Browsing by Subject "Farming"
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Item Agricultural romance : constructing and consuming rural life in modern America(2011-05) Hajdik, Anna Thompson; Davis, Janet M.; Hoelscher, Steven D.This dissertation illuminates the links between agriculture, popular culture, social class, and agrarian nostalgia. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I draw from the fields of American Studies, American History, Agricultural History, Environmental Studies, popular culture, and cultural geography. Consisting of four diverse case studies, my project focuses on America's evolving relationship with its agrarian roots from the late eighteenth century to the present. Each case study pays close attention to the ways in which the forces of modern consumerism have shaped public understanding of agricultural issues. The dissertation pivots on two main arguments: 1) the modern realities of industrialized agriculture have sparked a desire for highly romanticized visions of farming, particularly tourism to rural places that promise temporary pastoral transcendence to consumers, and 2) as a result of the public demand for idyllic constructions of American rural life, agrarian nostalgia has frequently been deployed in the service of commerce. From the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Laura Ingalls Wilder, to Currier and Ives painting, Martha Stewart's media empire, and state fairs of the American Midwest, I analyze a variety of highly romanticized cultural forms that enrich our understanding of the nation's agrarian heritage. Yet, I also make important links between the past and present, and demonstrate how and why debates about such issues as farm policy and the politics of food once again stand at the forefront of popular consciousness in the twenty-first century.Item Laying the groundwork : soil in the Roman agricultural imaginary(2019-08-16) Clark, Margaret Kathleen; Riggsby, Andrew M.; Rabinowitz, Adam T; Lushkov, Ayelet H; Taylor, Rabun M; Beach, TimothyIn this dissertation, I examine how soil functions as an integral part of the Roman agricultural imaginary (a shared conceptualization of farming and farmland that informs agricultural practices as well as intellectual approaches and cultural stances towards farming). Farming was integral to the Roman presentation and understanding of Roman culture. Grounded in the stories Romans told about themselves and their history, Roman ideas about agriculture can reveal how reveal how they conceived of Roman values, identities, and imperial expansion. Using the centrality of farming to the Roman worldview as a point of departure, I argue that Roman attitudes towards farmland, particularly soil, evince the agricultural foundations of an imperial habitus. To do so, in the first chapter, I introduce three modes of considering soil that are present in the Roman agricultural imaginary. By looking at soil as a raw material, as an object, and as a place, I argue, Roman sources use soil as a lens or prism for understanding and conveying how interactions between humans and nature reflect the relationship between Rome as an imperialist power and conquered peoples, cultures, landscapes, and natural resources. In Chapter II, I introduce the French concept of terroir as a tool for understanding the differentiation of regional soil types in central Italy. Most often used in the context of oenology, terroir outlines how, in addition to local agro-climatic factors, notions of regional identity and tradition affect the agricultural practices and output of a region, which in turn structure conceptualizations of the same regions. I apply the framework of terroir to the characterization of regional soils in three case studies, focusing on Pupinia (an area near Rome with infamously poor soil), the Sabine Hills (one of the first regions conquered by Rome, which becomes synonymous with Rome’s Italian heritage), and the ager Falernus (a wine-growing region in northern Campania, which produces a famous wine and represents the dangers posed to Roman culture by excess and indulgence). I conclude that the ideas about regional soil qualities grew in response to forces which we now categorize as urbanization and globalization, which brought distant regions into more contact with each other. In Chapter III, I apply this framework to Italy as a whole. I show how an emphasis on Italian agricultural superiority – grounded in the soils of the Italian countryside – emerged over the course of the physical expansion of the empire. As Rome came to terms with increasing reliance on imported agricultural goods, the concurrent systematic commitment to the agricultural promise of Italian farmland connects the success of the imperial project with the cultivation of Italian soil. I conclude that soil acts as a site for negotiating changing Roman identities in the face of imperial expansion. By outlining the ways in which Romans used ideas about soil to shape local, regional, and imperial identities, I show how, to a Roman audience, the exploitation of the soil symbolizes and mirrors other Roman conquests.Item Savior of the family farm? : the role of community supported agriculture for farm sustainability in California(2009-05) Stephens, Michelle, active 2009; Oden, MichaelThis report analyzes the success factors of small farms, as defined by the amount of acreage in farming, the market value of agricultural products sold, and the number of small farms, in rural California Counties. These data are then compared with the location of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs in the study counties and examined to see if there are greater successes in the counties with higher CSA involvement. While CSAs are more abundant in successful agriculture counties, these programs are not responsible for all successes and are rather one component in a larger consumer movement toward sustainable agriculture and local food options.Item The (next) life of property : grandma never believed in hell(2019-09-25) Jackson, Ariel Rene; Awai, NicoleThroughout Ariel Rene Jackson's family's history, land has been both a permanent reminder of systemic racism and temporal unfolding of possible transformations and outcomes based on individual and communal actions. Material remnants of a legacy of farming and traditions of black epistemology throughout the diaspora functions as a guide to sourcing materials and research. Jackson often uses installation to situate her practice into ideas of spatial matters as black matters understanding landscape as palimpsest, something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. Jackson's installations incorporate physical, virtual, and aural elements. Jackson often encases found objects, embeds molds of material archives, and enlarge communal structures using naturally ephemeral materials like soil, clay, and chalk. Performance for Jackson is an opportunity to collaborate or engage with video projection, thinking of the body as both virtual and physical. In different and at times concurrent moments the body, materials, and objects become themselves and leave traces of themselves in Jackson's landscape(s)