Agriculture Law Commons^™

Greenwashing “Brown Gold”: A Critical Analysis Of Anaerobic Digesters And California’S Neoliberal Environmental Programs In Wisconsin’S Dairyland, Sarah Emily D'Onofrio

Doctoral Dissertations

Large dairy farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), have turned to anaerobic digesters as the industry is increasingly pressured to find ways to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. Digesters are machines that turn animal waste from CAFOs into electricity and fuel which are then sold as “credits” in California’s market based climate change mitigation programs such as cap and trade and the low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) program. However, this dissertation not only challenges the assertion that digesters are “green,” but also that these programs are doing what they claim to do in a deregulated and re-regulated …

Litigation As Integration And Participation: The Role Of Lawsuits In The U.S. Environmental Justice Movement, Tomas Sebastian Forman

Senior Projects Spring 2022

What is, has been, and could be the role of litigation in the U.S. environmental justice movement? To what ends do Indigenous communities, federally-recognized tribes, and rural Black communities choose to engage with the U.S. legal system, an institution which has, over history, consistently subjugated and dispossessed them? How do these groups' particularistic relationships to natural and built environments, conceptions of justice and fairness, and understandings of what effective environmental regulation look like inform that choice? This paper draws from in-depth qualitative research to demonstrate the following things: (1) how environmental justice lawsuits differ from canonical environmental and civil rights …

Centro De Producción E Investigación Agrícola (Cepia). Espacios Colectivos Desde La Memoria Productiva Y La Hibridación Cultural En Icononzo, Tolima, Andrés Felipe Roso Guio, Jorge Esteban Espitia Riaño, Daniel Steven Sánchez Suárez

Arquitectura

Esta investigación científica nace desde la premisa de reconocer cómo las dinámicas de migración territorial consecuencia de los conflictos en Colombia, tienen un impacto sobre las distintas raíces culturales a través de la hibridación cultural, del mismo modo su instrumentalización arquitectónica como parte de un proceso de paz que reúne diferentes actores entre reincorporados de las FARC y víctimas del conflicto, en cuyo caso, el uso de saberes colectivos centrados en la subsistencia y proyecto de vida desde una visión agrícola, funcionan como eje de cooperación y colectividad.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

Identificación De Un Esquema Solidario Para El Sector Agrícola De Buenavista, Boyacá: Un Estudio De Caso Para El 2018, Andrea Paola Preciado Hernández, Sergio Arturo Segura Piza

Economía

En este trabajo se presenta un estudio de caso que busca identificar un esquema de economía solidaria para los 40 asociados pertenecientes a “Huertos de Buenavista”. Para ello, se realiza una revisión documental sobre la concepción de la economía solidaria en el sector rural al detallar los conceptos de solidaridad, cooperación y el efecto que tiene el trabajo asociativo en las comunidades, de esta manera se pueda identificar las problemáticas, los retos, el desempeño y las opiniones de la asociación. Junto a ello, se desarrolla la estimación de un modelo econométrico bajo la metodología de máxima verosimilitud –especificación Logit–, en …

The Vermonter's Guide To The Farm Bill, Olivia A. Peña

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

The Farm Bill is a comprehensive set of laws and programs that dictates United States policies across the food system. While it may seem that a farm bill is only related to agriculture, this legislation, in reality, includes a broad set of policies on food production, nutrition assistance, rural community development, research, the environment, international trade, and more. Often known as a farm and food bill, the legislation impacts food systems stakeholders, including those who farm, live in a rural community, and even those who eat food—so that is everyone.

Considering the widespread impacts of the Farm Bill, it is …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

"Only The Intervenor Cared": A Critical Juncture In The Rise Of Dairy Cafos And Neoliberal Environmental Policy In Wisconsin, Sarah Emily D'Onofrio

Masters Theses

Building on scholarship regarding the rise of neoliberalism since the late 1970s and using a comparative-historical methodology, this thesis examines a case study regarding how state governments in the United States have succumbed to neoliberal pressures over time. Specifically, this thesis examines the rapid expansion of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Wisconsin since 1995. As these large CAFOs have grown in size, so have the social and environmental problems related to their use, including pollution of drinking water sources for rural communities. Based on analysis of hundreds of newspaper articles, this thesis finds that that a critical juncture occurred …

The Negative Environmental Impacts Of The Animal Agriculture Industry And The U.S. Policies In Place To Protect It, Madeline M. Lewis

Honors Theses

With the increase in the amount of animal agricultural mega-farms since the 1980's, the U.S. federal and state governments have set up legislation to sustain the industry and to protect its operations from being interrupted by any means. However, animal agriculture presents some dangerous environmental consequences through natural resource use, pollution, and degradation, as well as human health and animal welfare issues. Because of these harmful practices and the desire to keep them hidden from the public, activists have been working for decades to expose and challenge these practices to make people aware of the external costs associated with their …

An Ghaoth A Chriofidh An Eorna: The Moral Economy Of Ireland's Whiteboys, 1761-1787., Connor Bartlett Mcdermott

Senior Projects Spring 2017

In 1761, the peasantry of Ireland rose in insurrection against enclosure and tithes. The initial wave of protesters were known as 'Whiteboys,' and their insurrection came to be a model for subsequent Irish agrarian redresser movements throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Applying E.P. Thompson’s theory of moral economy to the practice of Whiteboyism reveals the sophisticated motives which lay behind the Whiteboy’s 18th century protests against enclosure, tithes, and middlemen in rural Ireland. Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

“Winds Of Change”: Explaining Support For Wind Energy Developments In Ontario, Canada, Chad Jr Walker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis addresses a major gap in the wind turbine and risk assessment literatures. It explains local support for wind energy in some areas in spite of vocal opposition in others. Findings from Port Burwell and Clear Creek, Ontario indicate that social and contextual forces may help explain much of the difference in opinion between the two communities. The case study was focused through 21 in-depth interviews. The interviews were analyzed verbatim using NVIVO 9 software. The findings were found to be consistent with Kasperson’s theory of the Social Amplification of Risk and seem to explain why Port Burwell is …

A Case Study On Contracted Seasonal Workers And Farm Labor Contractors In The Stockton Area, Cristal Verduzco

Agribusiness

This study was conducted to define the current situation between contracted seasonal workers and farm labor contractors in the Stockton area. Specifically, this study focuses on the perception workers have of farm labor contracted employment. It also addresses the perception farm labor contractors have on the contracting business.

To gather the information needed to compare perceptions, interviews with twelve contracted seasonal workers and two farm labor contractors were conducted in Stockton. The analysis process consists of a detailed account of the problems workers and farm labor contractors encounter in the farm labor contracting business.

The results of these interviews concluded …

Global Agricultural Price Supports: The Political And Economic Forces That Drive Unsustainable Agricultural Protectionism Policy, John Francis Hays

Dissertations

Agricultural tariffs and price supports are the last bastion of US and European protectionism. While all other areas of commerce have embraced change and welcomed open-market international commerce, agriculture has remained the lone holdout.

The small farmers for whom these support programs were designed no longer exist. Yet governments appropriate billions of dollars annually for the continued support of these outdated programs.

The fact that these governmental agencies resist change, even in an age of economic crises, record national debt, and one of the highest negative trade balances in history, is testimony to American civic indifference.

Public apathy precludes timely …