Doctoral Dissertation Research: Food Safety and Environmental Degradation in an Industrialized Agricultural Region

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Environmental degradation often is a result of economic and social pressures affecting the decision making of land managers. A better understanding of the factors that influence land managers therefore should help to address environmental problems. This doctoral dissertation research project seeks to identify factors that influence agricultural land managers' decisions to employ beneficial environmental practices. The doctoral candidate will focus on growers of lettuce, other leafy greens, and vegetables in the Central Coast Region of California. Despite long-term efforts to promote environmentally-friendly agricultural practices in the region, new challenges constrain growers' choices to support these goals. In response to recent outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, emerging industry-created food-safety guidelines encourage the removal of practices that protect water quality and wildlife habitat. Environmental quality and industry-led food safety initiatives thus are promoting contradictory farm management guidelines. In this project, the student will investigate how both industry and environmental groups are using different scientific claims to encourage conflicting farm practices. She will explore alternative claims regarding scientific knowledge and the relative economic and political powers present in the regional agricultural system. She also will explore growers' opinions regarding food safety, how growers may be changing their practices, and what influences their management decisions. Methods to be used in this project include interviews with key players and growers and a survey of growers to assess the extent that management practices are changing. Analysis of these data will include qualitative and quantitative methods. The survey and interviews are expected to illuminate how growers respond to multiple claims, how pressures from industry-led food safety initiatives may overpower environmental concerns, and how growers' personal views and opinions may differ from their actual management practices.Results from this study will inform organizations and policy makers about the impacts that industry-created food-safety guidelines may have on environmental quality. If growers are removing environmental practices, environmental quality may be significantly impacted. This information may be used to renegotiate specific food-safety guidelines. Although this study is specific to the Central Coast of California, other regions growing similar crops will soon face related issues. The results from this research therefore are expected to be applicable and useful in other geographic regions. This project also is expected to make contributions to the scientific field of geography by enhancing basic understanding of regional social networks, agricultural decision making, and environmental degradation. It will contribute to a broader understanding of how research from different scientific disciplines can be used to address conflicting positions on environmental policies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.