and university food system and food studies programs have elective courses on food justice, very few have core competencies designed to demonstrate student knowledge of how race, gender, and inequitable distribution of wealth, assets and political access impact the food system. Likewise we have not found related competencies in identifying practices and policies needed to promote more equitable food systems.

The call for greater attention to equity echoes the emphasis within agroecological pedagogy on awareness of the power dynamics that impede food sovereignty and control over a community’s resources. Agroecological pedagogy often includes critical consciousness raising, counterhegemonic analysis, decolonization of knowledge, and respect for traditional and indigenous—as well as scientific—knowledge.

We invite others to a roundtable discussion on equity as a ‘meta-competency’ within food system education programs. We will start with short descriptions of food system competencies (based on a literature review of sustainability and food system competencies) and the extent to which equity appears now in food system programs (based on a review of degree program websites). Then we will open the discussion to 1) consider how using an equity lens shapes the knowledge, skills and explicit values needed for transformative education within food system programs; 2) explore how equity principles and practices can be integrated throughout the curriculum; and 3) identify potential competencies that capture entry level proficiency, i.e., how students’ understanding of equity and how to achieve it can be assessed

ABSTRACT. Despite rapid economic growth, India has seen less improvement in malnutrition compared to other countries with similar economic indicators. In response, agricultural development programs are increasingly being modified to become “nutrition-sensitive”. While traditional agricultural development focused on improved crop productivity, nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) combines agronomic practices, crop diversification, and a focus on women’s empowerment to create a supply of more nutritional foods. In this paper, I draw on qualitative research conducted in multiple sites across rural India over 12 months to argue that although development professionals and community members agreed with the tenets of NSA, the central barrier to these practices being embraced is the sometimes contradictory promotion of paddy production. I present evidence to argue that this is due to both material changes in the ways resources and labor are allocated, as well as a distinct identity politics exemplified by the emergence of the ideal ‘progressive farmer’ as one who uses chemical inputs to grow improved paddy for the market. Despite new aspirations to be connected to markets, participants frequently reported diminished levels of bodily health and wellbeing, which they directly link to the use of new crop varieties and chemical fertilizer promoted under traditional agriculture development programs. Building on previous work, I argue that the environmental changes caused by Green Revolution agricultural practices, specifically the emergence of chemical landscapes, are expressed in complex, often contradictory, bodily experiences of health and wellbeing. Thus a (re)focus on nutrition-sensitive practices of farming such as intercropping, using under-utilized crops, and organic cultivation methods provides a space of contradiction where farmers who have systematically had their knowledge dismissed as backwards are now seeing it appropriated and revalorized, though oftentimes without due acknowledgement. Taking these insights, I conclude that unless NSA directly confronts both the incentive structures as well as the identity and knowledge politics of Green Revolution agriculture it will not move from program discourse to rural reality in ways that are environmentally and socially just.

ABSTRACT. Recent literature on large-scale land acquisitions has examined the often adverse impacts of land deals for agricultural investment on indigenous peoples in the global South (Cotula 2009; Vermeulen, S. and Cotula, L., 2010; Wolford et al. 2013). While this scholarship has shed light on the complex interactions between state actors and foreign investors, it has paid little attention to why different indigenous peoples, even those in close proximity, are differently impacted by these deals.

In my work I ask, why do land deals for agricultural investment to have fewer negative impacts on the Nuer indigenous ethnic group than on the Anuak indigenous ethnic group in the remote Ethiopian regional state of Gambella? To address this question, I draw on one and a half years of qualitative fieldwork in Ethiopia, including ethnographic observations in Gambella Peoples Regional State and more than 130 in-depth interviews.

I find that as Gambella’s demographics have changed because of an influx of mostly Nuer refugees from South Sudan’s civil war, existing ethnic tensions between Nuer and Anuak have been exacerbated. Nuer, for example, now hold most of the important government positions in the Gambella region. In a turn toward what I call “unequal indigeneity,” agricultural investors are directed to establish commercial farms in the Anuak, not the Nuer, zone of the region. As a result, Anuak have experienced far more deforestation of and violent evictions from their land (and forcible villagization) by the state than have Nuer. This work thus demonstrates how land deals for agricultural investment are not just a project of global capitalist accumulation, but also closely linked to intersections between regional geopolitics, domestic ethnic politics, legacies of unequal citizenship, and state violence.

ABSTRACT. Prominent food system authors have begun to argue for place-based experiences with food as a way to strengthen support for a broader set of social, cultural, economic and environmental values connected to local food systems. Hands-on, physical experiences with growing, sourcing or eating food within a specific place provide an opportunity for people to learn about local culture, explore skills and social networks, and build awareness of local food system opportunities and challenges, whether urban or rural. However, a significant amount of food systems literature has often focused on urban impacts of local food, while the research on rural food systems often is limited to their tie to urban areas and traditional economic opportunities for farmers, ignoring a whole set of food system practices commonly employed in rural areas, such as informal exchanges, hunting and wild harvesting.

There are new models proposed by researchers for thinking about economic development that focus on more comprehensive measures of community wealth, including social and cultural capital, and ways to strengthen economies through improvement to those community assets, as well as traditional financial measures. As we work to improve the opportunities for local food systems to be a viable economic development strategy for rural communities, finding ways to evaluate and build on a broader range of values and assets may help to address issues for economies, food access, and social infrastructure in our rural places.

This presentation will share initial analysis from the author’s dissertation research interviews with wild harvesters in a 4-county region of the Missouri Ozarks. Wild harvesting (or foraging or gathering) is the harvesting of non-timber forest products and other non-cultivated products. The market for these products continues to grow, introducing questions about sustainability, quality, and access to resources. The purpose of the research is to consider new opportunities to strengthen local food systems as a rural development strategy by learning from wild harvesters’ experiences and knowledge. Using a narrative inquiry methodology and a follow-up focus group with interview participants, this project is intended to consider collaboratively with participants what place-based wild harvesting experiences contribute to rural communities and how to structure new opportunities for local food systems using this knowledge.

ABSTRACT. Participation food labels may be a way to increase the resilience of farmers, protect the environment and contribute to the economic development of rural areas. The dairy sector in Sicily has a rich cultural capital of unique and high-quality artisanal cheeses and other dairy products produced from traditional breeds of cows, sheep, goats, buffalo and donkeys. Slow Food Presidia, Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Traditional Agricultural Product (TAP) and organic certification are four labels that have attempted to add value to traditional Sicilian dairy products, help producers access alternative food networks and contribute to rural development in the region. While in some cases these labels have increased the price of labeled dairy products, there is little participation in these schemes by small farmers. Ninety percent of Sicily’s cheese processors are small or micro-artisanal enterprises, though this segment processes only 20% of the island’s milk production. Collective action could lower the barriers to entry, however the producers are reluctant to form clusters to collectively participate in these labels. To better understand the producers’ reluctance to cooperate, we surveyed 65 small and micro milk/milk and cheese producers whom the authors identified as persons who would be key to the formation of a cluster. In addition, we interviewed administrators of large dairies, cooperatives, as well as key informants in the dairy sector. We look at the factors that inhibit dairy producers’ and processors’ participation in these networks. We found that small farmers and processors face particular challenges in accessing these networks, including difficulties meeting hygiene standards, distrust of other members of the sector and distrust of governing institutions. In order for alternative food networks to be sustainable, we argue that the organization of these networks must be grounded in the cultural capital of the region; both the objectified cultural capital in terms of cultural goods (in this case traditional dairy products) and the institutional cultural capital in terms of traditional means and adaptations to the natural environment and the savoir faire of the producers. Finally, we suggest some interventions that could facilitate the participation of small and micro enterprises in these networks at the same time building social capital and respecting the cultural capital of the region.

ABSTRACT. “Growing North” is an in-school and out-of-school community-based collaborative educational program that aims to build food, environmental and cognitive justice through sustainable urban agriculture and horticulture. Learning and career development are experiential and contextualized in the greenhouse, garden beds aquaponics system and hoop house, as well as activities surrounding food justice, food accessibility, food production systems, horticulture science, aquaponics and composting. “Growing North” brings together urban youth as interns with University of Minnesota (UMN) Agricultural education and food systems undergraduates, and community stakeholders in a tiered system of near-peer mentoring and learning. Program participants care for community gardens all over the Northside, distribute food throughout their neighborhoods, and sell to markets.

This work is situated in the Northside Minneapolis community, which has faced a history of injustice and marginalization, and currently experiences disproportionate rates of poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and violence. The Northside is classified as a food desert, and many residents experience food insecurity. Greater program goals include connecting the Northside community to healthy food production and consumption through youth advocacy, leadership and socioemotional development, and combating the school-to-prison pipeline by creating pathways to the University and workforce. The program now brings together multiple UMN departments, local non-profits and supporting organizations, public schools, informal educational programs, and community members.

This presentation will share both programmatic design elements and research findings from the first year of Growing North’s interrelated in-school and out-of-school programs. A community-based participatory research methodology was and continues to be utilized to include the voices of program participants and community stakeholders in the research process. Qualitative was gathered and triangulated across all participants (UMN undergraduate interns, community stakeholders, STEP-UP youth interns, and UMN department leads) and data sources (interviews, focus groups, field notes and surveys). Data analyses included deductive and inductive coding strategies and constant comparative analysis for thematic generation. Program successes included important areas of personal growth, positive attitude changes and knowledge gains relating to community building, work ethic, health, communication skills, agriculture, horticulture, food systems, and future career aspirations. Data analyses of program challenges revealed themes that can be situated under working across differences including conflicting leadership, management and work styles, and deficit views of minoritized youth by UMN interns. Given these findings, we will discuss how we have approached the redesign of Growing North year 2, including the design and implementation of a culturally responsive youth leadership course for the UMN undergraduate interns.

ABSTRACT. Panel members will share their experiences, insights and recommendations -- best practices -- for starting new academic programs about Food Security. Key issues include identifying and eliciting involvement of community stakeholders in program design and implementation, balancing urban/rural/suburban settings, pitfalls and successes of inter-disciplinary collaboration, issues of scale and scope of new programs, and more. Of particular interest are best practices for servicing student populations currently experiencing food insecurity and other poverty-related challenges.

ABSTRACT. Cuba is often identified as a country refuting neoliberal production systems (Wright, 2012). Some identify Cuba as a country working towards food sovereignty (Leitgeb, Schneider, & Vogl, 2016). Others identify Cuba as a model of food sovereignty by way of its high Agroecology adoption, critical participatory processes, and counterhegemonic movements (Gürcan, 2014). Food sovereignty, as a concept and social movement, seeks to reframe and recreate the food system towards food justice by addressing the root of food insecurity, inequality (Fairbairn, 2010). For some, Agroecology is a method towards achieving food sovereignty (Altieri & Nicholls, 2017; Altieri & Toledo, 2011). In this paper, we draw upon Critical Food Systems Education (CFSE) to serve as an educational framework that holds promise to help transform the systems of society that can be oppressive, including the food system (Meek & Tarlau, 2017). Specifically, we present a 3-credit study abroad course to Cuba focusing on food sovereignty, Agroecology, and cultural identity. This course experience engaged with not only the politics of our food system, but also our intercultural interactions that inform those politics. In recognition of our responsibility to develop interculturally competent students who can work to address and change the inequity within our food system and beyond, we sought to develop a course employing CFSE and Intercultural Praxis. Intercultural Praxis, like CFSE, is grounded in critical pedagogy that challenges the conventional intercultural development practice that de-historicizes and decontextualizes intercultural interactions by focusing on how to act and with whom (Sorrells, 2014). Following Sorrell’s (2014) model, we rejected the common definition of culture and recognize that it represents a colonial notion that replicates historical and continuing inequalities. We intentionally historicized and contextualized our study of and visit to Cuba within the U.S.’ history of imperialism and hegemonic influence over the country of Cuba, and how our identities and lens influence our experience and that of the Cubans with whom we interacted. This session will focus on our experience developing this course and combining these two theories. We will provide pedagogical examples, reflections of our trip to Cuba with 13 students, and provide suggestions for adopting CFSE and Intercultural Praxis for similar food systems educational experiences.

ABSTRACT. Not all food systems and food studies students are interested in a research/teaching job at an institution of higher education. Furthermore, not all students interested in a research/teaching job will be able to find a position in the tight academic job market. In this roundtable organized by the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Graduate Student/Early Career Professional Committee, we will explore careers that could be of interest to food systems and food studies masters’ and PhD students in a variety of fields and settings. In particular, we will explore relevant careers to food systems and food studies students, discuss strategies students can use to prepare for these careers throughout their graduate education, discuss how they can leverage their interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary training on the job market, and consider things to keep in the back of the mind for potential future career moves. Come prepared with questions!

ABSTRACT. “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” “Our work as social justice visionaries and organizers is to bring about a world we have never seen. a world without poverty, without patriarchy. A world where every human has the right to make their own difficult choices for their health and lives, towards abundance, towards liberation. We haven’t experienced this world yet – we are cocreating it. So organizing is reaching forward and pulling the future into our present. All organizing is science fiction.” Following the words of the late Ursula K. Le Guin and the very living adrienne maree brown, in order to create a just and equitable food system for human and non-human alike, we must first imagine it. We live under the guise of food security; a framework that promotes sufficient calories for all humans regardless of the modes of production, their nutrient density, or if they are at all culturally appropriate. In this workshop, inspired by the work of adrienne maree brown, we will explore our food (in)secure present, travel to the food sovereign future, and return in order to integrate our findings in order to bend time and space to make this future so. Be warned, this will be highly participatory, involve time travel, and a good deal of creative writing.

ABSTRACT. The number of organic farms in Iowa has largely increased to keep up with the rapid-growth markets of organic food. Iowa had 612 organic farms in 2016, making Iowa the 5th largest producer of organic produce in the United States. The value of organic commodities produced in Iowa increased by 82 percent, from $72 million in 2008 to $131 million in the year 2016. With this background, two questions need to be answered: 1) where those organic farms are located and 2) what factors attributed to the organic farms’ location. This study conducted a geospatial analysis of organic farms in Iowa. Because corn and soybean are the largest grain commodities in the state of Iowa, this study focused on the 497 (n=497) organic farms with organic corn and/or soybean production in Iowa. We have examined three factors that may influence the locations of organic farms: 1) soil productivity, 2) nearby urban size, and, 3) nearby market access (organic grain merchandising companies). Results showed that: 1) large clusters of organic farms are located in areas with lower soil productivity; 2) the size of a nearby urban area is not a major factor that influences the location of organic farms; and 3) major clusters of organic farms are located within 35 miles of organic grain merchandising companies. In conclusion, market access (organic grain merchandising companies) is the number one driving factor for the location of organic farms. Soil productivity is not a driver for organic farming locations. Instead, most organic farms are located in lower soil productivity areas, and this may because organic corn as a value-added crop helps farmers increase profitability. Finally, literature has shown urban residents are more likely to purchase organic produce, but organic grain is typically processed into other organic food. Therefore, it is not surprising that the size of an urban area does not heavily influence organic grain farms’ locations. Clusters of organic farms located nearby a certain urban area may be due to the particular food culture in that urban area.

ABSTRACT. Sociological research on food and agriculture has identified a number of processes that result in market concentration and consolidation. Among sociologists and perhaps even more so among farmers, often these processes are thought of as inevitable, almost a pre-determined outcome of the economic structure of capitalism. Based on participant observation at organic dairy farm conferences and interviews on 60 organic dairy farms, this research documents 1) the potential for farmer resistance, and 2) how identity and culture, rather than economic structural determinism, can thwart farmers’ collective action to maintain their market power. My case is the organic dairy sector. Only by going organic have small and medium dairy farms been able to stay in business and create options for their children to stay on the farm. However, the writing is on the wall that the strong farm-gate price in the organic dairy sector is on the verge of collapsing. Prices are becoming volatile and more of the market is being controlled by giant publicly-traded multinational corporations. Now that the organic market has proven its profitability, retailers and large corporations are consolidating market power horizontally and vertically, with the resulting ability to set the terms of the market and reap a greater share of the financial returns relative to producers. Mega-dairies are beginning to crowd the market, bringing on too much milk relative to long-term demand and thus pushing out smaller dairies by lowering the farm-gate price. This signals two opportunities for collective action: 1) collective bargaining power for share of retail price, and 2) collective action to control supply and increase prices. This research opens the black box of consolidation and concentration to document how organic dairy farmers, individually and in associations, have conceived of these processes and the opportunities available to shape their destiny, and organized discussion and action forums. Farmers came remarkably close to effective collective action, but ultimately failed. The hopeful aspect of this story is that this failure was not pre-determined by economic structure. Concentration is not inevitable. Rather, this failure emerged from socialized cultural dynamics and dominant identities among organic dairy farmers.

ABSTRACT. Global population growth necessitates increases in total food production while simultaneously encouraging agricultural innovation that is drawing adults into the production cycle who previously led other lives. How will producers increase their total output while improving soil and water quality? Agricultural practices are needed that enhance human health while sustaining environmental wellness to provide food and fiber to a growing world population (Velten et al. 2015).

Conventional farming uses intensive agriculture methods, which embodies three main principles (Morgan and Murdoch 2000): economic and strategic rationale, political commitment and administrative authority, and technological innovation aiming to increase output and productivity. According to this model, agriculture is practiced on a large-scale, typically monoculture crops where productivity is achieved with the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, and antibiotics. Indiscriminate use of these inputs harms the environment, ecological systems, and human health (Vasile et al. 2015). On the other hand, Oluwasusi (2014, p.1) stated “organic farming posits high potentials to assuage the problems of unsustainability of agricultural production and environmental problems, providing optimum quality, utilizing sustainable management practices devoid of agrochemicals inputs evident of damaging the environment and wildlife from conventional farming”.

There is a dearth of research to assist extension educators better understand producers’ adoption decisions for sustainable agricultural practices. Understanding how organic producers’ select strategies may contribute to policy decisions and could result in developing educational programs to help producers adopt organic growing practices as well as inform the development of strategies aimed at attracting additional producers to organic agricultural production (Darnhofer et al. 2005; Cranfield et al. 2009).

To encourage the adoption of organic production, the research presented here aims to capture the essence of producers’ decision-making process towards organic practices, as well as report on the challenges and barriers producers’ experience as a sustainable agriculturalist. From a phenomenological perspective, the purpose of the study was to describe what producers experienced during adoption of organic/sustainable agriculture practices and how producers experienced the adoption process of organic/sustainable agriculture practices, including challenges and barriers to adoption during and after the process. The findings cumulated in the essence of producers’ lived experiences regarding their decision process to adopt sustainable agricultural practices. For the purpose of this study, organic farming is defined as no utilization of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, or GMOs, regardless of certification status. The emergent metaphor of this phenomenon was Shepherding the Land and serves as the structural framework for reporting findings.

Methodology

This study was conducted spring 2018 using phenomenological research methods. Phenomenology inquiry seeks to capture the “common meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concepts or a phenomenon” (Creswell & Poth 2018, p. 75). I conducted four semi-structured, face-to-face, in-depth interviews with criterion sampled participants at their preferred location. Analysis resulted in 56 significant statements or horizons, that were used to emerge a deeper understanding of how the participants experienced the phenomenon (horizonalization). The 56 significant statements were then clustered into 10 codes and further refined into four themes.

Phenomenological Findings

Theme 1: Weaving Sheep’s Wool: Producers’ past experiences connect and weave the mantle to inspire land stewardship. Participants’ family background outlined their desire to impart a legacy of land stewardship. Their childhood experiences with food were cited as motivators to pursue organic practices.

Theme 2: Stewards of the Land: Participants saw themselves as caretakers of the land, and adopted input-free systems. Participants’ experiences revolved around producing food in a sustainable way. Following organic practices was important and superseded the desire to become officially certified organic.

Theme 3: Philosophy of Life: Participants were motivated by producing food that was healthy and aesthetically pleasing. Inherent feelings about the improvement of natural resource were reported. Participants reported that their lifestyles had changed since the adoption of organic practices; feeling more connected to their food than before adopting organic practices.

Theme 4: Shepherding Others: Producers experienced support from other members of the organic community. Networking in the organic community was reported as a way to share knowledge and support each other. The community facilitated participants in gaining status as Certified Naturally Grown producers and selling produce in the farmers’ markets.

Discussion
According to participants, the essence of growing organic produce is that of a Shepherding the Land. A shepherd is a person whose job is to take care of a flock, especially in a kind, helpful, and beneficial manner. In summary, when asked how participants experienced growing organic produce, they reported that being involved with organic practices had cultivated their personal philosophies of life toward a shepherd’s mindset. Participants reported the desire to improve their land resources and build on the family legacy.
References
Cranfield, J., Henson S., & Holliday J. 2009. The motives, benefits, and problems of conversion to organic production. Agriculture and Human Values, 27:291–306; doi: 10.1007/s10460-009-9222-9.
Creswell, J. & Poth, C. 2018. Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design – Choosing among five approaches. 4th Edition, Sage Publications, Inc.
Darnhofer, I., Schneeberger, W., & Freyer, B. 2005. Converting or not converting to organic farming in Austria: Farmer types and their rationale. Agriculture and Human Values, 22: 39–52; doi: I 10.1007/s10460-004-7229-9.
Morgan, K. & J. Murdoch. 2000. Organic vs. conventional agriculture: Knowledge, power and innovation in the food chain. Geoforum 31: 159–173.
Oluwasusi, J.O. 2014. Vegetable farmers’ attitude toward organic agriculture practices in selected states of South West Nigeria. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. 6 (7), 223-230; doi: 10.5897/JAERD2013.0572.
Vasile, A., Popescu, C., Ion, R., & Dobre, I. 2015. From conventional to organic in Romanian agriculture – Impact assessment of a land use changing paradigm. Land Use Policy, 46:258–266.
Velten, S., Leventon, J., Jager, N., & Newig, J. 2015. What Is Sustainable Agriculture? A Systematic Review. Sustainability, 7: 7833-7865; doi:10.3390/su7067833.

ABSTRACT. In times of structural change in agriculture, farmers seem to have only the choice between growing or giving way. Therefore our question was, how farmers can exist on the long run, independently from a growth strategy, i.e. without continuous increase of their land / production capacities. For this purpose, nine guided expert interviews were conducted with farmers in Austria and Germany and analysed with content analysis. A theoretical framework was developed, including the theory of sufficiency, the perception of the potential to influence the own development, post growth theory, peasant economy, and agricultural economy. Farmers main strategies are as follows: Farmers adapt their farming to the local natural conditions and try to reduce inputs by using synergies. Farmers in general avoid as far as possible any inputs, but organize their farms on internal resources, to become as much as possible independent from resources outside the farm. The farmers ensure their income by a diversity of production segments and aim to enable a long-term existence by keeping open development opportunities. The farmers use different possibilities to market their products on eye level: By focussing on quality production, by using different forms of direct marketing and by cooperating in producer associations. Further, they use alternative ways of financing and practise a careful handling with their buildings, machines and livestock in order to extend the life cycles, reducing the expenses. These strategies are adopted to serve for the fulfilment of the farmers’ demand, for the preservation of the farm as well as for the implementation of personal interests and ideals of the farmers serving as a non-economic key value, instead of focusing to increase the farm and its income. In these farming styles, sufficiency thinking can be detected and there are similarities to growth-independent strategies from the discourse of post-growth. The results of this study are leading to the following thesis: With a mix of technical ecological oriented, and socio-economic strategies, farmers develop a farming style, making them independent from further growth via additional land or animals. A key might be their market system approach. Lifestyle and their personal values are compensating partly additional income. Interestingly many of these farms are classified from mainstream economy not being able to economically survive-but they do!

ABSTRACT. In this session, I propose to host a Nostalgia Picnic, an interactive Food and Memory research event facilitated by Boston University Gastronomy students. In small groups, participants will taste one another’s snack food memories in a guided discussion of nostalgic food.

Each participant is asked to bring a snack food that evokes ‘nostalgia’ for them, and the facilitators will guide small groups in discussion. In this collaborative research activity, facilitators will encourage debate on contested definitions of memory and nostalgia and guide an examination of the role of nostalgia foods in our own lives.

With our team of trained facilitators, we will be able to host up to 30 participants in 5 groups of 6. Facilitators will have experience attending and leading nostalgia food events, and will follow a common schedule for the session.

A proposed schedule is as follows: 1. Up to 5 groups of 6 are formed around discussion tables. 2. The group’s snacks are placed together in the center of the table, and we discuss commonalities identifiable from first impressions. 3. Each participant takes a turn to introduce themselves and their snack, sharing memories associated with the snack and why they chose to present it at a nostalgia picnic. 4. General discussion in small groups. This section will take shape depending upon the snacks brought, the stories told, and the participants in the group. Facilitators will be prepared to prompt discussion in several areas, including: a. Relationship with time – past, present, future b. Collective / individual memory c. Nostalgia as a particular kind of memory, a working definition of nostalgia d. Ritual, holidays, ceremonies associated with nostalgic foods e. Family, friends, relationships associated with nostalgic foods 5. To conclude the session, we will come back together into one large group. Each small group will present some of their questions, discussions, or findings to the larger group.

By bringing together interdisciplinary scholars for an invigorating discussion in a participatory food event, we hope to expand and challenge our conceptions of nostalgia and encourage participants to think about food and memory in new ways.