The region as a concept continues to hold promise as a way of breaking through the many binaries ... more 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.
Global Environmental Change-human and Policy Dimensions, Oct 1, 2008
Almost 30 years after its introduction, the "circle of poison" remains a common conceptualization... more Almost 30 years after its introduction, the "circle of poison" remains a common conceptualization of the global pesticide complex among scholars and especially in popular understanding. The circle of poison describes a situation in which pesticides banned in industrialized countries continue to be manufactured there and exported to developing countries, are then used in developing countries almost entirely on export crops, and return to industrialized countries as pesticide residues on food. Using secondary data and a case study of pesticide use in Costa Rica, I review the applicability of the circle of poison conceptualization to the current global pesticide complex. I argue that (1) the circle of poison is no longer accurate due to important global changes in pesticide regulation, production, trade, sales, and use driven by a number of dynamic economic, social, and ecological processes; (2) using industrialized countries' pesticide regulations as proxies for safety should be replaced by multi-characteristic risk assessments; and (3) Wright's (1986) circle of poison revision should be updated because of export farmers' adoption of newer classes of pesticides. The paper concludes by offering a new characterization of the global pesticide complex vis-à-vis pesticide use in developing countries: pesticide divergence by market orientation.
Farm-to-bar and bean-to-bar chocolate in Hawai'i is a growing economic sector. This chapter inves... more Farm-to-bar and bean-to-bar chocolate in Hawai'i is a growing economic sector. This chapter investigates this phenomenon through social science fieldwork and a panel tasting, with a focus on Kaua'i and the Big Island. There are many promising developments for cacao growing and chocolate making on these islands, but a substantial minority of chocolate makers face quality problems. By craft chocolate standards, Hawaiian chocolate makers range from very high to very low quality. Cacao/chocolate agritourism provides an important venue for both revenue generation and quality feedback loops. Unlike in most cacao-producing regions, governance of cacao and chocolate quality in Hawai'i is largely a bottom-up endeavor, and thereby offers interesting possibilities in the governance of quality, which the conclusion explores.
In this paper I review recent political ecological scholarship on first world agrifood systems an... more In this paper I review recent political ecological scholarship on first world agrifood systems and advocate for further development of the field. To do so, I first briefly examine the themes of first world political ecology and argue that first world political ecology of food systems is underdeveloped relative to other themes because of the existence of agrarian political economy, a strongly allied field. This requires interrogating and teasing apart the relationship between political ecology and agrarian political economy. I then turn to review the current "political ecology of first world food systems" literature, which is both in line with established political ecological contoursexamining global-local connections, conservation and degradation, and the utility of ecological metrics-but also recently extending analysis to alternative food networks (AFNs) and to the bodyconsumption nexus. In the conclusion I outline an agenda for political ecological research praxis focused on: increased interdisciplinary work with biophysical and technical scientists; the spatial, social, economic margins; the "invisible middle" of the food industry and the "end" of the food system in human waste and the necessity of mending the metabolic rift; and the need for increased societal engagement by political ecologists.
Understanding the factors that influence the adoption of synthetic pesticides has to date oversha... more Understanding the factors that influence the adoption of synthetic pesticides has to date overshadowed explanations of variation in pesticide intensity. I conducted a survey of vegetable farmers in Northern Cartago and the Ujarrás Valley, Costa Rica, in 2003-04 with the goal of explaining differences in pesticide intensity with reference to socioeconomic, political economic, and agroecological characteristics and relationships. Using ordinary least squares regression models, this paper explores the factors that influence pesticide use intensity in potato and squash production. Results indicate that many variables strongly influence pesticide intensity, including variables related to the farmer, farm household, political economic relationships, the biophysical environment, and agroecological relationships. Conclusions discuss the need for an integrated approach to adequately understand pesticide intensity and potential policy interventions including agroecological education and extension, increased enforcement of pesticide residue limits in the national market, and land reform to allow for longer fallow periods.
Press. obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. The resulting environmental, societal, ... more Press. obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. The resulting environmental, societal, and human damage requires rejecting the idea of Costa Rican agrifood exceptionalism, and rethinking Costa Rica's development model. Framework Following a political ecological approach, I emphasize sustainability and equity in the agrifood system (Galt 2013; Moragues-Faus and Marsden 2017), asking for whom agrarian capitalism works. I operationalize equity by engaging "the agrarian question" about the fate of smallholder agriculture (Banaji 1980). Key concepts and theories from agrarian political economy animate this analysis. I use agricultural census data to examine the effects of neoliberalism on farm structure, i.e., the proportion of farms of various sizes and the concentration of production. For the question of agricultural sustainability, I focus on ecological destruction and the resulting transfers of wealth, using indicators of pesticide intensity and land use change. Dietary sustainability can be approached in various ways. I assume that whole-food, plant-based diets are healthier for the planet-from greenhouse gas emissions to localized pollution (Carlsson-Kanyama 1998; Eshel and Martin 2006)-and for individuals, as they prevent cancer, heart disease, and many other noncommunicable diseases (Greger 2015). Thus, I use food availability data to analyze dietary sustainability by focusing on the proportion of Tico diets composed of key elements of the SAD: animal products, sugars, and vegetable oils. In terms of equity, I engage briefly with literature on neoliberalism and public health, yet consumption by socioeconomic class is outside of this chapter's scope (see Dowd-Uribe and Raser, this volume). Methods and Data This chapter relies on two secondary data sources. The first is the Costa Rican Censuses of
The global pesticide complex has transformed over the past two decades, but social science resear... more The global pesticide complex has transformed over the past two decades, but social science research has not kept pace. The rise of an enormous generics sector, shifts in geographies of pesticide production, and dynamics of agrarian change have led to more pesticide use, expanding to farm systems that hitherto used few such inputs. Declining effectiveness due to pesticide resistance and anemic institutional support for non-chemical alternatives also have driven intensification in conventional systems. As an inter-disciplinary network of pesticide scholars, we seek to renew the social science research agenda on pesticides to better understand this suite of contemporary changes. To identify research priorities, challenges, and opportunities, we develop the pesticide complex as a heuristic device to highlight the reciprocal and iterative interactions among agricultural practice, the agrochemical industry, civil society-shaped regulatory actions, and contested knowledge of toxicity. Ulti...
Substantial evidence has shown that involvement in peer-to-peer farming networks influences wheth... more Substantial evidence has shown that involvement in peer-to-peer farming networks influences whether a farmer decides to try a new practice. Formally organized farmer networks are emerging as a unique entity that blend the benefits of decentralized exchange of farmer knowledge within the structure of an organization providing a variety of sources of information and forms of engagement. We define formal farmer networks as farmer networks with a distinct membership and organizational structure, leadership that includes farmers, and an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. This study complements existing ethnographic research on the benefits of organized farmer networking by examining farmers in one longstanding formal farmer network, Practical Farmers of Iowa. Using a nested, mixed-method research design, we analyzed survey and interview data to understand how participation and forms of engagement in the network are associated with the adoption of conservation practices. Responses from 67...
Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fields of inquiry and action have been important academic... more Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fields of inquiry and action have been important academic frontiers in recent years. The field of agroecology is a prime example of transdisciplinarity. With roots in the biophysical sciences, social sciences, and peasant movements, publications in agroecology have been growing rapidly in recent decades. Here we explain a method—the script-expert adaptive classification (SEAC) method—that allows us to examine the engagements between agroecology and the social sciences by identifying publications within the agroecological literature that engage with social science at various levels. Using the term “agroecology” and its iterations, we gathered a corpus of agroecology literature up to and including 2019 with 12,398 unique publications from five publication databases—Scopus, Web of Science, Agricola, CAB Direct, and EconLit. Using the SEAC method we then classified each publication as engaged, partially engaged, and not engaged with social science...
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant shocks to U.S. food systems at multiple scales. While di... more The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant shocks to U.S. food systems at multiple scales. While disturbances to long-distance supply chains received substantial attention in national media, local supply chains experienced mixed impacts. As broad closures of schools, restaurants, and other businesses sourcing from local farmers removed key marketing channels for many direct market farmers, consumer interest in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), farmers markets, and on-farm and online direct farm sales increased. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we examine the resilience and vulnerability of farmers during the March 2020 through December 2020 period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on California farmers and ranchers engaged in direct market sales. METHODS: Through a widely disseminated survey, we collected responses from 364 farmers and used these data to answer the following questions about direct market farmers in California: 1) What were direct market farmers' experiences of the pandemic from March 2020 through December 2020? 2) Which factors (e.g., relationships, institutions, market channels) did farmers report enhanced their resilience during the pandemic? 3) Which
Contributing institution: University of California at DavisPreviously hosted as part of Mann Libr... more Contributing institution: University of California at DavisPreviously hosted as part of Mann Library's Locale collection
Former CSA members say the share not meeting their needs is a top reason for leaving. However, CS... more Former CSA members say the share not meeting their needs is a top reason for leaving. However, CSA share customization has no effect on CSAs' retention rates. Together these findings are the customization paradox, to be investigated further. "CSA people" are those willing and able to subject themselves to CSA's requirements. CSA people can be cultivated, but structural processes are eroding the population.
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Papers by Ryan Galt