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Thesis the Sociology of Local Food and Transformational THESIS THE SOCIOLOGY OF LOCAL FOOD AND TRANSFORMATIONAL ENGAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE RISE OF THE LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT Submitted by Laura M. Ridenour Department of Sociology In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2014 Masters Committee: Advisor: Michael Carolan Jennifer Cross Laura Reynolds Jeffery Miller Copyright by Laura Ridenour 2014 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT THE SOCIOLOGY OF LOCAL FOOD AND TRANSFORMATIONAL ENAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE RISE OF THE LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT This qualitative ethnographic case study of the local food movement in Larimer County, Colorado is an examination of the epistemological nature of how key players like chefs, farmers and local food advocates create and reinforce the local food movement. This thesis examines sociological process, and the micropolitics of the community of local food players, illustrating the progression of civic agriculture. I describe how transformative learning, or the process of changing a frame of reference, is key to understanding the capacity of local food movement actors to address complex systemic issues. The analysis reveals how three waves of new local hands-on projects created informal learning situations, increasing systemic and global knowledge of the food system, and how new social networks settings led to civic engagement. Cycles of accretionary knowledge and transformative learning indicate that the performative nature of civic engagement was key to the rise of the local food movement. This research offers guidance to professionals, academics and associations that represent local and regional food systems, in regards to the important role of learning sites and new social networks and that are necessary for personal transformational change and engagement. This study also lends empirical evidence that civic engagement necessitates systemic level thinking, which can inform future criteria and assessments of food movements. Overall, this research demonstrates a framework to analyze movement capacity via the waves of development, and offers a perspective on the rise of the local food movement that provides a more complete explanation of why and how food activism becomes a salient personal motivator that results in aspects of civic agriculture. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dawn Thilmany-McFadden, Gailmarie Kimmel, and Karen McManus contributed significantly by welcoming me into the local food community and sharing local knowledge before the research began. All three collaborated with me on various initiatives, which later led to the research questions that would become this project. Douglas Murray, Professor, Department of Sociology at Colorado State University, and Lori Peek, Professor, Department of Sociology at Colorado State University advised on the research proposal development. Zack Watne and Elizabeth Leche assisted with the transcription of the majority of the recorded interviews. Polly Goldman, Viki Sonntag and Rebecca Thistlethwaite offered thoughtful feedback on early chapter drafts of this thesis. I am most grateful to my masters advisor, Michael Carolan, Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University, for offering continued sociological agrifood studies inspiration, and for his kind encouragement to complete the data analysis and write this thesis after I left Colorado and took a full time position at Sustainable Connections in Washington State. I also extend gratitude to my dear friend Keelin Schaffrath for everlasting cheerleading, and to my family for offering support throughout the duration of the program and thesis writing process. Finally, I would like to express my utmost thanks to the many people who so generously welcomed me in to their lives, and shared their personal experiences of being part of the rise of local food movement in Larimer County. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 Perspectives on Food Movements ............................................................................................... 3 The Case of Larimer County ...................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................. 15 The Sociology of Knowledge ...................................................................................................... 15 Transformative Learning ............................................................................................................ 21 Alternative and Civic Agriculture ................................................................................................ 23 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH SETTING, DEMOGRAPHICS AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................... 27 The Setting: Larimer County ...................................................................................................... 27 Agriculture and Food Demographics .......................................................................................... 28 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 4: DESCRIPTION OF FINDINGS ......................................................................................................... 41 Three Waves of Participation and Engagement ......................................................................... 42 The First Wave ........................................................................................................................... 46 Second Wave ............................................................................................................................. 52 Third Wave ................................................................................................................................. 58 Findings Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 87 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 89 Key Findings ............................................................................................................................... 89 The Local Trap: Lessons for the Advocate and the Researcher ................................................ 99 Conclusions and Future Research Suggestions ...................................................................... 102 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................. 106 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDES ................................................................................................................. 110 iv Chapter 1: Introduction Food can be a powerful site for transformative participation. The recent rise of the local food movement in the US offers a particular opportunity to examine the beginning process of social change, epistemology, and transformative engagement. National attention regarding diet related diseases and an ever-increasing consumer interest in knowing the farmer who grows the food and cares for the animals we eat all indicate a focus on local food and farming not experienced since the Victory Gardens of World War II. Blogs, reality shows such as the Food Network, and non-fiction books tracking the experience of intrepid eaters and cooks have became all the rage. The New York Times food writer Michael Pollan became a celebrity and a source of controversy for writing frankly about the broken U.S. food system, proposing alternative agriculture and often local ways to change the way we produce food and make food choices. Books about the process of discovering how to eat locally and grow your own food top national best seller charts and win literary awards. As journalist Kim Serverson reported (2006, D2), “What’s changed is the relevance of local and organic produce. It is no longer an elitist thing.” Do It Yourself (DIY) food projects abound: homemade and handmade food, gardening, preserving, neighborhood chicken coop tours (by bicycle), farm internships, crop mobs and many other ways to directly connect with the source of food are all hot topics in the social and national media. As evidence of the wave, “locavore,” a person who strives to source and eat as local to their home as possible, became the word of the year in 2007. By 2008, when this research began, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms offering seasonal shares of farm products to members sold out of shares in record time in Colorado. Organizations like LocalHarvest.org, the premiere online sales site for direct market farmers also reported record national CSA sales that year. Unprecedented demand was reported by organic seed companies, and some sold out of supply. Farms reported an incredible growth in interest in their direct market products, and farmers markets showed strong growth in number and sales (2007 USDA Agricultural Census). According to the Northern Colorado Regional Food Assessment (2010, 36), “the USDA estimates that, as of August 2010, the total number of farmers markets in the nation had reached 6,132, a 40 percent increase from August 2006.” Chefs and restaurants
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