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Sprawling Fields and Food Deserts: An ontological exploration of food and farming systems in Ohio

Ohio is one of the largest agricultural producers in the United States and yet Ohioans experience food insecurity at a rate two percent higher than the national average. An analysis of Ohio's agricultural sector in relation to the current global food system suggests that the neoliberal imaginary orders social and ecological relations at both the international and domestic levels. This ordering perpetuates and justifies the continued exploitation of both labor and land and is based on ontological separation of human and ecological systems. This imaginary has given rise to the framework of food security, which has become the singular framework under which solutions to food and climate challenges are outlined by both local policy makers and major development and agricultural organizations. This effectively limits the possible solutions to only those solutions that fit within this imaginary. In considering the continued prevalence of food insecurity in both national and international contexts, it is necessary to explore other avenues for proposing solutions to the current food challenges, which will only grow as the impacts of climate change worsen. Food sovereignty, more specifically urban food sovereignty, offers an alternative ontological framework that expands the realm of possible solutions to food insecurity as a feature of the food sovereignty movement's recognition of multiple ways of being. / Master of Arts / Ohio is one of the largest agricultural producers in the United States and yet, Ohioans experience food insecurity at a rate two percent higher than the national average. An analysis of Ohio's agricultural development in relation to the rise of the current global food system illustrates the ideological connections between the two systems, and the dependencies of these systems on the continued exploitation of both land and labor. Thus, these systems and the food security framework that has arisen from the same ideology or imaginary, can only provide limited solutions to food insecurity at the national or international level. The solutions that have been proposed and implemented under the security framework maintain dependency and vulnerability of insecure populations. As the impacts from climate change worsen and threaten to disrupt food systems, there is the need to move away from the food security framework towards a framework of food sovereignty and the incorporation of urban spaces into the solutions proposed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99295
Date07 July 2020
CreatorsByg, Reed Lauren
ContributorsPolitical Science, Gill, Bikrum Singh, Zanotti, Laura, Caraccioli, Mauro J.
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
FormatETD, application/pdf, application/pdf
CoverageOhio, United States
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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