Doctoral Dissertation Research: Experiments in Sustainable Farming in North Americas Non food Agricultural Sector

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This doctoral research investigates how and to what extent growth in the non-food agricultural sector is impacting efforts towards environmentally sustainable and socially equitable farming practices. Through a comparative case study of an emerging agricultural sector, ethnographic research will be undertaken in three farming regions specializing in botanical health products. The goal is to understand how different policies and scales of emerging agricultural markets affect labor organization, consumer demographics, and sustainable practices. The project contributes to training a graduate student. Findings will be shared with governmental and non-governmental organizations, farmers, industry associations, and others with the aim of informing agricultural policy and oversight.Drawing on the anthropology of food and agriculture and the anthropology of science and medicine, the project asks how farming practices and cultures are developing in response to different regulatory regimes. These questions will be addressed through open-ended interviewing and participant-observation undertaken on farms cultivating health products and their partner organizations. This will provide rich data to assess farmers' and stakeholders' knowledge of cultivation practices and plant ecology, as well as how these are affected by different policies across sites. The researchers will additionally conduct archival and online research to establish historical and contemporary contexts affecting policy-making and its consequences. The research will provide important insights on how changes in regulation impact agricultural production, exchange, and sustainability, as well as the networks of individuals and corporations involved in these processes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.