Digital Commons Network^™

Advancing Agroecological Agroforestry: A Vermont Participatory Storytelling And Story Mapping Project, Sydney Blume

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

Agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees into agricultural landscapes. Advancing agroforestry has the potential to support just food system transition, but it must take direction from traditional approaches (culturally-embedded, millennia-old agroforestry practices in forest ecosystems) and agroecology (the movement, science, and practice for just and sustainable food and agricultural systems). An agroecological approach to agroforestry is essential to avoid agroforestry replicating the logics and harms of industrial agriculture and to encourage learning from traditional agroforestry practices, and likewise, traditional approaches to agroforestry can support a transformative agroecological transition through redesign of agroecosystems and shifting perspectives and ethics. This paper …

Reclaiming Our Time: We Do It For The Culture, Angela E. Fillingim, Nini Hayes

The Vermont Connection

Using narrative methodology with a lens of critical race feminism, in self-reflexive ways we draw on our experiences as a Latina and Black-Pinay tenure-track faculty who have dealt with spirit murdering and labored in community to resist. We used feminist theories to understand the roots of our friendship and commitment to resistance. Our persistent encounters with spirit murdering were tied to, what we call, “time-theft.” Time-theft describes an embodied consequence of spirit murdering which deeply affects our emotional, mental, and physical well-being. We offer insights into how we resisted “time-theft conquistadors” and other means the institution tried to steal from …

Going To A Psychiatric Hospital Saved My Life And My Student Affairs Career, Jo Wilson

The Vermont Connection

The ongoing mental health crisis for college students has been a notable topic in recent years and while a necessary conversation, this often overlooks an underlying mental health crisis for higher education staff and the connection between both crises. As a former mentally ill graduate student and now (still) mentally ill student affairs practitioner, the connection is clear and a conversation now is critical. Using my personal narrative as a current practitioner, self authorship, and disability theory intersections, I am using this piece as a counternarrative and interruption to traditional student and staff development. Lastly, I seek to encourage a …

How To Analyze Parental Conversation Online: A Computational Stack For Studying Vaccine Hesitancy., Carter Willets Ward

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Despite national and international organizations such as the CDC and WHO recognizing the value of vaccines and their importance in addressing public health concerns, there has been a decline in coverage for even the most established vaccines over the past three years. The global COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to this decline via decreases in medical resource accessibility and an increase in vaccine hesitancy. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO had recognized vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to public health. In the present work, we introduce a background account of (1) vaccine hesitancy and (2) anti-vax activism, …

Community Resilience In Vermont After The 2023 Flooding Event, Alex Poniz

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Between July 10th-11th 2023 Vermont experienced catastrophic flooding after receiving prolonged heavy rainfall of up to 9” over 48 hrs. Damage from the 2023 event rivals the historic destruction of Hurricane Irene in 2011 and is exceeded only by the Great Vermont Flood of 1927, an event predating modern flood controls. We collected oral histories from Vermonters to better understand their lived experience of the flood and its impacts, and identifed common themes related to community and individual resilience.

Food Resilience Toolkit, Neishaly Serrano-Cortés, Claire Whitehouse, David Conner Ph.D., Robinson Rodríguez-Pérez Phd, Naomi M. Cunningham, Travis Reynolds Ph.D., Kerry Daigle, Valery Desravins, Jane Kolodinsky Ph.D.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This toolkit is intended to help community leaders and technical support professionals assess and build food system resilience in their regions. The toolkit is available in English and Spanish and in written and video format. In the introduction, we explore the concept of resilience and the Community Capitals framework and suggest possible indicators of food system resilience. In Chapter 2, we outline four tools for assessing community advantages and challenges and developing plans to address them. These tools are: asset mapping, focus groups, nominal groups, and strategic planning. While many research techniques can be deployed for resilience building, we have …

A 2022 Assessment Of Food Security And Health Outcomes During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Ashley C. Mccarthy, Farryl Bertmann, Emily H. Belarmino, Sam Bliss, Jennifer Laurent, Jonathan Malacarne, Scott Merrill, Rachel E. Schattman, Kathryn Yerxa, Meredith T. Niles

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

We conducted a Northern New England survey to understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security, food access, home food production, health behaviors, and health outcomes. The surveys were conducted in the spring of 2022 (April-May) with a total of 1,013 adults (598 in Maine and 415 in Vermont) responding to the survey. Key findings include:1. The prevalence of food insecurity remains similarly high to early points in the pandemic, likely driven by inflation and food prices, and long-term impacts from the pandemic. 2. The majority (62%) indicated the recent rise in food prices affected their food purchasing, …

Results Of The 2022 Vermont Farmer Conservation & Payment For Ecosystem Services Survey. Vermont Payment For Ecosystem Services Technical Research Report #3a, Alissa C. White

Reports and Policy Briefs

This survey was commissioned by the Vermont Soil Health and Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group (VT PES Working Group) to gather farmer input on the development of payment for ecosystem services (PES) in Vermont for agriculture. In particular, the survey was intended to help set appropriate levels of compensation for participation in a soil health PES program, although additional information was gathered in the survey to inform the development of a new incentive program. The VT PES Working Group has explored the potential for a performance-based soil health PES program that would compensate farmers on the basis of environmental …

Social Justice And The Us Food System: A Critical Course On The Human Dimensions Of Food, Ali Brooks

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

Our world is made up of overlapping political, environmental, and economic spheres that engender social injustice and inequality. Though separate societal issues can seem divergent and unconnected, they are all linked together by one universal necessity: food. Because everyone eats, everyone is connected to—and dependent on—food and the systems that govern it. However, the impacts of our industrial food system are not felt equally among people who hold different positions of power within it.

Today’s industrial food complex operates on the capitalist principle of profit accumulation through exploitation, commodification, and extraction. This set of relations is not defined by scale …

Seeds Of Resilience: Learning From Covid-19 To Strengthen Seed Systems In Vermont, Ali Brooks, Carina V. Isbell, Daniel Tobin Ph.D., Travis Reynolds Ph.D., Eric Bishop Von Wettberg Ph.D., David Conner Ph.D., Evie Wolfe

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Seeds are central to crop-based production systems, yet in the United States seeds have been largely overlooked in both research and local and regional food systems initiatives. This report seeks to address the gap in seed-related research by assessing current strengths and vulnerabilities of Vermont’s seed systems. In particular, the findings presented in this report illuminate how seed systems can maintain function in the face of external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and how we can apply the lessons learned toward building resilience for an uncertain future due to factors such as climate change. Despite the turmoil caused by …

Understanding Differences In School District’S Identification Rates For Children Receiving Special Education With An Emotional Disturbance: A Case Study In Vermont, Maria-Elena Graffeo Horton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Nationally, there is a mounting interest in better understanding students identified as having an emotional disturbance. Since 2005, clinical diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues in children has trended upward. Nationally, over that same timeframe, the number of students who qualify for special education due to an emotional disturbance (ED) has stayed relatively level while the percentage has been increasing in Vermont. Despite a greater awareness about how various circumstances and events, such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect children’s mental health, emotional disturbance is still not well understood.

The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting …

Climate Adaptive Forest Management In The Northeastern Us: Social And Ecological Motivations, Barriers, And Responses Of Rural And Urban Foresters, Teresa Mcgann

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This project examines how foresters in a diversity of professional contexts perceive and respond to global change in the northeastern United States, with the goal of supporting foresters in broadening and deepening their use of climate adaptive strategies. Based on qualitative analysis of 32 in-depth semi-structured interviews with urban and rural foresters (n = 15 and n = 17, respectively) across New England and New York, a summary is presented of the i) important environmental drivers of adaptation; ii) commonly employed adaptive practices; iii) significant barriers to adaptation; and iv) approaches to working through named barriers. According to the motivations, …

Implementation Lgbtq+ Health Education Through Case-Based Learning, Bradley A. Blansky

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Primary care graduate medical education programs often do not provide adequate training regarding the healthcare needs of the LGBTQ+ population. The purpose of this community project was to develop a case-based teaching session to help provide family medicine residents a basic understanding of LGBTQ+ healthcare. This didactic session was found to be an engaging and effective method of teaching physicians about LGBTQ+ health. Additional work is needed to further train physicians and other healthcare professionals about the challenges faced by marginalized populations in our healthcare system.

Food Insecurity Prevalence Across Diverse Sites During Covid-19: A Year Of Comprehensive Data, Meredith T. Niles, Francesco Acciai, Deanne Allegro, Alyssa Beavers, Emily H. Belarmino, Farryl Bertmann, Erin Biehl, Jessica Bishop-Royse, Brianna Bradley, Barrett P. Brenton, James Buszkiewicz, Brittney N. Cavaliere, Young Cho, Eric Clark, Lauren Clay, Kathryn Coakley, Jeanne Coffin-Schmitt, Sarah M. Collier, Casey Coombs, Marcelle Dougan, Anne Dressel, Adam Drewnowski, Tom Evans, Beth Feingold, Kathryn J. Fiorella, Katie Funderburk, Preety Gadhoke, Diana Gonzales-Pacheco, Amelia Greiner Safi, Sen Gu, Karla Hanson, Amy Harley, Kaitlyn Harper, Alan Ismach, Anna L. Josephson, Linnea Laestadius, Heidi Leblanc, Laura R. Lewis, Michelle Litton, Katie S. Martin, John Mazzeo, Scott Merrill, Roni Neff, Esther Nguyen, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, Abigail Orbe, Jennifer J. Otten, Sondra Parmer, Salome Pemberton, Giselle Pignotti, Zain Al Abdeen Qusair, Victoria Rivkina, Joelle Robinson, Stephanie Rogus, Chelsea M. Rose, Saloumeh Sadeghzadeh, Mateja R. Savoie-Roskos, Rachel Schattman, Brinda Sivaramakrishnan, Mckenna Voorhees, Kate Yerxa, Rachel Zack

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Key Findings

1. NFACT includes 18 study sites in 15 states as well as a national poll, collectively representing a sample size of more than 26,000 people. Some sites have implemented multiple survey rounds, here we report results from 22 separate surveys conducted during the year since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
2. 18 out of 19 surveys in 14 sites with data for before and since the pandemic began found an increase in food insecurity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to before the pandemic.
3. In nearly all surveys (18/19) that measured food insecurity both before …

Emulating Agricultural Disease Management: Comparing Risk Preferences Between Industry Professionals And Online Participants Using Experimental Gaming Simulations And Paired Lottery Choice Surveys, Eric M. Clark, Scott C. Merrill, Luke Trinity, Gabriela Bucini, Nicholas Cheney, Ollin Langle-Chimal, Trisha Shrum, Christopher Koliba, Asim Zia, Julia M. Smith

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Mitigating the spread of disease is crucial for the well-being of agricultural production systems. Implementing biosecurity disease prevention measures can be expensive, so producers must balance the costs of biosecurity investments with the expected benefits of reducing the risk of infections. To investigate the risk associated with this decision making process, we developed an online experimental game that simulates biosecurity investment allocation of a pork production facility during an outbreak. Participants are presented with several scenarios that vary the visibility of the disease status and biosecurity protection implemented at neighboring facilities. Certain rounds allowed participants to spend resources to reduce …

Home Food Production And Food Security Since The Covid-19 Pandemic, Meredith T. Niles, Mattie Alpaugh, Farryl Bertmann, Emily H. Belarmino, Sam Bliss, Jennifer Laurent, Jonathan Malacarne, Ashley Mccarthy, Scott Merrill, Rachel E. Schattman, Kathryn Yerxa

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

We conducted a Northern New England survey to understand the initial and continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security, food access, and home food production (HFP) (i.e. gardening, fishing, harvesting shellfish, foraging, hunting, trapping, raising animals for meat, dairy, or eggs, and food preservation such as canning, drying or freezing). The surveys were conducted in the Spring and Summer of 2021 (March – June). The survey was conducted in Maine (n = 562) and Vermont (n = 426). The cohort of respondents was representative of racial and ethnic identities of Vermont and Maine state populations. The data presented …

How And Why Do People Value Nature? An Examination Of Nonmaterial Aspects Of Human-Nature Interactions., Tatiana Marquina

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Nonmaterial benefits from nature, often labeled as cultural ecosystem services, represent a core dimension of human well-being. Yet despite their importance, these benefits and associated values remain overlooked in environmental assessments and decisions.

This dissertation applies insights from multiple disciplines to document nonmaterial dimensions of human-nature interactions across geographic contexts and user groups. As nonmaterial benefits can be hard to elicit and measure, this work uses multiple existing data collection methods and tests a novel data collection tool. First, I use a qualitative study design to explore values and stewardship practices associated with urban foraging in New York City, NY. …

Climate Impacts Associated With Reduced Diet Diversity In Children Across Nineteen Countries, Meredith T. Niles, Benjamin F. Emery, Serge Wiltshire, Molly E. Brown, Brendan Fisher, Taylor H. Ricketts

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

It is widely anticipated that climate change will negatively affect both food security and diet diversity. Diet diversity is especially critical for children as it correlates with macro and micronutrient intake important for child development. Despite these anticipated links, little empirical evidence has demonstrated a relationship between diet diversity and climate change, especially across large datasets spanning multiple global regions and with more recent climate data. Here we use survey data from 19 countries and more than 107 000 children, coupled with 30 years of precipitation and temperature data, to explore the relationship of climate to child diet diversity while …

An International Pilot Study Of Volunteer Stream Monitoring Groups: The Role Of Place Attachment In Volunteer Motivations, Rachel Pierson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Engaging the public in scientific research through volunteer monitoring (a form of community science) has potential to expand knowledge of conditions and to improve collaborative decision-making. Many studies have sought to understand motivations for participation and potential resulting actions or behaviors that benefit the environment. Place-based connections have been demonstrated to lead people to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors. However, few studies have considered possible differences in motivations across countries or the role place attachment may play as a driver of initial or sustained participation.

The aim of this research was to determine the extent to which place attachment influences people’s …

Enhancing Ecosystem Services And Climate Resilience In Agriculture: A Transdisciplinary Approach, Alissa White

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A complex of social, economic and environmental factors influences agricultural management in the northeastern US. Farmers often balance goals of farm viability, environmental stewardship, and resilience to climate change, while also under public pressure to enhance the provisioning of ecosystem services from their landscapes. Changes in farm management have been identified as cost-effective ways to address both local water quality issues, and global anthropogenic influences on greenhouse gas concentrations. Individual decision-making on the part of farmers that determines the fate of ecosystem service provisioning from agroecosystems, placing increasing importance on understanding how policy, outreach and research can support farmers’ capacity …

“The Soul Is Symphonic”: Lessons On Practicing Music As Ecological Philosophy From Hildegard Of Bingen, Daniel Cottle

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis I seek to understand how music may be practiced as an embodied form of ecological philosophy; that is, how it might help us attain ecological wisdom and lead sustainable lives. In the first chapter, I explore the concept of askesis: the spiritual exercises by which ancient Greek and Roman thinkers practiced philosophy as a way of life. I introduce a simple model for the practice of askesis which is taken from accounts of ancient Stoic spiritual exercise. I also consider evidence for art as a form of askesis. In the second chapter, I describe the influence of …

Implications Of Attitudes On Environmental Challenges: Understanding The Human Dimensions Of Invasive Insects In New England Landowners, Ariana Margarita Cano Gomez

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Many scientists argue that the threat of invasive insects is one of the most pressingenvironmental issues of our time. Decades of research quantify the threat and risk invasive species pose to the New England Forest, yet there is little research combining both the ecological impacts of invasive insects and human attitudes of the potential threats they pose. This dissertation aims to understand the current attitude of landowners in the New England region that are experiencing the threat of hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, or Asian longhorned beetle. This dissertation includes three different studies focusing on social psychology frameworks and …

Black Resilience And Empowerment Through Self-Affirming Self-Care At Predominately White Institutions Of Higher Education, Vicki L. Garrison

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The institution of higher education, especially predominately white institutions of higher education (PWIHE), perpetuates the subjugation of Black people through the existence of traditional societal ideologies, values, and practices that function with and reinforce racism as the norm. Limited research exists about self-care strategies that assist Black students with navigating PWIHE. The purpose of this study is to explore strategies of self-care that can assist Black students to more healthily and successfully navigate a PWIHE. This qualitative narrative study illuminates Black experiences, empowers Black voices, and validates Black truth while extracting and capitalizing on Black agency to generate knowledge for …

Concentrando En Las Voces Afro-Latinx: The Validation And Uplifting Of Afro-Latinx Students In Higher Education, Denis Garcia Reyes

The Vermont Connection

In an effort to center the voices of Afro-Latinx college students and their Blackness, I am centering their excellence and persistence in higher education spaces. Through using the theoretical frameworks of self-authorship and “Blackimiento”, and within a critical and cultural lens, I implore that the validation and uplifting of these students is a priority for all student affairs professionals who are looking to create inclusive environments where students are encouraged to have their identities manifest holistically during their college process.

Move: We Don't Need To Convince You That Our Oppression Is Real, Dr Frederick V. Engram Jr

The Vermont Connection

This article will address the lived experiences of Black people (faculty, staff, students, student-athletes) who navigate academia in majority white spaces. Black people have known throughout time that the Black voice is not valued. We constantly find ourselves embattled in our personal lives, at work, and on social media. The constant and incessant need for whiteness to tell us how we should feel, respond, and react to acts of white supremacy, white manning, sexism, and misogynoir are triggering. The system of higher education is a constant reminder that academia exists comfortably in a bubble. A bubble that unless you are …

Tailored Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity (Sogi) Education: Assessing Network Needs Through A Survey Of Knowledge And Attitudes, Luke M. Higgins

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Erratum: Upcyclingphosphorus Recovered From Anaerobically Digesteddairy Manure To Support Production Of Vegetables And Flowers (Sustainability 2020, 12, 1139), Katherine K. Porterfield, Robert Joblin, Deborah A. Neher, Michael Curtis, Steve Dvorak, Donna M. Rizzo, Joshua W. Faulkner, Eric D. Roy

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The authors would like to make the following correction for the published paper [1]. The changes are as follows: (1) Replacing Figure 4 (Figure presented).

The Shocklet Transform: A Decomposition Method For The Identification Of Local, Mechanism-Driven Dynamics In Sociotechnical Time Series, David Rushing Dewhurst, Thayer Alshaabi, Dilan Kiley, Michael V. Arnold, Joshua R. Minot, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

We introduce a qualitative, shape-based, timescale-independent time-domain transform used to extract local dynamics from sociotechnical time series—termed the Discrete Shocklet Transform (DST)—and an associated similarity search routine, the Shocklet Transform And Ranking (STAR) algorithm, that indicates time windows during which panels of time series display qualitatively-similar anomalous behavior. After distinguishing our algorithms from other methods used in anomaly detection and time series similarity search, such as the matrix profile, seasonal-hybrid ESD, and discrete wavelet transform-based procedures, we demonstrate the DST’s ability to identify mechanism-driven dynamics at a wide range of timescales and its relative insensitivity to functional parameterization. As an …

Healthy Diets Can Create Environmental Trade-Offs, Depending On How Diet Quality Is Measured, Zach Conrad, Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Eric D. Roy

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Background: There is an urgent need to assess the linkages between diet patterns and environmental sustainability in order to meet global targets for reducing premature mortality and improving sustainable management of natural resources. This study fills an important research gap by evaluating the relationship between incremental differences in diet quality and multiple environmental burdens, while also accounting for the separate contributions of retail losses, inedible portions, and consumer waste. Methods: Cross sectional, nationally-representative data on food intake in the United States were acquired from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005–2016), and were linked with nationally-representative data on food …

Mobilizing Crop Biodiversity, Susan Mccouch, Zahra Katy Navabi, Michael Abberton, Noelle L. Anglin, Rosa Lia Barbieri, Michael Baum, Kirstin Bett, Helen Booker, Gerald L. Brown, Glenn J. Bryan, Luigi Cattivelli, David Charest, Kellye Eversole, Marcelo Freitas, Kioumars Ghamkhar, Dario Grattipaglia, Robert Henry, Maria Cleria Valadares Inglis, Tofazzal Islam, Zakaria Kehel, Paul J. Kersey, Graham J. King, Stephen Kresovich, Emily Marden, Sean Mayes, Marie Noelle Ndjiondjiop, Henry T. Nguyen, Samuel Rezende Paiva, Roberto Papa, Peter W.B. Phillips, Awais Rasheed

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.