from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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Agrihoods are planned developments that incorporate food production in a community to help address goals of nutritious food security while providing social, economic, and environmental benefits. Agrihoods also offer an alternative land use for integrating food production in new housing developments for the sustainable development of rapidly urbanizing cities. In a new JAFSCD article, Barriers and opportunities to agrihood development in growing cities of the Rocky Mountain region: A comparative case study, authors Amaia Sangroniz, M.S., Roland Ebel, Ph.D., and Mary Stein, M.S., present initial findings from a double exploratory comparative case study on the barriers and opportunities for agrihood development in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S.
KEY FINDINGS
Observed barriers to agrihood developments in the Rocky Mountain region include: - resource availability, specifically land and water;
- ill-defined farmland ownership and management structure;
- labor; and
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city land use codes and zoning laws.
Observed opportunities to agrihood developments in the Rocky Mountain region include: - land access for beginning farmers;
- diversity in farm ownership and management structures;
- direct to consumer sales for farmers; and
- land use codes can be changed and adapted to the needs of a community.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH - Barriers preventing agrihoods from initially developing, such as city land use codes and zoning laws, will need to be addressed by city planners and municipal government officials.
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Given that the extent of municipal power is shaped by citizen engagement and advocacy, community members vocalizing support for local food production will be crucial for reducing the structural and legal barriers to entry.
- Barriers to agrihood expansion such as land and water availability will require coordinated policy action across local, county, state, and federal governments.
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Private-sector developers typically respond to the market demand of a given city; therefore, it is unlikely that individual developers will drive a transition to agrihoods and other sustainable development models unless there are greater government incentives.
- Policy interventions and incentives provided at municipal, state, and federal levels, informed by community advocates in support of local food production, will be essential.
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Agrihoods incorporate food production as an integral part of housing development to help address goals of nutritious food security while providing social, economic, and environmental benefits. How can local communities further their own sustainability goals by developing agrihoods? A case study of two cities in the Rocky Mountain region provides real-life suggestions. #agrihood #RockyMountains #foodsecurity #sustainability #casestudy Read the @JAFSCD peer-reviewed article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.031
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Photo above: Monteverde farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing in action. Photo provided by Mary Little.
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Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship in Agroecology and Biodiversity at the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
We are seeking candidates with a strong natural science background who are doing research at this intersection, including identifying how agrobiodiversity across scales can support wild species or how to manage biodiversity within agroecosystems to increase their social and ecological sustainability. The postdoc will be housed at SEAS but will be part of the Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, a universitywide initiative of faculty, students, and staff working toward a sustainable and just food system, locally and globally. After one or two years of the postdoc, the position can be turned into a tenure-track position. See the University of Michigan employment site for details.
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| Postdoctoral Fellow with Hunger Solutions Institute
Hunger Solutions Institute (HSI) in the College of Human Sciences seeks a Postdoctoral Fellow to conduct research on SNAP nutrition incentive programs. The fellow will process large datasets for reporting and research purposes and conduct independent research on how households spend SNAP nutrition incentives. Experience working with large, complex datasets — such as scanner data or other point-of-sale data — is desired.
See the Auburn University employment site for details. |
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California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is the wealthiest agricultural region in the U.S., and 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. Addressing issues in the food system is inextricably bound with changing economic, social, and political structures. However, the extent to which grassroots organizing around food is politicized varies, and working within the context of grant-funding structures may divert organizing away from effecting systems change.
In this new JAFSCD article, Grassroots organizing for food systems change in the San Joaquin Valley, California, Brittany Oakes presents a regional case study bridging critical food studies and critical philanthropy scholarship to explore the role of philanthropy in the food justice movement. The author also identifies opportunities and barriers for change from the perspectives of SJV grassroots organizers. This study helps fill a gap in the literature by focusing on the food justice movement in a rural region. Oakes argues that through applying a critical philanthropy lens, we can better understand the conditions under which the food justice movement operates — and more effectively address structural inequality.
KEY FINDINGS - While grassroots organizers had a sharp analysis of the root causes of the issues they were facing in the SJV, most organizing activities did not target these root causes.
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Organizing activity was heavily influenced by the funding available, although there was a strong desire by many organizers for the work to be community-driven.
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Findings correspond with Kohl-Arenas’s (2015) findings that funders “broker consensus” with the neoliberal status quo by channeling and constraining grassroots organizing away from explicitly challenging and addressing the root causes of the problems that SJV communities face.[1]
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Yet some organizers were seeking ways to contest this through working with other organizations and through educating and influencing funders.
- From the perspectives of many SJV organizers, the expectations and governance of funders must change to create systemic change.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS -
Organizations might try approaching funders with a detailed list of projects (including anticipated costs) based on residents’ priorities.
- Organizations might ask funders what other organizations and projects they are funding and request support to meet and learn from each other.
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Organizations within a region could collaborate to create a shared document explaining their aims and priorities, and the gaps and challenges collectively identified, to educate funders about the need in the region.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUNDERS - Funders could proactively shift grantmaking policies to better support grassroots organizations.
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Funders could make more sustained core funding available and make the funding process less administratively cumbersome.
- Funders could move toward a participatory grantmaking model, in which communities shape funding allocation and governance, which can better align resource distribution with community priorities.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH -
Further study into the food justice movement in other rural regions in the U.S. could allow for a comparative analysis to understand the barriers and opportunities for change in rural areas.
- Follow-up research might explore whether philanthropic trends in the SJV are changing in response to the needs expressed by organizers.
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Additional study of how food justice organizations are working to change the same political and economic system upon which they rely would also offer greater insight into how organizers, funders, and allies might challenge the dominant narrative and build a strong movement for structural change.
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Grant funding can have a depoliticizing effect. How can #grassroots organizations work for systems change while they are reliant on grant funding? A new @JAFSCD case study explores this from the perspective of grassroots organizers for food justice in California’s San Joaquin Valley—a rural region dominated by industrial agriculture. #foodjustice #nonprofitindustrialcomplex Read the @JAFSCD commentary for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.033
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Reference: Kohl-Arenas, E. (2015). The self-help myth: Towards a theory of philanthropy as consensus broker. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 74(4), 796–825. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12114
Photo above: Mural in Exeter, California, by Steven Louis Ball, 2008. Photo by author. |
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Review of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, by Austin Frerick; review by Leland Glenna (The Pennsylvania State U)
From the review: "Frerick’s Barons is a breath of fresh air because it repeatedly calls out the corruption in the U.S. agriculture and food system and the U.S. political system. . . . Despite its establishment as a nation opposed to corporate control, the U.S. . . . has experienced periods of rising corporate monopolies, followed by government regulations to foster more competition, which have then been followed again by more monopolies. . . ."
Read the full review for free! |
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