Food systems

Contributing institution: University of California at DavisPreviously hosted as part of Mann Library's Locale collection

The relevance of Regional Political Ecology for agriculture and food systems

The region as a concept continues to hold promise as a way of breaking through the many binaries that often divide political ecology. Operationalizing a regional political ecology approach allows the researcher to generate a large number of insights and conclusions that a more narrow disciplinary (disciplined) focus and non-scalar approach would miss; this is because important biophysical and social processes intersect with each another and work together to produce and/or mediate important outcomes for human and environmental well-being. The article draws on a number of cases to examine what comparison of political ecological research between regions could look like. I argue for a reinvigorated relationship between regional political ecology as an approach and agrifood systems as the object of study, and pose questions that can help shape this endeavor. Keywords: regional political ecology, regional comparisons, network political ecology, agriculture, food systems, agroecolog

"It just goes to kill Ticos": national market regulation and the political ecology of farmers' pesticide use in Costa Rica

This paper addresses pesticide residues on vegetables in developing countries through the specific case of Costa Rica.  Pesticide residues are often very high on vegetables in developing countries, generally considerably higher than in industrialized countries.  Using a political ecology approach, I combine qualitative and quantitative primary data with secondary data to answer two questions.  Why do farmers use pesticides in a manner that results in high levels of residues on vegetables?  And, how do markets with unequal regulatory strength affect farmers' pesticides use, and, by inference, the resulting exposure of different populations fed by different market segments?  While usually attributed to farmer ignorance, I argue that the pesticide residue problem arises from a triad of causes: higher efficacy of more residual and toxic pesticides, combined with many vegetables' biological trait of consecutive harvests, and a volatile vegetable market upon which farm household reproduction depends.  With high input costs and low farm gate prices, farmers in markets with minimal regulation will use more residual and toxic pesticides.  Using the idea of a double standard, I show that lax regulation in the open national market means that farmers are less cautious about residues on national market produce than export produce, and that some export farmers use the open national market as an outlet for their produce when they use highly residual pesticides.  Uneven regulations between North and South are manifested in farmer's management decisions, and lead to the injustice of higher residues in developing country vegetables. Keywords: pesticide residues; pesticide use; uneven regulation; Costa Rica; developing countries; national market vegetables; export vegetables; environmental injustic

Community Supported Agriculture is thriving in the Central Valley

Community Supported Agriculture operations (CSAs) have grown rapidly in recent years. The original model, in which members support a farming operation by paying for produce in advance and receive a share of the farm's produce in return, has been adapted, with much innovation. Since little research existed on CSAs in the Central Valley, we surveyed and carried out in-depth interviews with 54 CSA farmers and two CSA organizers in the Central Valley and surrounding foothills. Here we focus on four aspects of these CSA operations: type, economic viability, farmer characteristics and farm attributes. We found two main CSA models, box and membership/share. Fifty-four percent of the CSAs reported being profitable, and the average gross sales per acre were $9,084. CSA farmers are diverse in political orientation, yet are generally younger, better educated and more likely to be women than the general farming population. CSA farms are relatively small, with a median size of 20 acres; have a median membership of 60 (585 average); use agroecological methods; cultivate agrobiodiversity; and utilize growing practices that generally meet or exceed National Organic Program standards

Against the odds: Network and institutional pathways enabling agricultural diversification

Farming systems that support locally diverse agricultural production and high levels of biodiversity are in rapid decline, despite evidence of their benefits for climate, environmental health, and food security. Yet, agricultural policies, financial incentives, and market concentration increasingly constrain the viability of diversified farming systems. Here, we present a conceptual framework to identify novel processes that promote the emergence and sustainability of diversified farming systems, using three real-world examples where farming communities have found pathways to diversification despite major structural constraints. By applying our framework to analyze these bright spots in the United States, Brazil, and Malawi, we identify two distinct pathways—network and institutional—to diversification. These pathways emerge through alignment of factors related to social and ecological structure (policies, institutions, and environmental conditions) and agency (values, collective action, and management decisions). We find that, when network and institutional pathways operate in tandem, the potential to scale up diversification across farms and landscapes increases substantially

Food systems lab manual

Contributing institution: University of California at DavisPreviously hosted as part of Mann Library's Locale collection