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GROWING LOCAL: ANTHROPOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON CURRENT CHALLENGES FACING CENTRAL FLORIDA ORGANIC FARMERS

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Date Issued:
2010
Abstract/Description:
This thesis considers Central FloridaÂÂ's emerging local food movement from an anthropological perspective. Area farmers and organizations spearheading this movement and the benefits of purchasing and consuming locally grown food are ethnographically explored. Interviews with natural and organic farmers highlight the challenges affected farmers face in creating a sustainable local food movement in the greater Orlando region. Their motivations for farming organically and the counter-hegemonic tendencies inherent in this mode of cultivating are critically analyzed. Taken as a whole, this work addresses the limitations and opportunities afforded to farmers amid the popularity of local food consumption as a social movement. The farmers interviewed for this project are new to producing food for local consumption. They all share an interest in promoting financial and environmental sustainability for small farms. Key challenges they face include those grounded in access to arable land and agricultural policies that disproportionately favor large-scale producers. This research has significant implications for both those organizations and individuals building sustainable local food movements and those in local, state, and national government developing agricultural policy.
Title: GROWING LOCAL: ANTHROPOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON CURRENT CHALLENGES FACING CENTRAL FLORIDA ORGANIC FARMERS.
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Name(s): Swedlow, Cheney, Author
Matejowsky, Ty, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2010
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: This thesis considers Central FloridaÂÂ's emerging local food movement from an anthropological perspective. Area farmers and organizations spearheading this movement and the benefits of purchasing and consuming locally grown food are ethnographically explored. Interviews with natural and organic farmers highlight the challenges affected farmers face in creating a sustainable local food movement in the greater Orlando region. Their motivations for farming organically and the counter-hegemonic tendencies inherent in this mode of cultivating are critically analyzed. Taken as a whole, this work addresses the limitations and opportunities afforded to farmers amid the popularity of local food consumption as a social movement. The farmers interviewed for this project are new to producing food for local consumption. They all share an interest in promoting financial and environmental sustainability for small farms. Key challenges they face include those grounded in access to arable land and agricultural policies that disproportionately favor large-scale producers. This research has significant implications for both those organizations and individuals building sustainable local food movements and those in local, state, and national government developing agricultural policy.
Identifier: CFE0003110 (IID), ucf:48640 (fedora)
Note(s): 2010-05-01
M.A.
Sciences, Department of Anthropology
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Local food
local farmers
organic
organic co-op
local food movement
Central Florida farmers
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003110
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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