Våra nordliga breddgraders kalla klimat gör frilandsodling av bladsallat samt kryddgrönt omöjligt under en stor del av året. Länge har växthusodling med uppvärmning och kompletterande belysning varit lösningen på detta problem. På så vis har man kunnat producera dessa grödor året runt. Inomhusodling presenterar ett nytt alternativ till båda dessa metoder. Genom att helt och hållet förlita sig på artificiellt ljus och byta ut jorden mot en näringslösning, kan sallat och kryddgrönt odlas i allt från bergrum till källarlokaler i innerstaden. Detta har gjort det möjligt för “start-ups” som Grönska och UrbanOasis att etablera sig på marknaden. Trots att tekniken är relativt ung och produktionen småskalig är en utvärdering av inomhusodlingen utifrån ett hållbarhetsperspektiv relevant för att skapa sig en uppfattning om på vilket sätt den kan bidra till det svenska miljöarbetet. Med Sveriges miljömål som en utgångspunkt ämnar denna litteraturstudie bedöma i vilken mån inomhusodling kan anses vara ett hållbart alternativ till sallat och kryddgrönt odlat i växthus såväl som på friland. Aspekter av de olika odlingsmetoderna, så som energibehov och användning av växtskyddsmedel, ställs mot varandra och inomhusodlingens potentiella bidrag vägs samman till en slutgiltig poängsättning för vardera relevant mål. Poängskalan sträcker sig från -3 till +3 där -3 indikerar en mycket negativ påverkan och +3 en mycket positiv sådan. Totalt utvärderas åtta av målen, då dessa ansågs ha en direkt koppling till jordbruket. På grund av den begränsade betydelsen som odlingen av sallat och kryddgrönt har inom svenskt jordbruk var det potentiella bidraget i de flesta fall litet. För de flesta fall ansågs bidraget svagt postivt. Detta gällde för målen Hav i balans samt levande kust och skärgård, Levande sjöar och vattendrag, God bebyggd miljö, Bara naturlig försurning, Ingen övergödning samt för Giftfri miljö. För ett av målen, Begränsad klimatpåverkan ansågs påverkan neutral efter en sammanvägning av påverkande aspekter. För ett av målen, Ett rikt odlingslandskap, ansågs påverkan tämligen negativ, framförallt på grund av risken för en minskad biologisk mångfald. Den slutgiltiga sammanvägningen ger ett genomsnittligt potentiellt bidrag till Sveriges miljömål på 0.5, sett på en skala från -3 till +3. / From the dawn of agriculture, the drive to produce more food and better food, in a shorter time, has been ever present. Technological innovation has been the key in this. This innovation used to be represented by the development of tools such as the metal scythe and later, the combine harvester. Today vertical farming is where the cutting edge of agricultural innovation is at. By substituting the sun's light for LED-lightning and the soil for a nutrient solution, crops such as greens can be grown in large quantities in new settings, such as urban basements. The sustainability of this method is what this report has investigated. By using the Swedish Environmental Objectives as a starting point, vertical farming of leafy greens and herbs were evaluated and put in contrast to the same crops grown in greenhouses as well as for open field cultivation. The potential contribution to these objectives, that moving towards a higher share of vertical farming would entail, was evaluated on a scale from -3 to +3. Due to the limited size of the cultivation of such crops and the large energy needs of vertical farming meant that the impact on most goals were limited. In some cases, such as with the objective A varied culture landscape, the impact was deemed to be negative. The average impact of the objectives relevant to the subject was determined to be 0.5.

The aim of this paperisto find out which plants the Cistercian monks might have cultivated in Sweden during the Middle Ages and which types of plants it would have been practical to grow inside or outside of the Cistercian monastery precinct. Archaeologicaland archaeobotanical studies have been consulted to find out which plants were available in Sweden during the Middle Ages. Examples, mainly from Scandinavia, but also from the continent, are used to show that the monasteries were large institutionsthat had to feed a large number of people and that there would not have been enough space to cultivate everything needed within the monastery precinct.Secondary sources have in the main been used to gather this information, except in the case of the Swedish monastery of Nydala where F-Topo, a database developed by the County Museum of Jönköping,has been used to analyse the amount of land and the types of properties owned by the monastery.The conclusion is that for practical reasons the monks would have cultivated plants that needed to be close at hand, that were rare or delicate, that could not be stored for long periods and that were used in small quantities within the monastery precinct. This would include medicinal plants, herbs for cooking and some vegetables like lettuce, spinach,and similar,that do not keep well. Most other items, grains, cabbages, root vegetables, peas and beans could equally well be cultivated outside the walls. As yet there is no complete list over plant introductions in Sweden. The most comprehensive list available has been included in the Appendix together with indications of usage area; medicinal, food or miscellaneous.

"Slash-and-burn" agriculture, or shifting cultivation, is perceived by many to be the leading cause of land degradation in tropical forests. Performed mainly by resource-poor farmers, shifting cultivation is the most widespread form of agriculture in the tropics. Concern over its environmental impacts has led to calls throughout the twentieth century for alternatives by policy-makers and development planners. This study employs a constructivist framework, post-colonial perspectives, and rhetorical methods to understand the images which support such assertions regarding shifting cultivation, primarily in policy-oriented depictions. Elements of Kenneth Burke's "dramatistic" method are used, including the analysis of hierarchies which structure discourse, and pentadic analysis. / Ph. D.

Food embodies our most intimate relationship with nature. We ingest it to survive. Without it, perish. Through time humans have physically distanced the places of food cultivation from human inhabitation. In recent decades green planning initiatives embraced urban agriculture as a critical element of sustainable communities. However, current approaches to bring food cultivation into cities require labor, capital, and physical resources that are often unavailable in sufficient quantity, quality, or duration for provisioning sites to be considered sustainable. Within each pillar of sustainability - economy, ecology, and equity - barriers exist. Rooted in indigenous land stewardship and food provisioning practices, permaculture (permanent agriculture) offers strategies and tactics to overcome those barriers. Despite mounting evidence that permaculture will result in more sustainable food systems, adoption is limited. Social aesthetics is the term employed by cultural theorists to describe how institutions, social groups, and collective projects codify their values and beliefs. The diffusion of innovation theory suggests that ideas and information from a highly specialized world require translation into a language the rest of society understands to reach widespread adoption. This thesis translates permaculture to contribute to a sustainable social aesthetic for food provisioning and change American food culture. The translation occurs on iconic public land - 'America's front yard'. In 1901 the National Mall was envisaged to serve as a stage on which democratic values are expressed and became the prototype for America's City Beautiful movement. Today, its carpet of lawn framed by American Elm trees epitomizes the economic, ecological, and equity challenges of monoculture landscapes. This project aims to express democratic values through polyculture. It invites every citizen to participate in acts of justice rather than submit to illusions of order and control. From site selection through design, spatial and temporal scale is critical. This thesis explores food's past to understand our present and imagine our future. The design creates an immersive food experience that equips visitors with the knowledge and resources to apply permaculture at the homestead, neighborhood, city, and regional scales. The remade front yard becomes the symbol of a country where places of food cultivation and human inhabitation are one and the same. / Master of Landscape Architecture / Food embodies our most intimate relationship with nature. We ingest it to survive. Without it, perish. Through time humans have slowly increased the distance between where we grow our food (the country) and where we live (the city). In the process, we have built a system where millions of people either suffer from diet-related illnesses or experience hunger on a regular basis. We have damaged our soils and introduced chemicals that have contaminated our waters and polluted our air. We have built a system that both contributes to and is threatened by climate change. Our relationship with nature has become toxic. For decades there have been movements to change, transform, or replace the food system. In cities across the country, these movements appear as organic food in grocery stores, community gardens, urban farms, farmers' markets, farm-to-table restaurants, and more recently, food forests. The problem is each requires labor, capital, and physical resources that are often unavailable in sufficient quantity, quality, or duration for them to be sustainable, let alone scalable. What if there is another way to grow food - a way that heals the soil, decontaminates water, supports biodiversity, and provides enough for everyone? Rooted in indigenous land stewardship and food provisioning practices, permaculture (permanent agriculture) offers strategies and tactics to reverse the negative impacts of the existing food system. Despite mounting evidence that permaculture will result in more sustainable food systems, adoption is limited. For it to become mainstream, someone has to translate it into a language society understands. I try to do that through this thesis. My translation occurs on iconic public land - 'America's front yard'. In 1901 the National Mall was imagined to serve as a stage on which democratic values are expressed and became the prototype for America's City Beautiful movement. Today, its carpet of lawn framed by American Elm trees epitomizes the economic, ecological, and equity challenges of monoculture landscapes. This project aims to express democratic values through polyculture. This thesis explores food's past to understand our present and imagine our future. The design creates an immersive food experience that equips visitors with the knowledge and resources to apply permaculture at the homestead, neighborhood, city, and regional scales. The remade front yard becomes the symbol of a country where places of food cultivation and human inhabitation are one and the same.

The Disney Princess Brand includes 11 Disney Princess films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Brave (2012). The goal of this campaign is for audiences to be entertained by the narratives while encouraging identification with the princesses in the films (Do Rozario, 2004; Orenstein, 2006). Scholars have suggested possible media effects of representations and messages depicted related to gender roles (England, Descartes, and Collier-Meek, 2011) and romantic relationships (Segrin and Nabi, 2002). No studies to date have examined the potential correlation between media effects of all 11 Disney Princess films and viewers' expectations regarding romantic relationships with a theoretical background in cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, wishful identification, and uses and gratification theory. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the relationship between potential media effects due to watching Disney Princess films and expectations of romantic relationships. An online cross-sectional survey was administered to female undergraduate students enrolled at Virginia Tech (N = 110). Bivariate correlation analyses were computed to measure the data. Results did not support hypotheses related to motivations for watching Disney Princess films, cultivated ideologies due to exposure of all films, and perceived similarity to princesses in relation to idealistic beliefs of romantic relationships. Wishful identification with the princesses was significantly correlated with participants' idealistic beliefs of romantic relationships. Possible implications are that participants in late adolescence (18 - 23 years of age) wish to be like the Disney princesses and to have similar romantic relationships that are represented in the films. / Master of Arts

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Researchers recognize the need to better understand the factors influencing indigenous land use in order to design sustainable tropical forest management programs. A key relationship that has been long overlooked in peasant societies is the one between communal labor access through social networks and land acquisition/accumulation. This study examines land distribution and labor patterns in traditional agriculture of a lowland and a upland community on the Maranon River near Iquitos, Peru. Data were gathered through household interviews (n=76) and field visits (n=396) between June and November 2001. Results reveal marked variations in access to land and communal labor between and within communities. Household age, initial land wealth and initial inputs of labor are crucial in explaining land and labor inequalities within villages. This research contributes to a better understanding of the factors that give rise to local heterogeneity in wealth holdings and livelihood strategies, necessary tools to promote conservation throughout the region and beyond.

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