Authors:Duncan Hilchey Pages: 1–3 - 1–3 Abstract: First paragraph: Our spring-summer 2024 issue is devoted largely to a set of commentaries prepared by more than two dozen participants in the U.S. Agroecology Summit 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Their individual and collective voices challenge the hegemony of the dominant global industrial food system. However, they acknowledge that there are significant philosophical and pragmatic divisions between progressives in the agroecology “movement” that need to be openly addressed before significant progress can be made in building a cohesive movement. . . . PubDate: 2024-07-04 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.034 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Nanna Meyer, Giovanna Sacchi, Camilla Sartori, Christian Fischer Pages: 1–25 - 1–25 Abstract: Alternative grain networks (AGNs) are micro-systems that supplement conventional food production and distribution systems, emphasizing high quality food and leveraging regional, socio-cultural, and socio-economic values. In this multiple case study analysis we compare two AGNs, Regiokorn in South Tyrol, Italy, and the Colorado Grain Chain (CGC) in the U.S., using qualitative and comparative analysis to explore the indicators of geographical proximity, cultural homogeneity, commercial viability, and community involvement. Regiokorn and the CGC differ in various ways in these operational dimensions as well as in their organizational setups, the former as a pure business network and the latter including consumer members. Our findings highlight how these two different organizational structures can be leveraged to achieve similar outcomes, and provide valuable insights for other AGNs in finding their own paths. PubDate: 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.029 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Stacey Stearns, Anoushka Concepcion Pages: 1–4 - 1–4 Abstract: First paragraph: Seaweed is developing into a nascent agricultural industry in the United States. It has long been a staple in Asian and other diets, used in a variety of food dishes because of its taste and nutritional benefits that could rank it among the superfoods (Cherry et al., 2019). Although sugar kelp (Saccharrina lattisima) is native to Connecticut’s coast (Redmond et al., 2014), its use as a food product in Connecticut and in other parts of the U.S. is limited because there is a need for post-harvest and marketing infrastructure (Venolia et al., 2020; Yarish et al., 2017; Yarish et al., 1998). The Cooperative Extension System and Sea Grant programs are frequently asked to help develop new agricultural products, methods, and market strategies. Connecticut Sea Grant Extension is developing the nascent sugar kelp industry, and this commentary outlines the lessons learned. . . . PubDate: 2024-06-17 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.028 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Kelsey Gardiner, Susan Harvey Pages: 1–12 - 1–12 Abstract: Food insecurity is a growing concern in higher education. As universities adapt to meet the growing need of college students to access adequate amounts of healthy food, food pantries are among the most widely implemented food security supports. However, little has been done to measure whether this resource is meeting the needs of students. This study aims to fill gaps in the existing literature by using a cross-sectional design to develop a novel satisfaction survey and measure overall satisfaction, use of resources, and additional support needs of students utilizing an on-campus food pantry. A convenience sample of 100 student on-campus pantry users participated. The survey consisted of a ten-item, investigator-designed satisfaction scale, which demonstrated a high measure of reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha = .849). Based on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), overall student satisfaction was high [ = 3.8]. Students reported the highest level of satisfaction with friendliness of staff volunteers [x̅ = 4.55], location of the pantry [x̅ = 4.26], and availability of shelf stable food items [x̅ = 4.11]. Students reported lowest satisfaction with the selection of fresh fruits [x̅ = 3.18] and fresh vegetables [x̅ = 3.21], and the selection of dairy products [x̅ = 3.59]. Most indicated a need for additional support from the pantry site, including school supplies (n = 48), hygiene and toiletry supplies (n = 47), cooking utensils (n = 47), information on other emergency resources (n = 28), financial resources (n = 25), and recipes (n = 25). More research is needed to better understand pantry-site satisfaction, identify potential additional desired supports, and the impacts of on-campus food pantries. This study is the first of a multiphase project that will continue to explore on-campus food pantries as an intervention strategy, the student experience of utilizing food pantries, and their potential impact on students. PubDate: 2024-06-12 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.027 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Alicia Papanek, Chelsea DeMasters, Micayla Richardson, Kimberly Wiley Pages: 1–15 - 1–15 Abstract: Collaboration among nonprofits, commercial entities, state Extension offices, and governmental agencies is crucial for improving and sustaining food and nutrition security at the state and local levels. This study examines the landscape of 904 food and agricultural nonprofit organizations (FANOs) operating in Florida in 2019 to determine their scope, role in the food supply chain, and potential collaboration opportunities with allied organizations. FANOs primarily address the preproduction and distribution stages of the supply chain. Aligned goals and initiatives between FANOs and Extension programs revealed a wealth of opportunities for collaboration that would ensure the continuity of food systems and sustainable resource use in Florida, despite existing competition between allied organizations and FANOs. PubDate: 2024-06-05 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.023 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Anisa Kline Pages: 1–17 - 1–17 Abstract: This paper uses the qualitative results of a survey of 285 H-2A workers in Ohio to explore questions of care, social reproduction, and agency within agricultural guestwork. Drawing on frameworks developed in labor and feminist geography, it examines how H-2A workers create community and develop skills of social reproduction during their time in the United States. Countering the common narratives of H-2A worker as victims or stoic, long suffering laborers, the research draws attention to the relational and emotional lives of the men who do this work. By highlighting affective and social dimensions of the guestworker experience, it argues for an approach to questions of agricultural labor that emphasizes the agency, range of experiences, and humanity of the people who participate in the H-2A program. PubDate: 2024-06-05 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.026 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Amaia Sangroniz, Roland Ebel, Mary Stein Pages: 271– - 271– Abstract: Rapid urbanization and peri-urban development are driving land use change across the globe, resulting in lands being converted from agricultural uses to housing development. Sustainable, multifunctional land use in urban and peri-urban areas is needed to balance the requirements of producing food in a way that protects environmental resources and of providing housing to a growing population. An agrihood is a planned development model that incorporates food production within a community to help address goals of nutritious food security while providing social, economic, and environmental benefits. Agrihoods may offer an alternative land use for integrating food production in new housing developments for the sustainable development of rapidly urbanizing cities. A comparative case study, using semi-structured, qualitative interviews with key informants from two cities (Bozeman, Montana, and Longmont, Colorado), highlighted four key barriers to agrihood development in two cities in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S: labor; ownership and governance structures; resource availability; and land use regulation. Concerns for water and land resource availability reflect general barriers to agricultural expansion in the Rocky Mountain region, while the other identified barriers reflect the structural and legal limitations preventing agrihood development and expansion. To reduce these barriers, policy interventions and incentives provided at municipal, state, and federal levels, informed by community advocates in support of local food production, will be essential. PubDate: 2024-07-03 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.031 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Brittany Oakes Pages: 289– - 289– Abstract: California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is the wealthiest agricultural region in the United States, yet it has among the highest rates of concentrated poverty and food insecurity in the nation. Despite a growing movement to change the food system nationwide and around the world, wealth and health disparities linked to the dominant agricultural industry in the SJV are growing. This study draws upon critical philanthropy scholarship to understand the opportunities and limitations of grant funding for the food justice movement. This qualitative research contributes a regional case study of grassroots organizing to change the food system from within a region dominated by industrial agriculture. To understand the challenges and potential for change from the perspectives of SJV grassroots organizers, this research draws on semi-structured interviews with 14 SJV organizers working for food systems change. Interviews were thematically analyzed and complemented with a review of activities across all identified organizations’ websites to provide a snapshot of the food justice movement across the SJV. Particular attention is paid to how funding structures may influence organizing activity and discourse. The findings demonstrate how grantmaking influences the dominant narrative in the SJV and shapes organizing priorities and activities. I argue that philanthropic funding may divert the food justice movement away from directly challenging powerful political and economic interests. This study advances a critical conversation in food movement scholarship to change the conditions under which structural inequality is growing. PubDate: 2024-07-03 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.033 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Johanna Wilkes Pages: 317– - 317– Abstract: Food systems governance regimes have long been spaces of “thick legitimacy” (Montenegro de Wit & Iles, 2016), where embedded norms benefit productivist agricultural practices. Within governance regimes, the science-policy interface and the scientists who occupy this space are integral in today’s public policy processes. Often treated as objective science, technical disciplines have become a powerful source of legitimatizing in decision making. Without the contextualization of lived experience or diverse ways of knowing, these siloed spaces can lead policymakers towards an action bias (e.g., a rush to short-term solutions) that neglects the underlying causes and concerns of our current crises. Current governance arrangements in the science-policy interface demonstrate the bias toward technical science (e.g. economics) and short-term solutions. However, by challenging productivist agriculture norms reformed public policy processes may shift from a space of repression to one of possibility. This reform can happen through investigatiing dominant actor coalitions and identifying tools to reconfigure these power arrangements. Public policy theory, such as the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), helps organize relations within current agricultural policy arenas. The work of practitioners and other disciplines offer tools that can support transformative action by food systems advocates in the pursuit of changing the way public policy is made. In part, understanding how power is organized and who may influence policy processes is critical to change. This reflective essay ends with tools and strategies for those wishing to engage governments in this shift. The proposed tools and strategies focus on how people (e.g. policy champions), processes (e.g. policy leverage points), and partnerships (e.g. allyship) generate ways in which advocates can, and do, engage governments in transformative change. PubDate: 2024-07-03 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.032 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
Authors:Leland Glenna Pages: 363– - 363– Abstract: First paragraph: The government and the press in the United States tend to define corruption narrowly as the misbehavior of individual politicians. They turn a blind eye to systematic corruption such as, for example, the wealthiest people and corporations using campaign contributions to buy political influence. A politician who takes a cash bribe in exchange for a political favor might be deemed corrupt. In contrast, a politician who derails a piece of legislation after receiving a large campaign contribution is operating within the limits of the U.S. campaign laws and is, therefore, not deemed corrupt. . . . PubDate: 2024-07-03 DOI: 10.5304/jafscd.2024.134.030 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 3 (2024)
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