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The thesis analyzes Baltimore City's food network, and seeks a site which has the potential for several factors: site accessibility, renewable resources, solar exposure, and connecting the community. These factors serve as the basis in which to build a hybrid prototype that is able to expose people to the process of food production through a combination of traditional outdoor farming methods and indoor hydroponics in the form of a vertical farm. / Master of Architecture

Aux États-Unis, les villes connaissent une crise urbaine qui se manifeste par l’existence de quartiers centraux détériorés, concentrant les minorités pauvres. Les quartiers de Jefferson-Mack (Detroit) et Hunts Point (South Bronx, New York) en sont des archétypes. Ils sont pourtant animés par d’importantes mobilisations civiques, se focalisant sur des questions environnementales et alimentaires. Le but de ce travail est d’évaluer le potentiel d’initiatives environnementales et alimentaires à améliorer les conditions de vie des habitants des inner cities. La première partie, en mobilisant un corpus d’études urbaines, présente ces quartiers comme les produits d’une crise urbaine structurelle. Nous mettons en évidence que les habitants y subissent une « crise urbaine de l’habiter », dans laquelle les nuisances, les pollutions et le manque d’accessibilité aux ressources environnementales et alimentaires, sont déterminants pour comprendre l’essor des mobilisations. La deuxième partie explique le rôle des mobilisations civiques environnementales et alimentaires dans ces quartiers. En nous appuyant sur les corpus de la justice environnementale et alimentaire, nous démontrons que l’hybridation des questions environnementales, alimentaires, sociales et spatiales a reconfiguré l’action collective. La troisième partie analyse les enjeux de la réappropriation du territoire, à partir du corpus des commons studies. À travers le cas de l’agriculture urbaine et d’autres pratiques établies sur des espaces vacants, nous montrons que la réappropriationdu territoire procure de multiples bénéfices. Loin d’être cantonnée aux domaines environnementaux et alimentaires, elle permet d’améliorer partiellement – mais non sans heurts – les conditions de l’habiter. / American cities are still affected by the urban crisis, patent through the existence of low-income inner city neighborhoods, concentrating the urban poor and ethnic minorities. The neighborhoods of Jefferson-Mack (Detroit) and Hunts Point (South Bronx, New York) are both considered icons of the urban crisis. Yet they witness substantial environmental and food justice activism. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how grassroots environmental and food practices can be used to improve living conditions for inner city communities. The first section analyzes how these two blighted neighborhoods are products of a structural urban crisis. By using a corpus of urban studies on urban decline, we demonstrate how the daily lives of residents reveal a “crisis of urban living” in which noxious uses and pollution as well as limited environmental and food access are key factors triggering grassroots activism. The second section is grounded in a corpus of studies on environmental and food justice, in order to explore the role of environmental and food justice activism in these neighborhoods. We defend that the hybridity between environmental, food, social and spatial issues reconfigured grassroots activism. The third section mobilizes a corpus of commons studies to analyze the challenges of reclaiming urban space. By studying the rise of urban agriculture and other environmental amenities occurring on vacant land, we explore the multiple benefits of community urban space reclamation. Beyond environmental and food benefits, and despitesome conflicting issues, reclaiming urban space allows transformative processes to noticeably yet incompletely improve living conditions.

This study was an investigation of the access problem to fresh and affordable fruits and vegetables and how limited access influenced the beliefs and opinions of residents of a food desert as designated by United States Department of Agriculture. Many researchers have documented that price, availability, and transportation are barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption, particularly among low-income individuals. Researchers in other studies have concluded that these barriers are further exacerbated by an individual's distance from a supermarket or grocery store. However, much less information is available regarding the beliefs and opinions about life in a food desert and how these factors affect food-shopping. Accordingly, this study used the socioecological model framework to explore the beliefs and opinions of the low-income residents who lived in a food desert. Qualitative data were collected from semistructured interviews with 14 low-income participants to learn their beliefs and opinions about access to fresh produce. The qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed, using ATLAS.ti software, to generate themes. Results showed that the participants felt fresh fruits and vegetables were available, but they were not always able to purchase them because of cost. Respondents had an awareness of how their budgets influenced food choices and shopping behaviors as well as how the mode of transportation and mileage from a grocery store impacted food shopping behaviors. The implications for positive social change include creating additional options for food access, such as farmers' markets, community gardens, mobile food trucks, and lowered prices (or subsidies).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Food access is a dimension of food security that many struggle with even in high- income countries, which is a contributing factor to chronic diet-related disease. Inequalities in economic access to food has been addressed in public policy for several decades, but spatial access to food has only been seriously studied and addressed by policy for the past twenty-five years. After the food desert metaphor emerged, it was promptly accepted as a standard measure of food access for governments and a basis for policies created to address inequalities. Conceptual criticisms and methodological limitations of the metaphor have led the study of spatial access to food towards newer methods that measure food access more realistically and assist in the development and assessment of intervention strategies to inform policy decisions. This thesis describes the history of the food desert metaphor from its emergence until its adoption in US public policy, the conceptual criticisms and methodological limitations that surround it, and offers an analysis that measures the impact of change in the availability of public transportation on spatial access to food for various population subgroups that are more at risk of food insecurity in Marion County, Indiana. Results demonstrate that policies and plans designed without consideration for food access have an impact on it nevertheless, and that policymakers and planners can leverage such strategies to better coordinate efforts across government to reduce inequalities in spatial access to food and food insecurity overall.

Since the mid-century proliferation of public housing, policy makers and environmental justice advocates have exposed the fact that geographically and economically isolated public housing sites are ultimately detrimental to residents and communities. In recent years, more progressive housing policies have emphasized the importance of site location in the success of housing programs. This study explores the intersection of affordable housing policy and “food desert” research, by assessing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in California, with specific attention to the grocery store category within the Site Amenities section. Since the inception of the LIHTC program in 1986, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) has made multiple revisions to its application process. The study evaluates the current accessibility of grocery stores from LIHTC sites in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties in Northern California. It also critiques the changes in application scoring, criteria, and the indicators of food facility proximity and quality, identifying weaknesses, recommendations, and areas for further research. It finds that despite CTCAC’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of the application, there does not seem to improvement in grocery store access over time. Further research is needed to determine whether this condition is a result of a failure on the part of the application process, or of high land costs and limited availability of developable land.

Diet and dietary related health outcomes such as obesity and diabetes are major public health concerns. While personal choice and dietary behaviors are major influences on how an individual eats, the environment influences these choices and behaviors. The nutrition environment is one key influence and its relationship with food choice, behaviors, and socioeconomic influences is complex. Within the structure of the nutrition environment, food access and socioeconomic status compound influencing nutrition behavior and food choice. Food deserts are defined as geographic region of low access to healthy affordable food in low income areas. The USDA developed a system for the analysis of food deserts in the United States. However, the methods the USDA uses do not acknowledge potential geographical barriers present in rural mountainous regions including Appalachia. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the USDA methodology underrepresents food deserts in Appalachia and to develop a modified analysis model for the region. The region was analyzed at the census tract level using methods based on USDA guidelines for low income, rurality, and grocery store identification, then applied in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to roadway data. Network analysis of drive time from grocery stores to 20 minutes away was performed. Low income, rural census tracts with 33% of their area outside of the 20-minute drive time zone were identified as food deserts. Counties containing tracts were then compared to USDA designated counties, using the dependent variables of obesity and diabetes diagnosis rates and controlled for by county level rurality and economic distress. Of the counties designated as rural, 63 contained food deserts by the modified methods and the USDA model identified 20, there was an overlap in identification of 12 counties. There was no significant difference for 2 methods in health outcomes for the counties. In conclusion, the modified methods do identify a larger food desert region. It is crucial to understand the geographic barriers to regions when addressing nutrition environment concerns. The underrepresentation of food desert areas can leave populations and communities underserved and without much needed resources to improve their access to healthy and affordable foods.

Food insecurity and nutrition are two of the biggest challenges facing our society. Urban agriculture can help address these challenges, though lack of awareness about opportunities for engagement and degraded soils are two barriers that could prevent people from realizing the benefits that these operations can provide. Soils in urban areas are often highly degraded due to development activities and lack the structure and microbial life needed to sustain healthy, productive plants. Many lifelong habits such as healthy eating and engagement in community gardening are best established during young adulthood. Graduate school is a particularly unique time period, as many students are living on their own for the first time with modest incomes and some have young families that are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Consequently, the first objective of this project was to identify which barriers, if any, Purdue graduate students face when purchasing and consuming fresh produce and participating in local urban agriculture initiatives as Purdue’s campus and much of the surrounding area are characterized as food deserts by the USDA. We also sought to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced food access and motivations for healthy eating and community garden engagement. To answer these questions, we distributed a voluntary 33 question online Qualtrics® survey to all Purdue graduate students via mass email blast. Results indicate that many Purdue graduate students face individual and structural barriers to accessing fresh fruits and vegetables. International respondents, in particular, were particularly vulnerable to structural barriers. Not having access to a personal vehicle appears to be the primary predictor of who was most vulnerable, especially during the pandemic. Results also indicate that students are interested in participating in local urban agriculture initiatives, but most are unaware of their existence. Students indicated that e-mails were the best method for increasing awareness and engagement. The second objective of this study was to determine whether leaf mold compost could improve the health and productivity of degraded urban soils. In addition, we aimed to determine whether the leaf compost could better support a beneficial microbial inoculant to further enhance crop productivity, as well as the extent to which plant genotype moderates these beneficial plant-soil-microbial relationships. To answer these questions, leaf compost was obtained from a local grower and applied to experimental plots at the Purdue University Farm. Two tomato varieties, Wisconsin 55 and Corbarino, were inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum T-22 or a sterile water control, and transplanted into the field trials. 15 Survival following transplanting, vigor, disease ratings and the yield and quality of tomato fruit were quantified over the course of two growing seasons. Results indicated that several measures of soil health were significantly increased in compost-amended soils and the health and productivity of tomato plants greatly improved. The microbial inoculant dramatically reduced transplant stress, especially in Wisconsin 55. Other more subtle differences among the tomato varieties indicated that urban agriculture systems could be improved through varietal selection. These studies highlight the fact that graduate students are not immune to food insecurity and proper nutrition and they are interested in connecting with urban agriculture initiatives to address these challenges. Pairing of the two groups could prove to be a successful mutualistic symbiosis as graduate students provide the enthusiasm and manpower that urban gardens need while urban gardens offer access to low-cost fresh produce that many graduate students desire. Leaf mold compost can aid in these initiatives by providing a cost-effective approach to improve the health and productivity of urban soils and crops, while at the same time providing further benefits such as reduced accumulation of valuable carbon sources in municipal landfills. Results like these provide stark evidence that agriculture, particularly urban agriculture, can continue to improve access to nutritious foods through green initiatives and innovations.

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