Progress 11/01/08 to 09/14/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Research during participation in this project has centered on fieldwork based analyses of food distribution networks in Pennsylvania that are linking farmers to local and regional markets, including individual consumers, institutional buyers and the restaurant sector. Activities have included evaluation of the applicability of the "values-based value chain model" for understanding the operation, social relations and challenges when conventional food distribution infrastructure serves as the conduit for local and regional food to address rising consumer demand. Qualitative research has also examined the labor management attitudes and practices of 15 small and mid-sized PA fruit and vegetable growers to determine how the basis of resistant vs. receptive attitudes and how such attitudes correspond to combinations of formal and informal strategies for meeting labor challenges, handling risk and maintaining farm viability. Further qualitative field research with switchgrass farmers in Iowa and Kentucky examined perceptions about corporate and state roles in the bioenergy sector, their effect on rural revitalization prospects and implications for farms diversifying into bioenergy enterprises. Findings from the different studies examining the functioning and prospects of alternative agrifood marketing systems were presented in the keynote address on Sustainable Food Systems at the 2009 PA Sociological Association annual meeting. PARTICIPANTS: C.C. Hinrichs was the principal investigator on the research and outreach initiatives. K.A. Schafft in the College of Education was a co-principal investigator on research related to the need for and operation of farm-to-school programs in Pennsylvania. Graduate student collaborators, who conducted research, project management, data analysis and writing, included D. Bloom (Rural Sociology), E. Jensen (Rural Sociology), Alissa M. Rossi (Rural Sociology), J. Bagdonis (Agricultural Education and Extension) and E. McHenry-Sorber (Education). Partners included Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Association for Rural and Small Schools. TARGET AUDIENCES: Audiences include small and mid-size farmers in Pennsylvania and the nation, Pennsylvania school food service directors, food system planners, and educators and practitioners addressing sustainable agriculture and local food systems development. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Both research and outreach publications on institutional buying (farm-to-school) and the role of local agricultural and community context in setting the scope and form of such markets have informed other national studies, program development and outreach efforts. Information about the methodology in the Pennsylvania farm-to-school research has been directly requested by researchers in Virginia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Japan and Ireland. Evidence on the role of conventional mid-size food distributors within regionalizing food systems has informed the research design for recently commenced related research on the organization and impacts of agri-food sustainability standards on the part of corporate retailers and NGOs and on value chain development and low-income food access in the U.S. Northeast.
Publications
- Bloom, J. D. and C. C. Hinrichs. 2010. Moving local food through conventional food system infrastructure: Value chain framework comparisons and insights. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (In Press).
- Rossi, A. M. and C. C. Hinrichs. 2010. Hope and skepticism: Farmer and local community views on the socio-economic benefits of agricultural bioenergy. Biomass and Bioenergy (In Press).
- Hinrichs, C. C. 2010. Conceptualizing and creating sustainable food systems: How interdisciplinarity can help. In Alison Blay-Palmer (ed.), Imagining Sustainable Food Systems: Theory and Practice. Farnham, Surrey (UK): Ashgate. Pp. 17-36. Schafft, K. K., C. C. Hinrichs, and J. D. Bloom. 2010. Pennsylvania farm-to-school programs and the articulation of local context. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 5(1):23-40.
- Meyer, A. L. 2008. Farming Fuels: Searching for Rural Revitalization in an Agricultural Bioeconomy. Ph.D. Thesis. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 195 pp.
|
Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We gave a presentation, "What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know about the Community Impacts of Local and Regional Foods" at Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development Conference on Enhancing Local and Regional Food Systems in Kerhonkson, New York in May, targeting educators, practitioners and university researchers in northeast U.S.. We presented a poster on case studies examining 3 "hybrid" food networks in PA, where some (small) portion of what these conventional food distributors market to local buyers is sourced from local producers. We presented a paper on mail survey and qualitative case study results of research on farm-to-school activity in Pennsylvania to researchers and practitioners at a national meeting. We presented two further academic papers on hybrid food networks, which include both "conventional" and "alternative" actors. The papers examined 1) power relations within the networks; 2) correspondence of these networks to Stevenson and Pirog's "values chain model." We presented the regional values chain model, and its advantages and disadvantages, as part of the keynote address in the Forum on "Feeding Cleveland: Creating a Sustainable Local Food System" at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio. PARTICIPANTS: C.C. Hinrichs was the principal investigator on the research and outreach initiatives. K.A. Schafft in the College of Education was a co-principal investigator on research related to the need for and operation of farm-to-school programs in Pennsylvania. Graduate student collaborators, who conducted research, project management, data analysis and writing, included E. Jensen (Rural Sociology), D. Bloom (Rural Sociology), E. McHenry-Sorber (Education). Partners included Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Association for Rural and Small Schools. TARGET AUDIENCES: Audiences include small and mid-size farmers in Pennsylvania and the nation, Pennsylvania school food service directors, food system planners, and educators and practitioners addressing sustainable agriculture and local food systems development. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Copies of the How-to Guidebook, Growing the Links between Farms and Schools, were distributed to all individuals who had participated in the applied research used to create the guidebook. This guidebook has provided detailed organizational and strategic information, specific to Pennsylvania, for stakeholders interested in developing and sustaining farm-to-school programs in their communities. The Guidebook stresses that multiple configurations are possible in farm-to-school programs, with different mixes of procurement and educational activities, depending on the assets and needs in specific contexts, urban, suburban or rural. The Guidebook is linked on the National Farm to School webpage, as well as that for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. Research on 3 hybrid food networks in Pennsylvania found the importance of a region's type of local food movement in determining whether local produce is differentiated, which in turn influenced the value assigned to local food and how distributors regulated their relationships with producers. The case studies demonstrated that local food systems that combined conventional infrastructure with local production and consumption may incorporate industrial conventions of organization, despite their local embeddedness. Participants in the urban hybrid food network were better able to resist this industrial logic than those in the suburban or rural-based networks. This allowed producers in the urban network to secure higher profit margins and negotiating capacity by because they were marketing "local" as a specialized, niche product. Applying the "values" chain model to these hybrid networks illuminates the possible strengths and weaknesses of transitional or partial models for regional food systems.
Publications
- Schafft, K.A., E.B. Jensen, and C.C. Hinrichs. 2009. Food deserts and overweight schoolchildren: Evidence from Pennsylvania. Rural Sociology 74:153-177.
- Bagdonis, J.M., C.C. Hinrichs and K.A. Schafft. 2009. The emergence and framing of farm-to-school initiatives: Civic engagement, health and local agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values 26:107-119.
- Bloom, J.D. 2009. Conceptualizing "Hybrid" Food Networks: Engaging Conventional Food System Infrastructure to Build Local Food Systems. M.S. Thesis. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 230 pp.
- Hinrichs, C. and K. Schafft. 2008. Farm to School Programs in Pennsylvania. Final research report prepared for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA. 14 pp.
- Hinrichs, C., K. Schafft, D. Bloom and E. McHenry-Sorber. 2008. Growing the Links Between Farms and Schools: A How-To Guidebook for Pennsylvania Farmers, Schools and Communities. November. 28 pp. http://www.ruralpa.org/Farm_School_Guide08.pdf .
|