The U.S. food system is afflicted by a variety of social, ecological, and economic predicaments including hunger, food access inequalities, soil and water degradation, and lack of community control over food. Scholars and activists agree that in order for U.S. food movement actors to affect significant system-wide change, players must bridge a multitude of issue areas and ideological differences. Despite thorough analyses of local and regional food systems, little research has been conducted on either national level advocacy perspectives or the ties that bind and divide food advocacy coalitions. This dissertation's central research question examines how the U.S food advocacy movement works to resist the hegemonic domination of the national food system by state and corporate actors. To answer this question, this project develops a social network analysis of 71 national-level food advocacy actors, compiles web-based issue and tax data, and conducts 36 semi-structured interviews with senior food activist staff. Social movement literature and Antonio Gramsci's concepts of counter-hegemonic movements and wars of position inform the findings and reveal the national food movement's nascent propensity to unite cultural and class struggles to create significant pressure for systematic change in the U.S. food system. Additionally, this research tests existing theoretical work related to the food advocacy network and distinctions between interest group and social movement type organizations. This dissertation reveals that despite most activists' conviction that a constellation of agri-business and state policies dominate the U.S. food system, significant network rifts, framing dilemmas, strategic conflicts, and resource complexities prevent national food activists from generating a robust challenge to hegemonic food system actors.

This thesis is an investigation into the frames and implicit concepts that drive the current trend of corporate-led agriculture, now known as the Third Food Regime. I consider whether this neoliberal regime is hegemonic in rural Ontario, that is, whether the dominant ideology of the corporate ruling class is reflected in and perpetuated by our farmers, despite it being against their best interests. I employ a critical approach, using mixed methods – participant observation of general farm organizations, content analysis of the farm media in Ontario and in-depth interviews with farmers in Wellington County – and find strong evidence of a free market frame in rural Ontario. This thesis outlines the dimensions and dangers of the existing frame in hopes that alternative agricultural models can again be considered. / SSHRC

This dissertation traces the historical transformation of the Canada-UK commodity chain for wheat-bread as a lens on processes of local and global change in agrofood relations. During the 1990s, the Canadian Wheat Board (Canada’s monopoly wheat seller) and Warburtons, a British bakery, pioneered an innovative identity-preserved sourcing relationship that ties contracted prairie farmers to consumers of premium bread in the UK. Emblematic of the increasing importance of quality claims, traceability, and private standards in the reorganization of agrifood supply chains, I argue that the changes of the 1990s cannot be understood outside of historical legacies giving shape to unique institutions for regulating agrofood relations on the Canadian prairies and in the UK food sector. I trace the rise, fall, and re-invention of the Canada-UK commodity chain across successive food regimes, examining the changing significance of wheat- bread, inter-state relations between Canada, the UK, and the US, and public and private forms of agrofood regulation over time. In particular, I focus on the way in which changing food regime relations transformed the CWB, understood as the nexus of institutions tying prairie farmers into global circuits of accumulation. When in the 1990s, the CWB and Warburtons responded to structural crises in their respective industries by re-inventing the Canada-UK wheat trade, the result was significant organizational and industry change. On the prairies, the CWB has shown how – contrary to expectations -- centralized marketing and quality control may help prairie farmers adapt to the demands of end-users in the emerging ‘economy of qualities’. In the UK, Warburtons has led the ‘premiumisation’ of the bread sector, traditionally defined by consumer taste for cheap bread, over the last 15 years. The significance of the shift towards quality chains in the wheat-bread sector is analyzed in light of conflicts over the proposed introduction of genetically engineered (GE) wheat to the Canadian prairies.

This dissertation traces the historical transformation of the Canada-UK commodity chain for wheat-bread as a lens on processes of local and global change in agrofood relations. During the 1990s, the Canadian Wheat Board (Canada’s monopoly wheat seller) and Warburtons, a British bakery, pioneered an innovative identity-preserved sourcing relationship that ties contracted prairie farmers to consumers of premium bread in the UK. Emblematic of the increasing importance of quality claims, traceability, and private standards in the reorganization of agrifood supply chains, I argue that the changes of the 1990s cannot be understood outside of historical legacies giving shape to unique institutions for regulating agrofood relations on the Canadian prairies and in the UK food sector. I trace the rise, fall, and re-invention of the Canada-UK commodity chain across successive food regimes, examining the changing significance of wheat- bread, inter-state relations between Canada, the UK, and the US, and public and private forms of agrofood regulation over time. In particular, I focus on the way in which changing food regime relations transformed the CWB, understood as the nexus of institutions tying prairie farmers into global circuits of accumulation. When in the 1990s, the CWB and Warburtons responded to structural crises in their respective industries by re-inventing the Canada-UK wheat trade, the result was significant organizational and industry change. On the prairies, the CWB has shown how – contrary to expectations -- centralized marketing and quality control may help prairie farmers adapt to the demands of end-users in the emerging ‘economy of qualities’. In the UK, Warburtons has led the ‘premiumisation’ of the bread sector, traditionally defined by consumer taste for cheap bread, over the last 15 years. The significance of the shift towards quality chains in the wheat-bread sector is analyzed in light of conflicts over the proposed introduction of genetically engineered (GE) wheat to the Canadian prairies.

This thesis historicizes the conceptualisations of large-scale farms, smallholder farmers, and the role of the state in the Ethiopian national development plans from 1957 to 2015. It engages with the food regime framework in discussing the role of the state in contemporary agrarian change and places itself within the debate of the corporate food regime. In providing a meso-level analysis of the Ethiopian state, this thesis works to nuance the role of the state in a research field that increasingly argues that the state has become redundant as global agri-food corporations are controlling food production. This thesis also problematises how researchers writing about Ethiopia focus either on changes in agricultural policies or recent development trends, lacking the longer historical understanding and not using continuities to contrast the changes with. Using tools from Critical Discourse Analysis and the Discourse-Historical Approach in combination with a theoretical understanding of how multiple temporal layers interacts in the meaning-making process of conceptualisations within the discourse, the empirical material which constitutes of Ethiopia’s Five Year Development Plans is analysed to understand how the orders of discourse giving meaning to the concepts of large-scale farms, smallholder farmers, and the role of the state is reacting to discourses in new development plans and the long-term goals of agricultural development. This thesis concludes that although the state’s conceptualisations of the three concepts has endured changes throughout the years, orders of discourses from earlier plans are still relevant to give meaning to the concepts, thus revealing how changes, continuities, and changes within the continuities and multiple temporal layersare interacting in the meaning-making process of the development plans.

The study aims to better understand which challenges and possibilities there are for increasing more sustainable and healthy food (i.e. food sovereignty) within the school food sector in different geographical places in Sweden, and how schools and other relevant actors can lead the way towards more sustainable food systems. This has been examined through a case study of the EU-funded SchoolFood4Change (SF4C) project, with a special focus on the two participating municipalities in Sweden: Umeå kommun and Malmö Stad. The method chosen is qualitative semi-structured interviews, which have been conducted with several key actors connected to the school food sector and the SF4C project. It includes procurers, project managers, food producers, and school chefs. The result showed that there are both possibilities and challenges when it comes to developing more sustainable food systems. Possibilities include, for example, a chance for new forms of collaboration between sectors, and an opportunity for everyone involved to gain more knowledge and understanding of the food we eat. Challenges on the other hand include time limitations, lack of communication, and economic problems for organic small-scale farmers. Further, there are differences between Umeå and Malmö that affect their ability to create sustainable school food systems. For example, they are located in different hardiness zones, and the structure of the project groups differs. Lastly, each actor plays a significant role in creating sustainable food systems.

<p>The production of meat has risen dramatically during the past decades. This process, generally referred to as the <em>Livestock Revolution</em>, particularly includes so called “developing countries”, hosting the most intensive augmentation of both production and consumption. As agricultural activities often are performed by small-scale farmers in these countries, the principal question for this study has been how family farmers are affected by the <em>Livestock Revolution</em>.</p><p>This study approaches the <em>Livestock Revolution</em> in Brazil, the world’s biggest national exporter of meats and animal feeds, from the small-scale farmer perspective. Drawing on a case study of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, it is argued that family farmers experience multi-level marginalization. Smallholders of pork and poultry face direct marginalization through vertical integration with the large-scale meat processors (the agribusiness). Other family farmers experience marginalization through the actual exclusion from ‘integration’, as the combined corporate forces of agribusiness and supermarket chains control the principal distributive channels. Small-scale farmers also face indirect marginalization as the increasing production of soybeans (used as animal feeds) and large-scale cattle raising create an unfortunate ‘competition for arable land’. Overall, the case study seems to reflect a national tendency, in which the <em>Livestock Revolution</em> intensifies the polarization of the agrarian community in Brazil, thus creating parallel patterns of prosperity for the agribusiness and marginalization for the small-scale farmers.</p><p>As the Food Regime analysis aims to approach the global political economy by analysing agri-food structures, this theoretical approach has been used to contextualize the case of <em>Livestock Revolution</em> in Brazil. From this viewpoint, the <em>Livestock Revolution</em> constitutes an explicit expression of a corporate Food Regime, increasing the power of private companies at the expense of family farmers. However, the Food Regime analysis also identifies divergent patterns of this Third Food Regime, in which the corporate discourse is being challenged by an alternative paradigm of food and agriculture. The marginalization of farmers in rural Brazil has indeed provoked emancipatory responses, including alternative patterns of production and distribution, as well as direct confrontations such as land occupations. This ‘resistance from the margins’ accentuates the conflict between contrasting visions for food and agriculture, apparently embedded in the Food Regime. The farmers’ emancipation is therefore somewhat determined by the rather uncertain progress of the Third Food Regime.</p>

<p>The production of meat has risen dramatically during the past decades. This process, generally referred to as the Livestock Revolution, particularly includes so called “developing countries”, hosting the most intensive augmentation of both production and consumption. As agricultural activities often are performed by small-scale farmers in these countries, the principal question for this study has been how family farmers are affected by the Livestock Revolution.</p><p>This study approaches the  Livestock Revolution in Brazil, the world’s biggest national exporter of meats and animal feeds, from the small-scale farmer perspective. Drawing on a case study of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, it is argued that family farmers experience multi-level marginalization. Smallholders of pork and poultry face direct marginalization through vertical integration  with the large-scale meat processors (the agribusiness). Other family farmers experience marginalization through  the actual exclusion from ‘integration’, as the combined corporate forces of agribusiness and supermarket chains control the principal distributive channels. Small-scale farmers also face indirect marginalization as the increasing production of  soybeans (used as animal feeds) and large-scale cattle raising create an unfortunate ‘competition for arable land’. Overall, the case study seems to reflect a national tendency, in which the  Livestock Revolution intensifies the polarization of the agrarian community in Brazil, thus creating parallel patterns of prosperity for the agribusiness and marginalization for the small-scale farmers.</p><p>As the Food Regime analysis aims to approach the global political economy by analysing agri-food structures, this theoretical approach has been used  to contextualize the case of Livestock Revolution in Brazil. From this viewpoint, the Livestock Revolution constitutes an explicit expression of a corporate Food Regime, increasing the power of private companies at the expense of family farmers. However, the Food Regime analysis also identifies divergent patterns of this Third Food Regime, in which the corporate discourse is being challenged by an alternative paradigm of food and agriculture. The marginalization of farmers in rural Brazil has indeed provoked emancipatory responses, including alternative patterns of production and distribution, as well as direct confrontations such as land occupations. This ‘resistance from the margins’ accentuates the conflict between  contrasting visions for food and agriculture, apparently embedded in the Food Regime. The farmers’ emancipation is therefore somewhat determined by the rather uncertain progress of the Third Food Regime.</p>

The production of meat has risen dramatically during the past decades. This process, generally referred to as the Livestock Revolution, particularly includes so called “developing countries”, hosting the most intensive augmentation of both production and consumption. As agricultural activities often are performed by small-scale farmers in these countries, the principal question for this study has been how family farmers are affected by the Livestock Revolution. This study approaches the Livestock Revolution in Brazil, the world’s biggest national exporter of meats and animal feeds, from the small-scale farmer perspective. Drawing on a case study of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, it is argued that family farmers experience multi-level marginalization. Smallholders of pork and poultry face direct marginalization through vertical integration with the large-scale meat processors (the agribusiness). Other family farmers experience marginalization through the actual exclusion from ‘integration’, as the combined corporate forces of agribusiness and supermarket chains control the principal distributive channels. Small-scale farmers also face indirect marginalization as the increasing production of soybeans (used as animal feeds) and large-scale cattle raising create an unfortunate ‘competition for arable land’. Overall, the case study seems to reflect a national tendency, in which the Livestock Revolution intensifies the polarization of the agrarian community in Brazil, thus creating parallel patterns of prosperity for the agribusiness and marginalization for the small-scale farmers. As the Food Regime analysis aims to approach the global political economy by analysing agri-food structures, this theoretical approach has been used to contextualize the case of Livestock Revolution in Brazil. From this viewpoint, the Livestock Revolution constitutes an explicit expression of a corporate Food Regime, increasing the power of private companies at the expense of family farmers. However, the Food Regime analysis also identifies divergent patterns of this Third Food Regime, in which the corporate discourse is being challenged by an alternative paradigm of food and agriculture. The marginalization of farmers in rural Brazil has indeed provoked emancipatory responses, including alternative patterns of production and distribution, as well as direct confrontations such as land occupations. This ‘resistance from the margins’ accentuates the conflict between contrasting visions for food and agriculture, apparently embedded in the Food Regime. The farmers’ emancipation is therefore somewhat determined by the rather uncertain progress of the Third Food Regime.

Submitted by Estevan Leopoldo de Freitas Coca null (estevanleopoldo@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-09-05T16:40:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Coca.pdf: 6249018 bytes, checksum: 8141a2a944e4ba04dccff301b1461086 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-09-08T20:20:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 coca_elf_dr_prud.pdf: 6249018 bytes, checksum: 8141a2a944e4ba04dccff301b1461086 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-08T20:20:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 coca_elf_dr_prud.pdf: 6249018 bytes, checksum: 8141a2a944e4ba04dccff301b1461086 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-24 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Em 1996, a coalização internacional de movimentos camponeses La Via Campesina apresentou a soberania alimentar como uma proposta alternativa de organização dos sistemas alimentares, indo além da hegemonia das grandes corporações. Nesses vinte anos, a soberania alimentar tem evoluído, sendo incorporada como bandeira de luta por outros movimentos do campo e da cidade e por alguns governos. Existe soberania alimentar quando um povo controla seu processo de alimentação, diminuindo a influência das grandes corporações. Assim, nessa proposta o alimento não é tratado como mercadoria, mas como um direito humano. Nesse contexto, o objetivo da presente tese é estudar experiências de compra públicas de alimentos e sua contribuição para a soberania alimentar no Brasil e no Canadá. Para isso, foram estuadas duas ações: i) o Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA), no Cantuquiriguaçu, estado do Paraná e no Pontal do Paranapanema, estado de São Paulo – duas regiões nomeadas pelo pelo Governo Federal brasileiro como territórios da cidadania – e; ii) a rede Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC), na região metropolitana de Vancouver, no Canadá. Defende-se a hipótese de que a soberania alimentar tem se constituído como uma alternativa ao regime alimentar corporativista e que, além disso, ela pode ser implementada por meio do protagonismo do Estado (exemplo do PAA) e da sociedade civil (exemplo da rede F2CC). Como elemento central dos procedimentos metodológicos foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com agricultores familiares/camponeses, representantes de Organizações Não Governamentais (ONGs), membros do Poder Público e outros. Constatou-se que o PAA tem contribuído para a soberania alimentar no Cantuquiriguaçu e no Pontal do Paranapanema através da criação de uma nova oportunidade de mercado para os agricultores familiares/camponeses e da melhoria da alimentação dos proponentes e dos beneficiários pela doação dos alimentos. Por seu turno, a rede F2CC tem sido um vetor para a mudança das relações de consumo de alimentos em Metro Vancouver. / In 1996, the international peasant coalition La Via Campesina introduced food sovereignty as an alternative proposal for organizing food systems, going beyond the hegemony of large corporations. In these twenty years, food sovereignty has evolved, being incorporated as a flag of struggle for other social movements in the countryside, city and by some governments. Food sovereignty exists when the people control their process of nourishment, reducing the influence of large corporations. Thus, in this proposal food is not treated as a commodity, but as a human right. In this context, the objective of this thesis is to study public food procurement experiences and their contribution to food sovereignty in Brazil and Canada. For this, two programs were analyzed: i) the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) in Cantuquiriguaçu, the state of Parana and in the Pontal do Paranapanema, the state of São Paulo – two regions appointed by the Federal Government of Brazil as citizenship territories – and ; ii) the Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) network, in the metropolitan area of Vancouver, Canada. Thus, the central hypothesis is that food sovereignty has been established as an alternative food regime that, furthermore, can be implemented through the protagonism of the state (PAA as an example) and of civil society (the F2CC network as an example). As a central element of the methodological procedures, semi-structured interviews were conducted with family farmers/peasants, representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Government Officials and others. We found that the PAA has contributed to food sovereignty in Cantuquiriguaçu and Pontal do Paranapanema by creating a new market opportunity for family farmers/peasants and a better feeding for proponents and beneficiaries by the donation of food. In its turn, the F2CC network has been a vector for change of food consumer relations in Metro Vancouver. / FAPESP: 2013/01733-1