21 pages, Online via UI Library electronic subscription, Research identifies farmer doubts about fertilizer quality and reveals that farmer beliefs are inconsistent with reality. However, many fertilizers have degraded appearance.
Online from periodical., Report about pressure facing Cornell University officials by students and faculty over HCN's "Land-grab universities" investigation. Includes an acknowledgment by a University of California official that "...we must acknowledge how our history, including the Morrill Land Grant Act, impacts indigenous people. Now more than ever we, as a university, must take immediate action to acknowledge past wrongs, build trusting and respectful relationships, and accelerate change and justice for our Native Nations and Tribal communities."
Online from periodical., "Nick Tilsen was arrested for protesting President Trump at Mount Rushmore. Now, his legal troubles are part of a legacy. ... Long revered by many Indigenous peoples, the Black Hills are now also at the center of NDN Collectives LandBack campaign."
12 pages, via Online Journal, Current, prevalent models of the food system, including complex-adaptive systems theories and commodity-as-relation thinking, have usefully analyzed the food system in terms of its elements and relationships, confronting persistent questions about a system’s identity and leverage points for change. Here, inspired by Heldke’s (Monist 101:247–260, 2018) analysis, we argue for another approach to the “system-ness” of food that carries those key questions forward. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, we propose a model of the food system defined by the relational process of feeding itself; that is, the food system is made of feeding and only feeding, and system structures are produced by the coupling of that process to its various contexts. We argue that this approach moves us away from understandings of the food system that take structures and relations as given, and sees them instead as contingent, thereby helping to identify leverage points for food system change. The new approach we describe also prompts us as critical agrifood scholars to be constantly reflexive about how our analyses are shaped by our own assumptions and subjectivities.
15 pages, via Online journal, Critical food scholars have argued that activists’ political ideologies and environmental values are important influences on their food justice projects. However, this body of work has given little attention to religion and spirituality even though religious studies scholars maintain that religious values affect environmental and social action. Bringing together these perspectives considers the way religious values and meaning making intersect with actions toward food justice outside of traditionally religious spaces. This paper draws on qualitative research, including a dozen interviews and 11 months of participant observation, at Franklinton Farms, a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio. I demonstrate that Franklinton Farms team members reference diverse religious values and practices when explaining the meaning and significance of their farming. In addition, I argue that they renegotiate their religious values in light of the injustices they see in the food system. By examining religion and spirituality within a secular food space, this paper sheds light on an underexplored influence on whether and how alternative food spaces realize food justice.
Online from publisher. 2 pages., Announces a new series of stickers placed on individual bananas. These stickers feature a combination of vitamins and nutrients found in Chiquita bananas.
Online from publication. 2 pages., Report on retail grocers using retail display sleeves to capture the attention of shoppers seeking a suitable side dish for their prepared, at-home meals. Cited as specially effective for secondary display at the meat counter or in the seafood department. "MountainKing's display sleeves present images of various meal possibilities with the company's different potato varieties."
Online from publication. 2 pages., Report about the experience of NAFB member Ben Nuelle in performing as pianist at two occasions in the White House during the recent Christmas season.
Online from publication. 3 pages., Article features experiences and perspectives of crime novel writer Jeff Gould, a former reporter for the Linder Farm Network in Minnesota.
Online from publisher. 12 pages., Set of photographs taken by Jim Patrico, 2020 AAEA Photo of the Year winner. "...a superb example of visual storytelling. There isn't a weak photo in the bunch."
