acase@tulane.edu

Community food security (CFS) is a new, community-based, collaborative approach to achieving food security. CFS seeks to merge social justice and environmental sustainability goals in the pursuit of food-secure communities. The Good Food Market (GFM) is a new CFS initiative wherein a subsidized community food market operates in a food desert. Through a qualitative case study approach, I examine and evaluate the programmatic design of The Stop’s Good Food Market, and explore its contribution to community food security. The research is framed within a larger study of food security. Research findings are based on semi-structured and structured interviews with GFM coordinators and customers, as well as participant observation and literature reviews.

Community food security (CFS) is a new, community-based, collaborative approach to achieving food security. CFS seeks to merge social justice and environmental sustainability goals in the pursuit of food-secure communities. The Good Food Market (GFM) is a new CFS initiative wherein a subsidized community food market operates in a food desert. Through a qualitative case study approach, I examine and evaluate the programmatic design of The Stop’s Good Food Market, and explore its contribution to community food security. The research is framed within a larger study of food security. Research findings are based on semi-structured and structured interviews with GFM coordinators and customers, as well as participant observation and literature reviews.

The interrelated topics of food, eating, nutrition, and diet continue to represent growing areas of interest in communication studies and related disciplines. Food is essential to our existence, and the images we use to communicate about food are important to public culture. In this project, I conduct a visual rhetorical analysis of the food pyramids created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the 1992 Food Guide Pyramid and the 2005 MyPyramid, to explore how these iconic images negotiate the competing interests of the food industry, nutritionists, and the general public. As icons circulate, they become subjected to various forms of appropriation which includes copying, imitating, and satirizing the original image. Therefore, I study a collection of appropriated food pyramids created by different groups and individuals to identify the salient features of the food pyramid icon. As a group these images encourage viewers to believe that an abundance of food always exists by highlighting products over processes. Viewing the earth as endlessly abundant aligns with a cornucopian perspective on the environment which implicitly supports the status quo in the U.S. industrial food system. I conclude by offering ideas of appropriated food pyramids that visually challenge this problematic ideology. The USDA food pyramids and their visual appropriations provide an important space for us to interrogate the rhetorical messages we consume in public culture.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Argentine wine industry experienced a shift from quantity to quality production which occurred while economic policies in Argentina opened economic opportunities for investment in the country. With these new opportunities, the industry began to focus on producing quality wine because of the desire to export and compete in the international market. As foreign investment entered Mendoza, the heart of Argentine wine country, new ideas and knowledge about wine production began to disseminate into the region and everyday practices. The shift from quantity to quality production was a paradigm shift in that it ushered in a new way of understanding quality in relation to the land, resulted in the younger generation of winemakers excelling in the region, and ultimately led to a new way of viewing production practices and techniques entirely separate from the previous century of production. This project asks: to what extent did this shift impact the implementation and regulation of geographic indications in Mendoza? It seeks to understand the impact that terroir-driven wine production imparted on Argentine winemakers to illuminate the resilience and perseverance of a growing wine center in the Global South.

abstract: With the push towards interdisciplinary approaches, there has been tremendous growth of scholarship in the comparative ethnic studies field. From studies on multiracial people, to residential segregation, to the study of multiracial spaces, there is a lot to say about cross-cultural experiences. “Te de Boba” explores the relationship between identity, race, and ethnicity of millennials through a food studies lens. In particular, I analyze the role of food spaces and food pathways in developing identity and conceptions of race and ethnicity. My research site consists of a small business, a boba tea shop in Baldwin Park, California: What happens when a boba shop opens up in downtown Baldwin Park, a predominantly Latinx community? How do interethnic relationships shape the structure and city landscape of Baldwin Park, and how do these experiences in turn shape self-identity among millennials? I draw from qualitative interviews, cognitive mapping, and surveys conducted within the boba shop to understand millennial identity formation in Baldwin Park. Millennials growing up in Baldwin Park experience unique relationships between cultures, foods, and lifestyles that cross ethnic and racial barriers, creating new forms of community, which I call hub cities. I develop “hub cities” as new terminology for discussing suburban spaces that foster a sense of community within suburban areas that challenges and break down popular discourse of race and ethnicity, giving way for youth creation of alternative discourses on race and ethnicity, consequently shaping the way they form self-identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2016

Over the last few years, we are seeing an emergence of new food entrepreneurship across the globe. In the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, these food-related social enterprises are not only providing job opportunities to refugees but they are also increasing awareness about their cause and creating new narratives surrounding their arrival. This present study seeks to contribute to the knowledge surrounding refugees and entrepreneurship by explaining how several refugee food enterprises have gained great popularity despite greater nationalism and xenophobia. In the analysis of food entrepreneurship, one finds that this phenomenon is able to partly fill the void of certain organizations and movements by placing food in the role of the mediator. Arguably, food entrepreneurship assists in areas that refugee resettlement agencies do not, as they provide a platform that give refugees agency rather than dealing with them as victims. These agencies address refugee’s agency as business employees, and in some cases, encourage their agency as women. Not only does this reverse the narrative of victimized refugees who need support from their new societies whilst also providing them with income, it also provides an opportunity to politically mobilize around refugee-threatening issues.

Foodways, which in short refers to eating and drinking practices, are constitutive of personal and group identity. In this thesis, I explore the symbolic values of food and drink in group identification processes evolving across North America. Through the cases of poutine, mezcal, and hard cider, I investigate cultural identity formation, negotiation, and transformation; from everyday practices to global interactions. What I develop in this thesis is a rationale that can be actively used by members of a group, as well as by community development practitioners, governments, and industry stakeholders to bolster community capitals and agency through making, supporting or rejecting food and drink ownership claims. In the first article, titled Poutine Dynamics, I explore both the culinary and social status of poutine. First, I identify poutine as a new(er) and distinct way to consume food that is increasingly adopted and adapted, and I propose a working definition of poutine as a new dish classification label in its own. Then, by coupling poutine’s sociohistorical stigma and its growing Canadization (that is, the presentation, not the consumption per say, of poutine as a Canadian dish), I expose two related situations: the ongoing culinary appropriation of poutine and the threat of Quebecois cultural absorption by Canadians. In Poutine Dynamics, I problematize the notion of a “national cuisine” in the context of multinational and settler states. Although the focus is about cuisine, Poutine Dynamics provides elements of analysis regarding how the Canadian nationalist project is constructed and articulated today, in current celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Confederation in Canada. The second article of this thesis, titled Strategic Authenticity: The Case of Mezcal, draws upon the recent major update to the mezcal denomination of origin certification (DO) that was long-awaited and requested by “traditional mezcaleros.” This tour de force in the modification of the mezcal DO leads me to identify the notion of authenticity in food as a powerful rhetorical strategy in social negotiation between groups. Through the case of mezcal, I assert that the tasting experience is the most legitimate group identification path and authentication boundary (as opposed to political, ethnical or religious boundaries) in terms of foodways. The third article, titled The Identity Crisis of Hard Cider, looks at the ongoing cultural affirmation of hard cider from its European counterparts. So far, the research on hard cider in Vermont has looked at the low-level of cider-specific apple production in that state as a supply issue. Instead, I approach this problematic from a demand angle, specifically from the low demand for hard ciders made with cider-specific apples. In this study, I survey the Vermont hard cider industry stakeholders as to possible mechanisms in order to differentiate between hard cider styles, as well as strategies to boost the demand for hard ciders made with cider-specific apples. The implementation of a geographical indication (GI) label was of high interests among participating cider makers. In this study, I also suggest that the hard cider foodways found in Vermont are part of a broader emerging hard cider identity that is taste-based and which crosses political borders within the American Northeast.

Is avocado toast the reason that I am still living with my parents? In other words, does the consumption of avocado toast, or more specifically eating out in general, have any impact on one’s ability to be a homeowner. In May of 2017, an Australian real estate developer by the name of Tim Gurner was asked to provide advice to young people who could not afford to purchase a home. He responded by saying, “when I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” (Victor, 2017). While the claim may appear to be laughable at first glance, this is not the first time that statements such as this have been made. The United States Census Bureau tells us that annual homeownership rates for individuals under the age of 35 has been on the steady decline. Additionally, per Goldman Sachs, it is known that the percentage of adults age 18-31 that were married and living in their own homes has decreased from 56% in 1968 to 23% in 2012. This paper assesses and compares the spending habits of different generations, working to discern if there are notable differences particularly between Millennials and other generations. Data sets from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) and Zillow between the years 2000-2013 were examined. Although there is not data on avocado toast specifically, it is possible to broaden the hypothesis to examine the expenditures on the consumption of meals prepared away from home. For the purpose of this study, I take Tim Gurner’s statement and apply it more broadly to the idea of spending money on the experience of eating out. The results show that the consumption of avocado toast, defined as money spent on meals prepared away from home, does not have an impact on whether an individual owns a home, nor is it an indicator as to whether they will be renters or living with their parents. Rather, the results indicate that owning a home leads to consuming more avocado toast. This means that although it is commonly perceived that Millennials are consumers as opposed to savers, their inability to afford home ownership does not have any direct connection to their spending habits on avocado toast, and more broadly, eating out in general.

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