Progress 06/15/19 to 06/13/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this research is participants in hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic food production (HAAFP) including business owners, entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizers, farmers, scientists, employees, volunteers, and advocates, as well as individuals, policymakers, and researchers interested in urban agriculture in the United States. ? Changes/Problems:The major changes to my project were the result of Covid19 restrictions. Due to the health risks and restrictions on travel, I was unable to visit and collect the detailed data I would need to fully accomplish the goals I had originally planned, specifically the fifth objective, which depended heavily on my collection of participant observations and building close relationships in the target cities. However, I was able to use the time I would no longer be traveling to expand the survey to include urban HAAFP participants throughout the United States and to focus on the impact the Covid-19 was having on my target population. ? What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has contributed substantially to my professional growth and provides evidence of my ability to develop and execute a high-level research project. I have gained experience as a principal investigator for a grant and as a project manager working with students. During the second year of the project, I worked closely with an AAPI LGBTQ+ student who had recently graduated with a bachelors of science in Geography with a special focus in Urban Studies during the second year of the project. We worked together for three months as a paid summer internship that I created using the grant funding. During that time, I mentored him on how to create functional and aesthetically pleasing maps that would illustrate his skills, find, compile, and organize geographic data, build policy briefs, and create an effective, impressive resume. When he applied for a job after the internship, I was asked to have a zoom-call with his prospective employees and it helped him land the job! I got a great amount of personal satisfaction and skill-building myself from mentoring him on the project and passing on my own skills and learning together. Overall, I was also able to build and strengthen practical research skills, including researching and cataloging pertinent data, mapping demographic data, understanding policy documents, creating, implementing, and analyzing a successful nationwide survey, and interviewing research participants. I think an invaluable lesson this project provided (although not intended) was how to be detailed in your research plans, but flexible enough to deal with unexpected changes and still be able to gather valuable data that contributes to accomplishing the goal of the main project. The realities of Covid19 forced me to be innovative and creative with the project and that experience will stick with me as I continue to research urban agriculture, social justice, and food technologies. ? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through an official report on the national survey of HAAFP business and organizations titled,"Hydroponic, Aquaponic, and Aeroponic Food Production in the United State: Finding from a Nationwide Survey," which was also presented at a webinar that I promoted through the same channels I used to attract survey participants. I recorded the webinar and will be hosting the report and the video recording on a website dedicated for the project. The attendants and interested communities reflected those we hoped to target in this research. ? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
I am proud to have accomplished many of the main objectives of this project despite the constraints of Covid-19. The research I have completed has led to a better understanding of the state of hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic food production (HAAFP) in urban areas throughout the United States. I designed a thorough survey instrument that included 103 questions for participants in HAAFP. The goal was to examine (1) the principal motivations of actors involved in HAAFP, (2) the socio-economic effects of this agricultural sector including food security and economic development, (3) the environmental impacts of HAAFP on water and energy use and food production, and (4) the opportunities and constraints to this agricultural sector across the United States. The questions focused on demographic data and participation incentives, production practices, business practices, marketing practices, social practices, and challenges and opportunities. While initially I intended to distribute the survey to participants at facilities in the chosen target cities, Covid19 limitations broadened the scope of the survey. I launched it as a nationwide survey of participants in HAAFP in September of 2020 and collected data for 15 months. Overall, 245 responses were recorded and of those, 100 met the parameters for inclusion, namely participation in an HAAFP organization or business and located in an urban area as defined by the the United States Census Bureau. Through the use of the nationwide survey, I was able to ascertain the actors involved, the key factors that promote and constrain the growth of HAAFP, as well as its socio-economic and environmental impacts (objectives two, three, and four). I also created maps cataloging the presence of HAAFP within the United States pre-Covid. The importance of local, socio-spatial settings was captured by examining the region specific results of the survey. This provides a great basis for building on this research to capture the city-specific contexts and HAAFP interactions within them the health risks posed by Covid19 lessen. In the first year of the project, I prepared to explore local, socio-spatial settings of the six cities listed above (with Philadelphia replacing Boston) by creating census maps with HAAFP businesses and organizations located in that city mapped on them with the goal of reaching out to those businesses to be included as case studies (objective one). The census factors that we included were population density and federal poverty level, median household income, percent residential vacancy, and percentage non-White including Latinos (all at census tract level). I also did research on the regulatory environment for agriculture in these cities and created a comprehensive report of the state of urban agriculture policy in each, paying attention to supportive and obstructive policies. These tasks contributed to objective five. In the second year of the project, I was forced to pivot away from objectives one and five due to constraints of travel. I had planned to use a survey to gather data from the HAAFP participants located in the case study cities. Instead, I expanded the scope of the research to include HAAFP businesses and organizations across the United States and created the nationwide survey described above. The survey was incredibly successful, capturing detailed information on many of the urban HAAFP businesses and organizations throughout the United States. Many of the survey participants also expressed interest in taking part in short, semi-structured interviews to provide additional insights into their experiences in HAAFP, especially the challenges and opportunities that they have experienced that may influence its expansion in the United States. I analyzed the results of the survey and semi-structured interviews and wrote an official report titled, "Hydroponic, Aquaponic, and Aeroponic Food Production in the United State: Findings from a Nationwide Survey." I disseminated this report to the target audience via a webinar and a report, both of which will be available online on a webpage hosted on the San Diego State University website. The data I collected and analyzed to support the first and fifth objectives of the project are being used to create a detailed, comprehensive report on urban agriculture policy and its impact on HAAFP in the six cities chosen. The document is titled, "A Comprehensive Report on Urban Agriculture Policy and Hydroponic, Aquaponic, and Aeroponic Food Production in 6 U.S. Cities." These two documents are the foundation for an academic article in progress that critically analyzes the contributions of HAAFP on social movements to promote food justice in urban areas throughout the United States.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
O'Neal, B. 2022. Thinking and doing justice: urban agriculture in San Diego County. International Journal of Food Studies.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
O'Neal, B. 2022. Hydroponic, Aquaponic, and Aeroponic Food Production in the United States: Findings from a Nationwide Survey.
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Progress 06/15/20 to 06/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences reached in this reporting year was representative of and participants in the hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic food production industry. Also, I made connections with membership of the leadership teams at multiple non-profits engaging in this industry. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I have received training in survey dissemination, interview expereince, and mapping. I have also had the opportunity to mentor an undergraduate student closely and work with them on project management skills, organization, and of course, mapping! How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Not yet - however, I plan in the third year of the project to publish the results for a public and academic audience. I also plan to hold a webinar to discuss the results with interested parties and continue discussion of the industries future, especially in the context of Covid. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, I plan to 1) analyzesurvey results, 2) code and analyzeinterview data, 3) hold a webinar, 4) preparepublications for dissemination to the target audience and research community.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This reporting period, Ilaunchedthe survey and am continuing to collect data using this tool. I was incredibly successful in creating connections with stakeholders to get these surveys to the target study group (HAAFP participants) and have received over 250 responses. The number continues to grow, so we have continued the collection; however, we will be ending survey data collection in June and begin survey analysis. I hace conducted interviews with key regional stakeholders representing for profit and nonprofit participants in the industry, as well as shorter interviews with HAAFP for profit and nonprofit business owners. I was really excited to work with an undergraduate student in the Geography department on mapping HAAFP businesses acros the United States. It went really well and we now have a map of HAAFP businesses that continues to get more comprehensive as we analyze the surveys.
Publications
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Progress 06/15/19 to 06/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is individuals interested in or working inhydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic industries throughout the United States. Changes/Problems:Theonly major change to the project has been trading out Boston for Philadelphia as a target city. Philadelphia is a much more respresentative and interesting case. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has been incredibly helpful in sharpening my mapping skills and policy research skills. I have gained the most in understanding and implementing how to create a successful survey. This project is the first in which I have used this research tool. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?No, the results have not been disseminated yet. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, I will be doing the following: 1) launching the survey, 2) interviewing key regional stakeholders in the HAAFP industry, 3) mapping HAAFP business across the entire United States, 4) interviewing HAAFP business owners, 5) analyzing survey results, 7) coding interview data, and 6) preparing publications for dissemination to the target audience and research community.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
I am making fantastic progress toward the goals of the project. In the first year of the project, I have done targetted research to catalogue the hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic food production (HAAFP) business and organizations in each of the target cities, as well as throughout the entirety of the United States. I have created a comprehensiveexcel sheet that includes the HAAFP businesses and organization as well as locations, contacts,coordinate information, and other descriptive categories. I have created a series of maps for each of the cities that include the HAAFP businesses mapped against population density and federal poverty level, median housefhold income, percent vacancy, and percentage non-White including Latinos (all at census tract level). These maps will aid in accomplishing objectives one and three. I have done policy research and created comprehensive documents that outline the political support or barriers for the HAAFP industries in each of the cities. After multiple drafts,I have a finalized, comprehensive survey to be disseminated that examines objectives two, three, and four.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
ONeal, B. and Joassart-Marcelli, P. (2019). Commodity Networks of Urban Agriculture and Microgeographies of Food Justice in San Diego.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
ONeal, B. (2019). Thinking and doing justice: urban agriculture in San Diego County.
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Progress 05/01/19 to 04/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is individuals interested in or working inhydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic industries throughout the United States. Changes/Problems:Theonly major change to the project has been trading out Boston for Philadelphia as a target city. Philadelphia is a much more respresentative and interesting case. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has been incredibly helpful in sharpening my mapping skills and policy research skills. I have gained the most in understanding and implementing how to create a successful survey. This project is the first in which I have used this research tool. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?No, the results have not been disseminated yet. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, I will be doing the following: 1) launching the survey, 2) interviewing key regional stakeholders in the HAAFP industry, 3) mapping HAAFP business across the entire United States, 4) interviewing HAAFP business owners, 5) analyzing survey results, 7) coding interview data, and 6) preparing publications for dissemination to the target audience and research community.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
I am making fantastic progress toward the goals of the project. In the first year of the project, I have done targetted research to catalogue the hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic food production (HAAFP) business and organizations in each of the target cities, as well as throughout the entirety of the United States. I have created a comprehensiveexcel sheet that includes the HAAFP businesses and organization as well as locations, contacts,coordinate information, and other descriptive categories. I have created a series of maps for each of the cities that include the HAAFP businesses mapped against population density and federal poverty level, median housefhold income, percent vacancy, and percentage non-White including Latinos (all at census tract level). These maps will aid in accomplishing objectives one and three. I have done policy research and created comprehensive documents that outline the political support or barriers for the HAAFP industries in each of the cities. After multiple drafts,I have a finalized, comprehensive survey to be disseminated that examines objectives two, three, and four.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
ONeal, B. and Joassart-Marcelli, P. (2019). Commodity Networks of Urban Agriculture and Microgeographies of Food Justice in San Diego.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
ONeal, B. (2019). Thinking and doing justice: urban agriculture in San Diego County.
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