scholarly journals Restoration Through Regeneration: a Scientific and Political Lens into Regenerative Agriculture in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Koman ◽  
Emily Laurilliard ◽  
Aziza Moore ◽  
Nancy Ruiz-Uribe
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Regenerative Agriculture ◽  
Synthetic Pesticides ◽  
High Yields ◽  
The U.S

The current agricultural system in the U.S., commonly referred to as industrial agriculture, is a system where the main goal is to produce the highest possible yield of crops at the lowest cost, for both human and livestock consumption, and relies heavily on manipulation of the land with monocropping, tillage, synthetic pesticides, and fertilizers. These practices compromise biodiversity, soil health, ecosystem health, and ultimately human health. It is becoming increasingly clear that we cannot sustain conventional practices if we wish to provide a healthy food system to future generations. An alternative, known as regenerative agriculture, produces high yields while also building soil health, increasing biodiversity, improving water cycles, and sequestering carbon. To achieve these goals regenerative agriculture utilizes a core set of techniques which include no-till farming, cover cropping, increased crop diversity, integration of livestock, and the reduction or elimination of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Such practices have been shown to be more productive in the long term and more resilient when faced with severe weather events. Currently, there is a need for policies to help farmers implement regenerative agriculture principles, but conventional agriculture has become both politically and economically embedded in the U.S. food system. Not only do our current policies fail to adequately assist regenerative agriculture systems, they also actively support conventional agriculture through, for example, subsidy programs. This document serves as a comprehensive overview of the scientific understanding of agriculture, history of U.S. agricultural policy, key stakeholders in the field, and policy recommendations to expand regenerative agriculture.

Latino Catholicism

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Matovina
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
The United States ◽  
Societal Impact ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The U.S

Most histories of Catholicism in the United States focus on the experience of Euro-American Catholics, whose views on social issues have dominated public debates. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the Latino Catholic experience in America from the sixteenth century to today, and offers the most in-depth examination to date of the important ways the U.S. Catholic Church, its evolving Latino majority, and American culture are mutually transforming one another. This book highlights the vital contributions of Latinos to American religious and social life, demonstrating in particular how their engagement with the U.S. cultural milieu is the most significant factor behind their ecclesial and societal impact.

scholarly journals Michigan Farmers of Color and the Future of Sustainable Food Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly N. Carr ◽  
Vanessa Garcia Polanco ◽  
Shakara Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Ethnic Disparities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Sustainable Food System

Historically, racial and ethnic disparities in agriculture and the food system experienced by farmers of color (FoC) in the United States and in Michigan stem from an exploitative and racialized agricultural system in which white people have primarily benefited and profited. Sustainable agriculture with a strong orientation toward racial justice can serve as a medium for building more racial equity and transforming our racialized food system. Such a medium ensures that the resources to participate and contribute to a sustainable food system are accessible to everyone, not just those with significant power and resources. Although the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is in the initial phases of developing a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic plan, there is currently no specific plan to support and target FoC. While there are several programs performing this work from grassroot organizations, civic groups, extension services, and others, there is no comprehensive statewide effort to create support systems for FoC in Michigan. To address this issue, we recommend the creation of an incentivized farm program as a way to address agrarian racial and ethnic disparities experienced by FoC and advance an equitable and just sustainable food system within the state of Michigan.

scholarly journals Social Finance Investing for a Resilient Food Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6512
Author(s):  
Phoebe Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
The Social ◽  
Regenerative Agriculture

The converging climate, biodiversity, public health and nutrition emergencies highlight the need for more regenerative food systems. Despite the recognition that regenerative food systems enhance resilience, resource efficiency, and equity, they continue to be dwarfed by extractive industrial approaches. One factor that is holding back regenerative food systems is their lack of access to financial capital. In response to this financing gap, social financiers have turned their attention to regenerative food systems. To date, the scholarship exploring the role of social financing in supporting regenerative food systems is limited. Yet, this is an important area of study for understanding the tools that could support pathways towards greater social and ecological resilience in our food systems. This paper develops propositions on the links between social financing and regenerative food systems, with qualitative insights used as illustrations. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders related to social finance and regenerative food systems in the United States. Additionally, this paper draws on information gathered through presentations from the Regenerative Food System Investment (RSFI) forum. The analysis identified five observations that enrich the social finance and food systems literatures: (1) those who get funded are not necessarily the best placed to advance the goals of regenerative agriculture; (2) tensions exist between the way that scholars and practitioners view social finance; (3) impact metrics are in flux and must be approached thoughtfully; (4) the middle of the food value chain remains severely underfunded; (5) early steps are being taken to maintain diversity that is core to the resilience of regenerative food systems. Topics for further research in this emerging area are identified in the conclusion.

scholarly journals Good Questions 11 Where are governments’ plans for dealing with food system disruptions?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
George Kent
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
National Guard ◽  
The United States ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
News Agencies ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Large Farms ◽  
The U.S

In April 2020, when most businesses in the United States were shut down because of Covid-19, many people became unemployed and their incomes vanished. They lined up at the charitable food banks in their neighborhoods, but the shelves were quickly emptied. At the same time, many large farms buried their crops because the restaurants and hotels they served had closed. Some news agencies said the obvious solution was for government to organize transport of those farms’ produce to food banks or to idle restaurants for distribution to people in need. Only the federal government could make that work at a large scale, perhaps with the help of the National Guard and the U.S. army’s logistic capacities. It didn’t happen. Where are governments’ plans for dealing with food system disruptions, in the US and throughout the world?

scholarly journals Addressing food insecurity in the United States: the role of policy, systems changes, and environmental supports

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 827-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Fleischhacker ◽  
Courtney A Parks ◽  
Amy Lazarus Yaroch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Food System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Systems ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Environmental Supports

The growth of PSE changes across the food system helps illustrate the importance of translating multipronged approaches to address food insecurity in the U.S.

Grounding the U.S. Food Movement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya M. Kerssen ◽  
Zoe W. Brent
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
The United States ◽  
Neoliberal Globalization ◽  
The Us ◽  
Lack Of Control ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
La Via Campesina ◽  
Food Movement ◽  
The U.S

The international peasant confederation La Vía Campesina has long understood land as a key battleground in the struggle against neoliberal globalization and in the construction of food sovereignty. Food movements in the United States, however, have been slow to embrace land as a key platform of struggle—this despite dramatic and rising levels of land concentration, magnified by recent trends such as financialization and climate change. This chapter argues that the injustices of the capitalist food system are directly related to dispossession and lack of control over land. As such, it suggests that a sharper focus on land among the seemingly disparate groups that comprise the US food movement could form the basis for political convergence and deeper, more long lasting transformation.

scholarly journals Political advertising — a research overview

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-176
Author(s):  
Christina Holtz-Bacha
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
International Comparisons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Tv Advertising ◽  
The World ◽  
The U.S

In the United States electoral advertising on television has always been the most important campaign tool. Even though social media are gaining relevance, a major share of the campaign budget still goes into TV advertising. In other parts of the world, electoral advertising on television is much more regulated, which may be the reason why this campaign tool has not reached the same relevance as in the U.S. Th is article provides a comprehensive overview of the different research perspectives and in particular discusses differences between the role of electoral advertising in the U.S. and other countries, which also pose a challenge for international comparisons.

An American Language

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Political Language ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

An American Language is a political history of the Spanish language in the United States. The nation has always been multilingual and the Spanish language in particular has remained as an important political issue into the present. After the U.S.-Mexican War, the Spanish language became a language of politics as Spanish speakers in the U.S. Southwest used it to build territorial and state governments. In the twentieth century, Spanish became a political language where speakers and those opposed to its use clashed over what Spanish's presence in the United States meant. This book recovers this story by using evidence that includes Spanish language newspapers, letters, state and territorial session laws, and federal archives to profile the struggle and resilience of Spanish speakers who advocated for their language rights as U.S. citizens. Comparing Spanish as a language of politics and as a political language across the Southwest and noncontiguous territories provides an opportunity to measure shifts in allegiance to the nation and exposes differing forms of nationalism. Language concessions and continued use of Spanish is a measure of power. Official language recognition by federal or state officials validates Spanish speakers' claims to US citizenship. The long history of policies relating to language in the United States provides a way to measure how U.S. visions of itself have shifted due to continuous migration from Latin America. Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens are crucial arbiters of Spanish language politics and their successes have broader implications on national policy and our understanding of Americans.

Horror and Death: Rethinking Coco's Border Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Orquidea Morales
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Walt Disney Company ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Walt Disney ◽  
Day Of The Dead ◽  
Animated Film ◽  
Border Politics ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The U.S

In 2013, the Walt Disney Company submitted an application to trademark “Día de los muertos” (Day of the Dead) as they prepared to launch a holiday themed movie. Almost immediately after this became public Disney faced such strong criticism and backlash they withdrew their petition. By October of 2017 Disney/Pixar released the animated film Coco. Audiences in Mexico and the U.S. praised it's accurate and authentic representation of the celebration of Day of the Dead. In this essay, I argue that despite its generic framing, Coco mobilizes many elements of horror in its account of Miguel's trespassing into the forbidden space of the dead and his transformation into a liminal figure, both dead and alive. Specifically, with its horror so deftly deployed through tropes and images of borders, whether between life and death or the United States and Mexico, Coco falls within a new genre, the border horror film.

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