Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2016
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Anthropology
Degree Program
Anthropology, MA
Committee Chair
Markowitz, Lisa
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
Parkhurst, Shawn
Committee Member
Parkhurst, Shawn
Committee Member
Fosl, Catherine
Author's Keywords
food justice; farming; cooperative; economics; anthropology
Abstract
Progressive and radical stakeholders in the local food system call for forms of agricultural production and distribution that dialectically oppose the dominant paradigm of corporate-controlled agribusiness. This ethnographic research engages with the question of whether La Minga is a model of food justice. I collected ethnographic data from May 2015 to March 2016 via informal conversations and semi-structured interviews with members of the farm as well as secondary data gleaned from literature on anarchism, political economy, and food and agriculture. La Minga serves as a small-scale example of immigrants and native-citizens exercising their human right to produce healthy, culturally-appropriate food according to self-determined purposes. The values of the nonprofit organization and the routine practices of growers are indicative of the farm project’s mission to realize more equitable and inclusive local food systems, specifically by providing garden access and increasing the availability of sustainably-produced foods among growers’ households and social networks.
Recommended Citation
Short, Tyler Austin, "La Minga as a model of food justice? : a thesis on the motivations and practices of immigrant and native-citizen growers at La Minga cooperative farm in Prospect, Ky." (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2410.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2410
