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This dissertation explores the everyday practice of home and community vegetable gardening in a small southern Illinois city. The project engages with questions of how diverse elements of practice interact over time in the development of both gardens and gardeners, dwelling particularly on how the material agency of nonhumans contributes to what emerges. Combining a broad investigation of societal influences and constraints involved in gardening practices with a granular focus on material interactions in the garden, I consider the kinds of relationships individuals forge with the nonhuman environment in a modern, Western context and how they do so. Understanding such connections is essential in formulating responses to contemporary environmental crises. The study addresses multiple topics of interest in anthropology including skill and learning, sensory experience, time, care practices, ecological embeddedness, and community building in social movements.

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The neoliberal political economy guiding our present food system has contributed to our present unsustainable situation, characterized by wicked problems such as environmental degradation, food insecurity and diet-related illness. Our current condition demands a new conception of sustainability to guide creative and counter-hegemonic interventions that can supplant the dominant oppressive structures and processes presently characterizing development efforts. While community gardens have been recognized as common grounds for food systems transformation, research has largely missed this opportunity for exploration. Drawing from the planetary and emancipatory frameworks of transformative learning, and a conception of sustainability rooted in life values, counter-hegemony, and social justice, this case study explores how a collective community garden is a critical pedagogy space for stakeholders to change their own reality within their food system. Using narrative inquiry as a methodology, I conducted semi-structured interviews with garden stakeholders (n=12). The lived experiences of study participants revealed the transformative potential of the Farmacy Garden rooted in the community food security movement. As a space that inspires critical consciousness for humanization, study participants deepened their awareness of new choices and possibilities in their food system rooted in life values. As a space that inspires social action for community economies, the Farmacy Garden promoted transactions rooted in reciprocity and gift-based exchange. Through critical hope and creative imagination for integral development, study participants are envisioning and exploring alternatives that can guide us in the challenging and contradictory work of "making new worlds" (Gibson-Graham, 2008, p. 628). / Master of Science in Life Sciences / The Farmacy Garden (FG) is a collective community garden built on public land in a small town in rural, southwest Virginia, with a mission to promote health, increase food security, and build community capacity among low-income residents in the region. As an educational garden funded within a public health context, the FG programs and evaluation parameters have prioritized health outcomes over other potential benefits of the site. This study embraces a whole-systems perspective, providing an opportunity to cultivate a richer understanding of the role the FG plays as a critical pedagogy space for sustainability and food systems transformation. Drawing on the planetary and emancipatory conceptions of transformative learning, and narrative inquiry as a methodology, this case study explores the perceptions and experiences of FG participants and practitioners (n=12) through story and critical reflection using semi-structured, narrative interviews. The lived experiences of these stakeholders reveals the FG's role as an educational site that enables participants and practitioners to cultivate new understandings of themselves, invigorate new forms of social action, and nurture new imaginaries that provoke possibilities beyond the current condition.

While community gardens (CG) have emerged as a popular public health strategy to improve fruit and vegetable access and consumption, few studies provide evidence-based principles to inform the initiation and maintenance of CG. Grounded in Community-based Participatory Research and guided by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework, this mixed methods case study explores the potential public health impact of CG in the DRR. Six CG completed harvest logs during the 2011 season. Following the growing season, CG leader key informant interviews (N=6) and CG participant focus groups were conducted (N=21) using a semi-structured script, guided by RE-AIM dimensions. The five RE-AIM dimensions and associated components were used to develop a coding matrix and identify emerging themes. Three researchers coded the transcribed interviews using a deductive approach, which included coding raw data into meaning units. The six CG yielded 811 pounds of produce. The majority of focus group participants (95%) stated they would continue CG participation. From qualitative analysis, themes emerged such as increased the number of residents participating in CG, increased consumption of produce, key characteristics of successful CG leaders and locations, programs associated with CG, and adequate funding and resources necessary for maintenance. This study provides important insights to promote the potential public health impacts of CG in the DRR. Findings provide best-practice opportunities to promote the successful adoption, implementation, and maintenance of CG in similar communities. / Master of Science

This study explores the perceptions of the value of community gardens by members and the relationship between this activity and homestead farming activities in Ogagwini, Umbumbulu District, KwaZulu-Natal. Establishing and supporting community gardens is consistent with the strategies adopted by South African national and provincial government to alleviate poverty, address food security and improve livelihoods for rural people. However, there is a lack of literature available on why rural people choose to involve themselves in community garden projects and whether these reasons are those intended by policy makers. There is abundant research on community gardening – most of it either urban or not specific as to setting. This literature is useful for the generic information it provides, but does not provide the scope of understanding that is unique to rural community gardening in South Africa. Thus this study contributes to understanding rural community gardens and possible adjustments needed by extension workers and development strategies to ensure effective food gardening practices in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The first extension facilitated community garden activities in Ogagwini were established in 1993 with the support of the provincial DAEA. Some community garden members are also members of the Ezemvelo Farmers Organisation (EFO), a group of farmers engaged in commercial small-scale farming. This research attempted to find out how community gardening activities were related to small-scale commercial homestead activities. Specifically, the study sought to investigate issues such as preferences among farmers between community gardens and homestead farming; the social and economic benefits derived from community gardens; and perceptions around environmental/ecological issues surrounding community gardens and homestead farming. A survey questionnaire on community garden activities and perceptions was given to EFO members and used to identify participants for this study. Committee members of the EFO (also members of community gardens) arranged for five gardens to be investigated. In-depth data was collected at the actual garden sites using semi-structured focus group discussions and participant observation. The data from the survey questionnaire was verified and clarified by semi structured probing during these discussions. A spiral approach was used to organise responses and make sense of the data within social, economic, and environmental themes. After three garden visits, no new knowledge was forthcoming and due to time constraints the study was limited to these three groups. The study found that there were no distinct linkages between homestead farms and community gardens, but that the systems operated on different principles. Community gardens were used to produce cabbages, carrots, beetroot, onions, green peppers and spinach mainly for consumption, whereas homestead farms produce field crops such as maize, amadumbes (taro), sweet potato, potatoes, pumpkins and peanuts. The study further identified social and economic benefits and environmental impacts and reinforces the importance of knowledge sharing amongst participants. The main benefits identified were income generation, sharing of knowledge and technical support The Department of Agriculture should carefully address sustainability issues when planning and implementing community gardens. This would include being able to carry on in the absence of an agricultural extension officer. Training programmes need to ensure that learning is transferable; that it is not overly commodity or technology specific and includes promotion of environmental awareness. This study has highlighted a number of potentially valuable issues for further situated research in the area of farming protocols, markets and the social value of community gardening within rural communities.

At Constitutional level, legislation in South Africa entrenches the provision of food and water for all its citizens. In instances where citizens are unable to provide in these basic requirements for themselves, social assistance should be provided to ensure a healthy life for all. In this regard, legislation and Town Planning ordinances and regulations are in place to ensure that built-up environments in which we live and work are healthy and safe for all. However, this study revealed that food provisioning by community gardeners is peripheral in legislation, ordinances and regulations and the practice of urban agriculture is, in many instances, in conflict with the principle of safe and healthy food for all. Community gardeners/urban agriculturists are food farmers within the city who produce food for themselves and others without the checks and balances that are otherwise applicable to food brought into the city from outside. While food production on any piece of available land is vital for these community gardeners for their sustenance and survival, it could become a potential health hazard if no checks or testing measures are in place to ensure that the food being produced is safe for human consumption. The study sought the views and perceptions of community gardeners, residents, Environmental Health Practitioners and Town Planners in the eThekwini Metro region with regards to community gardening/urban agriculture and its impact on food provisioning to citizens. For data collection, a one-on-one interviewing survey method was used with all four groups and results were calculated and converted to average percentages and analysed. The results revealed that there was conflict between legislation, ordinances and regulations regarding the production of food in the built-up environment of the EThekwini Municipality. It was also revealed that there was no cohesive policy to control the production of food produced and sold by community gardeners in the study area. The need for control measures and regulations regarding food production and sale by community gardeners was highlighted. Moreover, where ineffective or none such measures or controls exist, a transparent and consultative process involving all stakeholders must take place in order to establish up viable and sustainable control measures. The people who will be most affected by these rules, namely the community gardeners, should be pivotal role players in the establishment of a sustainable urban agriculture policy. Recommendations to address the problems illuminated by the study are presented. / Environmental Sciences / Ph.D. (Environmental Management)

The Youth for EcoAction (YEA) Program is a project of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg involving youth at risk in after-school programming. The program focuses on urban agriculture and gardening projects and was developed using the circle of courage model of youth empowerment. This research used participatory methods, including participatory video to analyze the program and its benefits. The YEA program creates positive change in the lives of participants and at a community-wide level. These benefits include skill building and job training, improved self esteem, nutrition and food security, increased environmental awareness and behaviour, and greater community strength. Youth serving agencies, community development organizations and government policy makers should look to the YEA program as a model for youth empowerment and community revitalization. This thesis also explores benefits of participatory research, specifically participatory video, and documents the personal learnings and journey of the author from researcher to practitioner.

This practicum analyzes the leadership, management practices, and organizational structure of five university gardening organizations, to determine if they have had an impact on the spaces of agricultural production in the cities in which they exist. The research concludes that if university gardens/farms are to become successful demonstration projects within their cities they must: 1) have strong, collaborative, and flexible leadership structures; 2) effectively communicate with stakeholders; 3) generate consistent funding; 4) demonstrate their success on campus and within their communities; 5) create linkages with academic and community organizations; 6) create goals and objectives that overlap with university and municipal strategic plans. Furthermore, this study illustrates that university gardens/farms are important to planners as ‘living laboratories’ of urban food production; as well as educational tools that build the capacity of residents to grow local food, and understand the importance of agricultural urbanism (AU) for city planning and design.