Industrial Agriculture, Food Systems, and Pollution

Presentation Location

David Student Union: Washington Room

Document Type

Event

Start Date

15-3-2024 1:30 PM

End Date

15-3-2024 3:30 PM

Description

(Christopher Loy, Session Chair)

  • Sandra Stevens (Valdosta State University). The Effects of Capitalism and Combatting Food Insecurity
    Food insecurity is a global issue that affects millions of people, the World Bank has already provided a foundation for what it means to be food insecurity in today's day and age. However, millions of citizens worldwide face food shortages due to unforeseen circumstances that are influenced by external economic, social, and political factors. The goal of this research is to contribute to food stability worldwide. In addition, this research also aims to provide new understandings of food insecurity and world hunger as a collective issue rather than an individual one. To achieve said goals, this study aims to take qualitative rather than quantitative draws on the cultural differences and similarities between Ecuador and the United States. Hopefully, this research will yield results that will prove to be beneficial for both future populations and influence future projects combating world hunger.
  • Connor Shigetoshi McClung (Christopher Newport University). Ol' McDonald Lost his Farm: Industrial Farming, Water Pollution, and Anomie in Alabama
    The globalization of the American South has resulted in environmental change and fluctuation of anomie in the region’s cultures. The reconfiguration of land for industrial agriculture created concentrated animal waste pollution while subsequent urban development housed displaced farming communities. Research shows this displacement of rural communities and increased urbanization created more heavily segregated cities, but it also facilitated social changes, like the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-20th century. I illustrate economic and political changes in the past century of Alabama’s development by utilizing statistics on, for example, 24 water quality, land use, and far-right political activity. The results displayed an overall negative impact on the environment as well as a mixed cultural reaction. Industrial chicken farms produce waste that regularly pollutes nearby bodies of water, which kills off flora and fauna and introduces disease. However, the forced migration of Black farmers into cities allowed denser communities to form. The spread of industrial farming forced the migration of Black farmers into cities, allowing more densely concentrated communities to form that would grow into the foundations of the Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, in recent years, unequal land distribution driven by globalization has encouraged the rise of the Far-Right Movement.
  • Adeline Smith (Marshall University). Culture and Commodity: An Examination of the Cultural Effects of the DuPont Chemical Contamination
    The research in this paper will explore the cultural shift since the DuPont chemical contamination of the Ohio River, as well as the intersection between culture and the need for employment in lower income areas. In 2001, a class action lawsuit was filed against DuPont, an international chemical plant, for its role in the contamination of the Ohio River, and the subsequent pollutant-related illnesses of nearly 80,000 people in and around the Parkersburg WV area. 27 DuPont still employs around 1,000 residents of Parkersburg. While there have been multiple published materials regarding the medical side-effects associated with the contamination in Parkersburg, there has been a deficit of writings regarding the cultural impact that has been made on the city. The research within this paper contains the findings from journal articles, interviews, and surveys that are currently taking place within the city of Parkersburg over the next few months. The ethnographic research performed contains a wide array of residents with varying backgrounds, economic standings, and relationships to DuPont and the geographical area in general; moreover, creating a more holistic narrative of the shifting environmental and cultural landscapes.
  • Shelly Yankovskyy (Valdosta State University). What’s for Dinner? Fighting Climate Change with Meat Alternatives
    Scholarship has identified a critical link between the global, industrialized meat system and climate change; industrialized agriculture is one of the greatest sources of human-induced greenhouse gasses. Several alternatives have been proposed in order to combat the impact of meat production on climate change such as a reduction in meat protein consumption overall through an emphasis on more plant-based diets (and protein sources) and/or plant-based proteins (tofu, tempeh, etc.), utilizing insect protein (in whole or meal form) as a protein source, and sustainable locally-based (and subsidized) agriculture. Recent breakthroughs in the development of “lab grown” or “cultured” meat have presented another potential alternative to animal-based protein or auxiliary protein source. This study aims to investigate how perceptions, hesitancies, resistance, acceptance, and cultural meanings of food impact individual reactions to these alternative protein sources.
  • Christopher Loy (Christopher Newport University). Industrial Hyperobjects: coal dust as phantasm in Southeast Community, Virginia
    The Tidewater region of Virginia is not known for its coalmines, yet coal dust is nonetheless prevalent throughout the southeast corner of the state due to two large coal depots that stockpile coal from mining operations to the west. Particularly affected is the historically AfricanAmerican neighborhood of Southeast Community in Newport News. The dust, albeit difficult to see when airborne, indexes both political neglect of the community and the economic vitality of the region. Health impacts in the community are recognized by community members themselves, while the coal depot adjacent to the community (along with Lambert Point in nearby Norfolk) accounts for approximately 40% of total US coal exports. However, for Southeast Community, proximity does not translate into economic gain – median household incomes are some of the lowest in the region. I use Timothy Merton’s elaboration of “hyperobjects” to better understand the social and political dynamics that attend industrial “externalities'' - allowing them to persist, and cause real harm, yet somehow always just beyond our ability to register their presence and measure their impacts.

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Mar 15th, 1:30 PM Mar 15th, 3:30 PM

Industrial Agriculture, Food Systems, and Pollution

David Student Union: Washington Room

(Christopher Loy, Session Chair)

  • Sandra Stevens (Valdosta State University). The Effects of Capitalism and Combatting Food Insecurity
    Food insecurity is a global issue that affects millions of people, the World Bank has already provided a foundation for what it means to be food insecurity in today's day and age. However, millions of citizens worldwide face food shortages due to unforeseen circumstances that are influenced by external economic, social, and political factors. The goal of this research is to contribute to food stability worldwide. In addition, this research also aims to provide new understandings of food insecurity and world hunger as a collective issue rather than an individual one. To achieve said goals, this study aims to take qualitative rather than quantitative draws on the cultural differences and similarities between Ecuador and the United States. Hopefully, this research will yield results that will prove to be beneficial for both future populations and influence future projects combating world hunger.
  • Connor Shigetoshi McClung (Christopher Newport University). Ol' McDonald Lost his Farm: Industrial Farming, Water Pollution, and Anomie in Alabama
    The globalization of the American South has resulted in environmental change and fluctuation of anomie in the region’s cultures. The reconfiguration of land for industrial agriculture created concentrated animal waste pollution while subsequent urban development housed displaced farming communities. Research shows this displacement of rural communities and increased urbanization created more heavily segregated cities, but it also facilitated social changes, like the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-20th century. I illustrate economic and political changes in the past century of Alabama’s development by utilizing statistics on, for example, 24 water quality, land use, and far-right political activity. The results displayed an overall negative impact on the environment as well as a mixed cultural reaction. Industrial chicken farms produce waste that regularly pollutes nearby bodies of water, which kills off flora and fauna and introduces disease. However, the forced migration of Black farmers into cities allowed denser communities to form. The spread of industrial farming forced the migration of Black farmers into cities, allowing more densely concentrated communities to form that would grow into the foundations of the Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, in recent years, unequal land distribution driven by globalization has encouraged the rise of the Far-Right Movement.
  • Adeline Smith (Marshall University). Culture and Commodity: An Examination of the Cultural Effects of the DuPont Chemical Contamination
    The research in this paper will explore the cultural shift since the DuPont chemical contamination of the Ohio River, as well as the intersection between culture and the need for employment in lower income areas. In 2001, a class action lawsuit was filed against DuPont, an international chemical plant, for its role in the contamination of the Ohio River, and the subsequent pollutant-related illnesses of nearly 80,000 people in and around the Parkersburg WV area. 27 DuPont still employs around 1,000 residents of Parkersburg. While there have been multiple published materials regarding the medical side-effects associated with the contamination in Parkersburg, there has been a deficit of writings regarding the cultural impact that has been made on the city. The research within this paper contains the findings from journal articles, interviews, and surveys that are currently taking place within the city of Parkersburg over the next few months. The ethnographic research performed contains a wide array of residents with varying backgrounds, economic standings, and relationships to DuPont and the geographical area in general; moreover, creating a more holistic narrative of the shifting environmental and cultural landscapes.
  • Shelly Yankovskyy (Valdosta State University). What’s for Dinner? Fighting Climate Change with Meat Alternatives
    Scholarship has identified a critical link between the global, industrialized meat system and climate change; industrialized agriculture is one of the greatest sources of human-induced greenhouse gasses. Several alternatives have been proposed in order to combat the impact of meat production on climate change such as a reduction in meat protein consumption overall through an emphasis on more plant-based diets (and protein sources) and/or plant-based proteins (tofu, tempeh, etc.), utilizing insect protein (in whole or meal form) as a protein source, and sustainable locally-based (and subsidized) agriculture. Recent breakthroughs in the development of “lab grown” or “cultured” meat have presented another potential alternative to animal-based protein or auxiliary protein source. This study aims to investigate how perceptions, hesitancies, resistance, acceptance, and cultural meanings of food impact individual reactions to these alternative protein sources.
  • Christopher Loy (Christopher Newport University). Industrial Hyperobjects: coal dust as phantasm in Southeast Community, Virginia
    The Tidewater region of Virginia is not known for its coalmines, yet coal dust is nonetheless prevalent throughout the southeast corner of the state due to two large coal depots that stockpile coal from mining operations to the west. Particularly affected is the historically AfricanAmerican neighborhood of Southeast Community in Newport News. The dust, albeit difficult to see when airborne, indexes both political neglect of the community and the economic vitality of the region. Health impacts in the community are recognized by community members themselves, while the coal depot adjacent to the community (along with Lambert Point in nearby Norfolk) accounts for approximately 40% of total US coal exports. However, for Southeast Community, proximity does not translate into economic gain – median household incomes are some of the lowest in the region. I use Timothy Merton’s elaboration of “hyperobjects” to better understand the social and political dynamics that attend industrial “externalities'' - allowing them to persist, and cause real harm, yet somehow always just beyond our ability to register their presence and measure their impacts.