Date of Award

1-1-2015

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Chiara Piovani, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Markus Schneider

Third Advisor

Yavuz Yasar

Fourth Advisor

Dale Rothman

Keywords

Food commoditization, Local food systems, Localization

Abstract

Agriculture is an essential function of contemporary human life that is bound by nature. Therefore, economic, social, and environmental perspectives must be examined to identify the most sustainable agricultural systems. This thesis argues that agriculture should be divorced from capitalist economic principles regarding specialization, trade, and production scale. Such principles have supported industrialized growing methods, which have been economically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. In order for agriculture to be sustainable and equitable, food systems need to be de-commoditized and removed from the capitalist market. Policies should target the local control of food systems by empowering communities to subsidize localized production-consumption cycles. This thesis explains how localizing food systems can help solve many social and environmental problems. Urban farming and food hub initiatives are discussed as primary solutions to addressing the several challenges that have limited the ability of local food systems to replace the dominant industrial agricultural paradigm.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Gerardo Patron

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

106 p.

Discipline

Agriculture economics, Environmental economics, Sustainability

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