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The aim of this thesis is to investigate the power relations in women’s farmers’ cooperatives in Nicaragua, and to see if the women feel that they have power over their decisions and if they feel that their power has changed after joining the cooperative. The theory used in this thesis is postcolonial feminism theories of women empowerment and frameworks on development efforts to women. The method used to gather data has been semi-structured one-on-one interviews. The investigated cooperatives are part of the umbrella organization Femuprocan. Femuprocan has received development funds from We Effect (formerly Swedish Cooperative Centre) and other aid agencies in order to form cooperatives and for capacity building. Previous studies show the importance of involving women in the decisions about how the development funds should be used.   The interviews showed that the women have been involved in the decisions within the cooperatives such as how the funds should be used. Most of the interviewed women perceived an increased sense of power after joining the cooperative, and can exemplify this. However, the change is slow. The women have identified that capacity building, meeting other women and gaining more money have been crucial in the empowerment process.

Low back disorders (LBDs) are the most common musculoskeletal problem among farmers, with higher prevalence rates than in other occupations. Operators of tractors and other farm machinery such as combines and all terrain vehicles (ATV) can have considerable accumulation of exposure to whole body vibration (WBV). The causal relationship between LBDs and WBV is not fully clear; however, it may be different among farmers as their work context and exposure is unique. Objectives: The objectives of the two studies which form two manuscripts or chapters in this thesis were to: 1) investigate the associations between WBV and LBDs among farmers using a) systematic review (manuscript 1) and cohort studies (manuscript 2). Methods: Objective 1: Nine databases were searched using groups of terms for two concepts: ‘farming’ and ‘low back disorder’. Screening, data extraction and quality assessment was performed by two reviewers independently. The population was adult farmers or agricultural workers globally irrespective of sex. The intervention was considered to be WBV exposure, such tractor, combine and ATV use. The control was no exposure or low exposure to WBV and the outcome was low back disorders. No limits in date of publication and type of study design were applied in the literature search, and only full text, English language studies were considered. Objective 2: The data source was the Saskatchewan Farm Injury Cohort Study. In 2007, baseline data were collected on accumulated yearly tractor, combine, ATV operation, as well as several biopsychosocial covariates thought to be associated with LBDs. Follow-up data on LBDs and related symptoms were collected during 2013 (6 year follow-up) and 2014 (1-year). This resulted in two datasets for each of two cohorts: 1) the first cohort with 1,149 farm people who had been followed for six years, and 2) the second with 605 participants who had been followed for one year. Generalized estimating equation-modified Poisson regressions were performed with low back and hip symptoms as the outcome. Results: Objective 1: After 276 full texts screened, we found 12 articles which analyzed WBV as a risk factor for LBD. Three were case-control, 6 cross-sectional and 3 retrospective cohorts. Four studies showed no association between WBV and LBDs, 4 studies showed a positive association and for the remaining 4 studies, results were mixed depending on the exposure or the outcome measure. Objective 2: The adjusted model in cohort 1 found LBDs to be associated to tractor operation for 1-150 hrs/year (RR=1.23, 95%CI 1.05-1.44), 151-400 hrs/year (RR=1.32, 95%CI 1.14-1.54) and 401+ hrs/year (RR=1.34, 95%CI 1.15-1.56). In addition, tractor operation for 151-400 hrs/year (RR=1.95, 95%CI 1.45-2.62) and 401+ hrs/year (RR=1.79, 95%CI 1.32-2.45) was also found to be related to hip symptoms. Although combine operation ≥ 61 hrs/year and ATV operation 81+ days/year was related to LBD in the bivariate analysis in cohort 1, this association did not persist after adjustment for confounders. Due to limited power, no significant bivariate association was found between WBV and either LBDs and hip symptoms in cohort 2. Conclusions: Objective 1: A firm conclusion is difficult due to heterogeneity in statistical strategy, LBDs definition, type of farm commodity, and study design. Direct comparisons and synthesis were not possible. Although retrospective cohort studies tended to show a relationship, future studies with a prospective cohort design can help clarify this association further. Objective 2: Although duration of tractor operation and older age showed with both LBDs and hip symptoms in farmers in cohort 1, the true prospective cohort 2 found no significant association between WBV and LBDs.

My research investigates the making of new farmers in Chinese risk society. I argue that the socialist peasants are in the transformation into neoliberal new farmers. I define the "new farmers" as a dispositive agricultural population that embodies neoliberal ideologies and practices. The purpose of making the new farmers is to counterbalance the instabilities and risks in post-socialist China and to distribute and redistribute power, wealth and risks via new channels such as new farmers' organizations and enterprises. The new farmers are in the making by different forces to address a variety of risks fermented in post-socialist China. The new farmers are recognized by their education, knowledge of agriculture and social responsibilities; they are categorized by their participation in new farmers' organizations and enterprises; they are promoted and cultivated by the Chinese government; and they are identified and represented via mass media. The individualization of the new farmers serves as a governing tool that turns systemically produced risks into individual risks. It also serves as a normalization strategy that the new farmers build their lives in a do-it-yourself way. Their individualized decisions and choices result in their normalization or marginalization in the making of new farmers in Chinese risk society.

Αντικρουόμενα συμπεράσματα παρουσιάζονται στη βιβλιογραφία σχετικά με την υγεία των καλλιεργητών. Στην παρούσα μελέτη η επίδραση της ενασχόλησης με τις αγροτικές καλλιέργειες διερευνήθηκε με κλινικά και εργαστηριακά ευρήματα, συγκρίνοντας αγρότες με μη αγρότες που διαμένουν στις ίδιες αγροτικές περιοχές. Δείγμα 328 αγροτών και 347 μη αγροτών, σταθμισμένα κατά ηλικία και φύλο, επελέγησαν με τυχαίο τρόπο σε αγροτικές περιοχές του νομού Αιτωλοακαρνανίας στη Δυτική Ελλάδα. Στα μέλη και των δύο ομάδων έγινε αιμοληψία για διενέργεια γενικής εξέτασης αίματος και βιοχημικών εξετάσεων ενώ εφαρμόστηκαν δύο νευροψυχιατρικές δοκιμασίες, η MMSE και η MADRS για την εκτίμηση της μνήμης και της διάθεσης αντίστοιχα και δύο νευρομυϊκές δοκιμασίες, η MRCS και η MAS για την εκτίμηση του μυϊκού τόνου και της μυϊκής κινητικότητας αντίστοιχα. Έγινε καταγραφή των δημογραφικών στοιχείων, διατροφικών και άλλων συνηθειών και του ατομικού ιατρικού ιστορικού. Από τους αγρότες ζητήθηκαν πληροφορίες σχετικά με τις καλλιέργειες, τα χρησιμοποιούμενα φυτοφάρμακα και τα λαμβανόμενα προστατευτικά μέσα. Οι αγρότες ανέφεραν συχνότερα αρτηριακή υπέρταση και κάποιες καρδιαγγειακές νόσους, ορθοπεδικά και ΩΡΛ προβλήματα. Στους αγρότες παρατηρήθηκαν χαμηλότερες τιμές αιματοκρίτη, αιμοσφαιρίνης και χολινεστεράσης πλάσματος και υψηλότερες τιμές καλίου, ασβεστίου, SGOT, LDH, χολερυθρίνης, ολικών λευκωμάτων, CRP και τριγλυκεριδίων. Στους αγρότες νεότερων ηλικιών παρατηρήθηκαν χαμηλότερες τιμές αρτηριακής υπέρτασης και καλύτερες επιδόσεις στις δοκιμασίες MMSE και MADRS σε σχέση με τους μη αγρότες, ενώ στις μεγαλύτερες ηλικίες συνέβαινε το αντίθετο. Κανένας νέος αγρότης δεν εμφάνιζε παθολογικά αποτελέσματα στις δοκιμασίες MRCS και MAS, ενώ οι ηλικιωμένοι αγρότες είχαν μεγαλύτερη συχνότητα παθολογικών αποτελεσμάτων σε σχέση με τους ηλικιωμένους μη αγρότες. Οι αγρότες είναι περισσότερο ευάλωτοι σε διάφορα προβλήματα υγείας. Οι παράγοντες που σχετίζονται με αυτή την τάση δεν είναι απολύτως σαφείς. Χρειάζονται περισσότερες αποδείξεις για να συνδεθεί η έκθεση στα φυτοφάρμακα με τα παρατηρούμενα προβλήματα υγείας. / Contradictory outcomes concerning the farmers’ health are reported in the literature. In this study the effect of “farming” is investigated by comparing farmers versus non-farmers living in the same rural area with regard to certain clinical and neurobehavioral health outcomes. 328 farmers and 347 non-farmers, matched per age and sex, were selected randomly in an agricultural area in West Greece. Both groups underwent haematological and biochemical examinations and were administered two neurobehavioral tests, namely the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) as well as two neuromuscular tests, the Medical Research Council Scale (MRCS) and the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). Sociodemographic, personal medical, nutritional data and lifestyle were recorded. Farmers also gave details concerning cultivations, application of pesticides and protective measures taking. According to personal statements, farmers suffered from hypertension, cardiovascular, orthopaedic and ENT problems in higher frequency. Haematocrit, haemoglobin and serum cholinesterase’s activity were found to be lower among farmers. Potassium, calcium, SGOT, LDH, bilirubin, albumin, CRP and triglycerides levels are higher among farmers. Lower prevalence of hypertension and better performances on MMSE and MADRS tests were recorded in young farmers in relation to young non farmers, while these findings were reversed in older ages. Noone young farmer has abnormal results in MRCS and MAS tests, while in older ages farmers present abnormal results in higher frequency than non farmers in those scales. Farmers are susceptible to potential impairments on their health status. Factors affecting these impairments remain to be clarified. The pesticides’ exposure needs further investigation and evidence in order to be correlated with the observed effects.

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Over the past several decades, food systems around the world have come to be increasingly dominated by a ‘conventional’ model, wherein production is heavily dependent on industrially-produced external inputs, and trade characterized by a globalized free market. However, alternatives to this model – that seek to challenge its hegemonic status and address its environmental, social, and economic shortcomings – are continuously emerging. While some of these alternatives are narrower in scope, others attempt more transformative change. One example of the latter category is the Red Mexicana de Tianguis y Mercados Orgánicos (Mexican Network of Local Organic Markets), which strives to move beyond the boundaries of the mainstream organic and local food sectors, instead adopting the more holistic discourse of the food sovereignty movement. The process of translating this discourse into practice remains a work in progress. Significant achievements have been made on a number of fronts, most notably: new market opportunities have been opened for small-scale, ecological producers; attitudes and behaviours regarding both production and consumption have been shifted, and; new institutions – that help enable and reinforce new values and behaviours – have begun to be constructed. Unsurprisingly, challenges exist as well. These include: significant reliance on donated resources; continued dependence on a relatively small group of leaders; the relative fragility of newly emerging institutions, and; a pervasive pessimism regarding the ability to scale up change within a context of political institutions perceived as corrupt, and beholden to agri-business influence. Although such challenges do constrain, to an extent, the efficacy of the organization, they do not by any means diminish the powerful impact of its work to demonstrate that alternative agri-food visions are possible. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, International Development Research Centre

This research seeks to address the gap in the literature on women, health, and environments by exploring the factors that motivate Jamaican women farmers to practice organic agriculture and how these might relate to their understandings of environment and health. The experiences and decisions of women farmers are also positioned within wider historical contexts of colonialism and agricultural change. Integrating a variety of theoretical frameworks, including public issues anthropology, ethnoecology, rural sociology, and feminist political ecology, my own scholarly analysis is merged with the perspectives of the women farmers interviewed in this qualitative study. This research found that women organic farmers in Jamaica were motivated by various factors related to environment and health and impacted by the island’s legacy of slavery and industrialization. The findings of this thesis can be used to encourage the practice of organic agriculture and to improve human health and environmental wellbeing in Jamaica and beyond. / Richard and Sophia Hungerford Travel Scholarship, Yeandle Family Graduate Scholarship, Richard and Sophia Hungerford Graduate Scholarship, Registrar’s Research Grant for Graduate Students, Registrar’s Research Travel Grant

Through narrative, poetic, and visual inquiry, this arts-informed thesis reclaims the silenced voices and life histories of both our elderly farmers and of our elderly architecture--the barn. Using the life history model of research (Knowles & Cole, 2001), I engage in informal "chats" (Archibald, 2008, p. 377) with my elderly father to seek out the meaning and significance of his life spent on the farm--and his emotional response to the taking down of his two bank barns after the sale of his farm. What results is a "responsive" (Knowles & Cole, 2001, p. 10) representation of data, an alternative type of meaning and knowledge that is known as arts-informed qualitative representation.

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