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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (59 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Davis Previously Published Works (2009)
    Cover page: The personal is political (ecological): some reflections on five days to, in, and from Las Vegas, March, 2009
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Davis Previously Published Works (2009)
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Davis Previously Published Works (2016)
      The region as a concept continues to hold promise as a way of breaking through the many binaries that often divide political ecology. Operationalizing a regional political ecology approach allows the researcher to generate a large number of insights and conclusions that a more narrow disciplinary (disciplined) focus and non-scalar approach would miss; this is because important biophysical and social processes intersect with each another and work together to produce and/or mediate important outcomes for human and environmental well-being. The article draws on a number of cases to examine what comparison of political ecological research between regions could look like. I argue for a reinvigorated relationship between regional political ecology as an approach and agrifood systems as the object of study, and pose questions that can help shape this endeavor.
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Davis Previously Published Works (2008)
        Almost 30 years after its introduction, the "circle of poison" remains a common conceptualization of the global pesticide complex among scholars and especially in popular understanding. The circle of poison describes a situation in which, pesticides banned in industrialized countries continue to be manufactured there and exported to developing countries, are then used in developing countries almost entirely on export crops, and return to industrialized countries as pesticide residues on food. Using secondary data and a case study of pesticide use in Costa Rica, I review the applicability of the circle of poison conceptualization to the current global pesticide complex. I argue that (1) the circle of poison is no longer accurate due to important global changes in pesticide regulation, production, trade, sales, and use driven by a number of dynamic economic, social, and ecological processes; (2) using industrialized countries' pesticide regulations as proxies for safety should be replaced by multi-characteristic risk assessments; and (3) revisions of the circle of poison conceptualization should be updated because of export farmers' adoption of newer classes of pesticides. The paper concludes by offering a new characterization of the global pesticide complex vis-à-vis pesticide use in developing countries: pesticide divergence by market orientation. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
          Cover page: Beyond the circle of poison: Significant shifts in the global pesticide complex, 1976–2008
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Davis Previously Published Works (2011)
          Using a critical cartography/GIS approach and multiple data sets on community supported agriculture (CSA), this paper addresses two questions. First, how accurate was the 2007 United States Census of Agriculture's counting of CSAs? Second, where are CSAs concentrated and how does their distribution compare with that of farming generally and population distribution? I argue that significant overcounting of CSAs in the census occurred largely because of a lack of shared meanings of terms. Examination of discrepancies between data sets at the county level in California points to higher CSA overcounting in counties with many farms and lower overcounting in counties with many CSAs. This overcounting matters as critical geographers and others increasingly seek to take stock of and contribute to alternative agrifood movements. As for distribution, multi-scale maps and a CSA density indicator reveal the continued existence of high levels of CSAs in New England and the Pacific Northwest and low levels in the South. Further data collection and analysis efforts should focus on (1) improving census questions for the next CSA count, including adding a definition of CSA and asking whether farmers coordinate the CSA or contribute to a joint CSA; and (2) conducting further geographical analyses on CSA vis-à-vis contributing causes behind low and high concentrations and areas of fast and slow growth.
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UC Davis Previously Published Works (2009)
            In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registers pesticides and sets crop-specific tolerances while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforces EPA regulations by testing plant-based foods for pesticide residues. Pesticide treatment histories are almost always unknown, especially on imported produce, posing an empirical question: to what extent do FDA's residue testing methods used on imported produce correspond to the pesticides used on the crops? In this article I show that FDA residue testing would have missed residues of the majority of pesticides used on two crops exported to the US from Costa Rica in 2003, suggesting that FDA residue testing on imported produce is inadequate in its coverage. Policy recommendations discussed include better communication of US tolerances to exporters around the world; increased testing for pesticides, especially fungicides, that are currently not part of FDA's regular testing procedures; and the creation of price floors and fair trade relationships in the transnational vegetable market to support farmers' attempts to comply. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
              Cover page: Overlap of US FDA residue tests and pesticides used on imported vegetables: Empirical findings and policy recommendations
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC Davis Previously Published Works (2007)
              In a globalizing economy, agri-food regulation in the industrialized world increasingly affects food-producing industries and farmers in developing countries. Discussions of these transformations remain mostly disconnected from the literature on pesticide use in developing countries, which emphasizes widespread pesticide misuse and abuse. Previous attempts to consider the relationship between agri-food regulation and farmers' pesticide use are found lacking because they do not situate it deeply enough within the social relations of exchange in contract farming. Using a political ecological approach attentive to this relationship, I found many farmers exercising considerable caution in their pesticide use vis-à-vis residues on mini-squash and chayote, the main export crops in Northern Cartago and the Ujarrás Valley, Costa Rica. Exporters' mediation of regulatory risk - conceptualized as the possibility that an actor's behaviour will be subject to state regulation and that out of compliance behaviour will result in negative consequences that impact the actor - largely explains why this type of caution occurs. A gap between regulation and practice persists, however, because of the local history of residue violations and a related misinterpretation of pesticides' colour bands. The conclusion critiques the first world/third world binary that is mapped onto pesticide use research as preventing advancements in understanding farmers' pesticide use, shows the applicability of political ecology's chain of explanation to the local consequences of agri-food regulation from afar and proposes further engagement between agri-food studies and political ecology to better theorize local-global interactions between land users and the new spatiality of economic governance in agri-food networks. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) 2007.
                Cover page: Regulatory risk and farmers’ caution with pesticides in Costa Rica
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                UC Davis Previously Published Works (2013)
                In this paper, I review recent political ecological scholarship on first world agrifood systems and advocate for further development of the field. To do so, I first briefly examine the themes of first world political ecology and argue that food systems is an underdeveloped topic in first world political ecology relative to other themes because of the existence of agrarian political economy, a strongly allied field. This requires interrogating and teasing apart the relationship between political ecology and agrarian political economy. I then turn to review the current "political ecology of first world food systems" literature, which is both in line with established political ecological contours - examining global-local connections, conservation and degradation, and the utility of ecological metrics - but also recently extending analysis to alternative food networks and to the body-consumption nexus. In the conclusion, I outline an agenda for political ecological research praxis focused on increased interdisciplinary work with biophysical and technical scientists; the spatial, social, economic margins; the "invisible middle" of the food industry and the "end" of the food system in human waste and the necessity of mending the metabolic rift; and the need for increased societal engagement by political ecologists. © 2013 The Author(s) Geography Compass © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
                  Cover page: Placing Food Systems in First World Political Ecology: A Review and Research Agenda
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  UC Davis Previously Published Works (2008)
                  Understanding the factors that influence the adoption of synthetic pesticides has to date overshadowed explanations of variation in pesticide intensity. I conducted a survey of vegetable farmers in Northern Cartago and the Ujarrás Valley, Costa Rica, in 2003-2004 with the goal of explaining differences in pesticide intensity with reference to socioeconomic, political economic, and agroecological characteristics and relationships. Using ordinary least squares regression models, this paper explores the factors that influence pesticide use intensity in potato and squash production. Results indicate that many variables strongly influence pesticide intensity, including variables related to the farmer, farm household, political-economic relationships, the biophysical environment, and agroecological relationships. Conclusions discuss the need for an integrated approach to adequately understand pesticide intensity and potential policy interventions including agroecological education and extension, increased enforcement of pesticide residue limits in the national market, and land reform to allow for longer fallow periods. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008.
                    Cover page: Toward an Integrated Understanding of Pesticide Use Intensity in Costa Rican Vegetable Farming
                    • Thesis
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    UC Davis Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2023)

                    Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a values-based, direct-marketing farming model in which community members share in the risk, cost, and benefits of crop production in exchange for a regular share of the harvest. In the past decade, grocers and food delivery services emphasizing the sourcing of local food products have created a more competitive environment for California-based CSA farms. However, food supply chain disruptions and shelter-in-place mandates resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented surges in CSA enrollment in 2020, leading many farmers to adopt the CSA model or absorb more members into their existing CSAs. In this thesis, I explore how farmers have used and adapted the CSA model amidst changing market conditions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and how CSA farms are faring as the pandemic wanes. The research consists of data collected through 13 semi-structured interviews and a survey with 29 respondents capturing the perspectives and experiences of CSA farm owners and managers in 15 Northern California counties. Findings reveal innovative solutions undertaken by CSA farms to accommodate increased demand for CSA, a focus on increasing access for low-income populations, and a peak in CSA enrollment in August, 2020, followed by a general decline into August 2022. Farmers generally noted increased stress and anxiety tied to decision-making about how best to keep their employees healthy early in the pandemic; emotional exhaustion from absorbing the stress of customers, the effects of which had begun to subside when the research was conducted in 2023; and burnout from the compounding of challenging circumstances alongside the pandemic – wildfires, drought, inflation and the economic downturn, and the racial reckoning and social injustices – which remained as an issue for some study participants. CSA has been described as a form of a community economy because of its emphasis on care of the environment, social well-being, and ethical reciprocity. However, the pressure felt by CSA farmers to provide for their communities and resulting feelings of mental exhaustion and burnout suggest that there may be a misalignment with the community economy and CSA in its current form.

                      Cover page: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farmers During COVID-19: Lessons from Northern California
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