Environment, Resources and Sustainability

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.

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The African Green Revolution and the Food Sovereignty Movement: Contributions to Food Security and Sustainability A Case-study of Mozambique
(University of Waterloo, 2017-02-21) Shilomboleni, Helena; Clapp, Jennifer
ABSTRACT Although there is consensus among academics and policy makers that how we grow and distribute food needs to be more sustainable, the most appropriate ways of doing so remain unclear and are at times deeply contested. Over the last decade, two vastly different approaches to food security and sustainability have become increasingly prominent in Sub-Saharan Africa. One is the African Green Revolution, implemented by a consortium of partners comprised of African governments, the private sector, philanthropic donors, and multilateral institutions. The other is the African food sovereignty movement, headed by Africa’s peasant unions and civil society organizations. The ontological backgrounds of these two agrarian models inevitably influence their respective approaches to food security and sustainability in the different regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. The African Green Revolution is bent in favor of modern rationalist notions about structural transformation and development. The food sovereignty model is inspired by historical structural theories that tackle issues of power and (in)justice embedded within global political and economic structures. These diametrically opposed ideological foundations help to explain the polarization and tensions that exist between the two models. Such tensions, however, also hinder fruitful discussion about how to effectively address key concerns in Africa’s food systems. To advance the academic debates, this dissertation explores the following question: in what ways can sustainability assessment frameworks give insights into the potential contributions of the African Green Revolution and food sovereignty approaches to food security and sustainability in rural Mozambique? This study had three research objectives: (1) to refine conceptually and apply a sustainability assessment framework that merges key food security and sustainability goals in southern Africa’s food and agricultural systems; (2) to better understand the perspectives of stakeholders implementing the African Green Revolution and the food sovereignty models as well as the farmers that they serve to determine what each model offers in terms of food security and sustainability; and (3) to tease out the implications of the two models’ activities on the ground, including their potential impact on food and agricultural policies. In 2014 and 2015, fieldwork was conducted in Mozambique, where both agrarian models are being implemented by two organizations. The African Green Revolution is supported by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and the food sovereignty model is represented by the National Union of Mozambican Peasants (UNAC).The field-research was designed to comparatively assess how the activities of these two organizations contribute to food security and sustainability from farmer perspectives. Various techniques were used to gather data, including a comprehensive literature review, semi-structured interviews with key informants (n=71) and participant observations. The research identified five interrelated sustainable food system indicators that were informed by farmer perspectives and sustainability assessment literature: access to quality seeds, activities to improve soil health, income opportunities, land rights and policy engagement. Taken together, these indicators can help to address both the technical aspects of meeting food security (issues of production) and the policy and political economy issues that facilitate (or hinder) the means to achieving food security. The research finds that the African Green Revolution and food sovereignty models respond to the needs of Mozambican smallholder farmers in more complex and nuanced ways than mainstay discussions in academic and public forums reveal. While some scholars and actors contend that the African Green Revolution and food sovereignty models are incongruent, Mozambican smallholder farmers utilize some of the resources that the models offer in complementary rather than competing ways. Neither model addresses critical components of food security and sustainability in their entirety. Where possible, farmers engage both models—taking from each what helps them to meet these two goals. The conflicting interplay between the African Green Revolution and the food sovereignty movement at the broader political-economy level, versus farmers’ complementary engagement with the two models, illustrates that meeting food security and sustainability objectives is, in some contexts, messy. This realization suggests a need for further research, particularly on options that may serve broad-based sustainability goals in Africa’s food systems.
Challenging Big Food Sustainability: Dietary Change and Corporate Legitimacy in the Agrifood Landscape
(University of Waterloo, 2019-04-26) Scott, Caitlin Michelle; Clapp, Jennifer
Growing awareness of the environmental, health, and social impacts from the foods we eat has meant renewed attention on the concept of 'sustainable diets'. The sustainable diets literature, to date, has focused on the environmental impact of meat and dairy, and the potential for environmental improvements from individual dietary change. However, given increased consumption of ultra-processed foods (formulations of industrial ingredients made to be convenient, palatable and profitable) along with their environmental and health impacts, it is important to also examine the role of the corporations that manufacture these foods in debates around sustainability. The world's largest food and beverage manufactures, collectively known as "Big Food" corporations, are the primary makers of ultra-processed foods and are working extensively frame themselves as having a legitimate role in the food system through a variety of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. This thesis examines three questions. 1) What sustainability strategies are Big Food companies pursuing to claim legitimacy? 2) How do insights from the literature on the global governance of food and the environment help us understand Big Food companies' choice of sustainability strategies? 3) What are the policy implications of Big Food sustainability strategies for achieving sustainable diets? To answer these questions, the research examined sustainability reports, policies, and positions of the eleven largest food and beverage manufacturers globally. The thesis identifies three main strategies connected to sustainable diets that make up part of the larger sustainability activities of these companies. First, as a portion of their CSR, firms engage a variety of 'scientized' data and discourses to measure and discuss their sustainability performance. Second, responsible sourcing has become a strategy of all corporations in the sector, based on the assumption that sustainably-sourced ingredients will make a product sustainable when it reaches consumers. Finally, product-portfolio management ensures that companies have varied portfolios that increasingly feature products deemed environmentally-friendly and healthy. After the strategies were identified, the thesis applied an analytical framework that outlines key political and economic characteristics of the global agrifood landscape that matter for global environmental politics of food. This analytical framework was used to analyze how these features enable corporate actors to make legitimacy claims about the work they are doing and their role in future food security and sustainability. The research from this dissertation illuminates the policy implications of the sustainability strategies being implemented and the governance context in which they are established. First, Big Food companies are pursuing narrow visions of sustainability that may obfuscate issues and their linkages in the food system. Second, the features of the agrifood landscape, as well as unique characteristics of the sustainable diets debate, enable these corporate actors to tie their legitimacy claims to their corporate sustainability work to establish themselves as part of the solution to challenges in the food system. Finally, these strategies, articulated in this context of fraught food politics and sustainable diets debates, protect corporate growth and mitigate risk, partially by downloading risk and responsibility onto the most vulnerable actors in the food system. The intention behind recent conceptualizations of sustainable diets - established at a 2011 scientific symposium - was to bring forward a holistic vision of the food system that recognizes the interconnected nature of human health and ecosystems. However, the interpretation of the concept through corporate sustainability raises important questions about the legitimacy of Big Food corporations and their role in the future of food security and sustainability.
A Digital Agricultural Revolution: Ontario Grain Farmer Perceptions of Digital Farming and Big Data
(University of Waterloo, 2019-08-14) Ruder, Sarah-Louise; Clapp, Jennifer; Collins, Andrea M.
Digital technologies and big data are revolutionizing agriculture, but the implications for equity and sustainability are uncertain. From big data climate forecasts and massive robotic tractors, to satellite pest control and precision agriculture drones, digital farming is taking off in traditional agribusiness and agri-food start-ups and receiving positive attention from governments and the media. Proponents claim that digital farming will improve efficiency, productivity, and profits for farmers and address food system challenges, including food security for a rapidly growing world population. Critics are concerned about the distribution of risks and benefits, particularly between farmers and corporations, as well as the possible adverse effects for justice, quality of life, and the environment. The digital agricultural revolution could either enhance or degrade food systems; however, it is more likely that the implications will be uneven and contradictory. While there is growing attention in the social sciences on the social and political implications of digital farming, there remains a dearth of empirical studies in the emerging discourse. This thesis considers the following research question: How do Ontario grain farmers perceive digital farming, and how do their perspectives compare to public debates and academic research? Given the prevalence of grain operations, high farming population, and leadership in ag-tech innovations, Ontario is an ideal context to study farmer perceptions of digital farming. To answer the research question, an abductive and constructivist study design employs a suite of qualitative methods in line with three objectives. First, a review of academic and grey literature identifies key narratives in digital farming debates, focusing on the views of proponents and critics. Second, a combination of qualitative methods – including an online questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and fieldwork observations – generates a rich depiction of Ontario grain farmer perceptions of digital farming and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Third, abductive analysis considers the results as a whole to compare farmer perceptions with central themes in emerging discourses. Emphasizing political dimensions and farmer experiences, the discussion centres on the implications of digital farming for power relations, data concerns and knowledge, agricultural labour, and environmental impacts. The thesis offers empirical contributions and proposes directions for theory development in a nascent research community.
Front-of-Pack Labelling in the Caribbean Community: Power and Policy in Regional Standard Setting
(University of Waterloo, 2022-10-03) Hinton, Lucy; Clapp, Jennifer
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) identified FOP labelling as a promising policy tool to slow the region’s growing rates of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These diseases are associated with the region’s high levels of importation of processed and ultra-processed foods. FOP labels aim to curb the sales and consumption of such foods. Despite emanating from directly within CARICOM’s regional governance architecture for health and progressing through CARICOM’s regional structures for implementing policy, CARICOM failed to adopt a regional and uniform FOP label. This thesis asks why this was the case. Using a combination of policy document analysis and participant interviews, this thesis examines the role and power of different actor groups in developing the policy and their efforts to implement it. It finds several reasons for CARICOM’s failure to adopt a regionally standardized FOP label. First, FOP labelling policy was moved from the realm of public health governance in CARICOM to a regional standard-setting venue to be adopted by individual states. The origins of FOP labelling as a regional public health policy were obscured when it was moved into the regional standard-setting process for implementation. Second, the process of standard setting privileged corporate interests and those with existing knowledge of the process, which meant that industry actors were able to successfully delay, weaken, and circumvent the policy’s adoption and implementation. Ultimately, the aim of FOP labelling, as a health policy instrument, is to curb consumption (and therefore sales) of highly processed foods. This goal put it at odds with the commercial interests of most of the corporate actors who were frequent food labelling standards participants at multiple levels of governance. Because most standard-setting organizations and processes are situated within the international trade regime, where industry actors have more knowledge around the processes, culture, and norms of operating, these actors successfully reframed FOP labelling as anti-trade, ignoring the public health rationale and the policy’s origins as part of the regional political agenda. At the same time, public health actors lacked the authority and the power inside the standard-setting venue to ensure the passage of the policy. The thesis draws lessons from the CARICOM FOP labelling case that can help inform the ways that food systems policies are developed, adopted, and implemented. First, and most importantly, the choice of process matters. Actors who originally had agenda-setting power cannot or do not always maintain authority and power. Second, those with knowledge around the processes, culture and norms of the chosen venue will have a strategic advantage in their approach to resistance. Third, regional governance provides an especially challenging setting for implementing policies that conflict with commercial interests, since more intervention points become more accessible to corporate resistance. The thesis finds that when a food systems policy is contingent on the consensus of actors in different communities, the actors’ familiarity with the process and overarching regime can have a major impact on the ways that power is operationalized and ultimately, the success of the policy’s adoption and implementation.
Growing What We Eat, Eating What We Grow: Investigating the Enduring Role of Jamaica’s Domestic Food System
(University of Waterloo, 2020-04-29) Timmers, Beth; Clapp, Jennifer
From Spanish colonization in the 15th century until today, Jamaica’s agri-food system has been firmly linked to a global network of trade through its agricultural exports and food imports. Common assumptions in critical food studies literature imply that countries with close links to global food and agricultural trade come at the expense of their own domestic food systems. In Jamaica, most scholarly attention focuses on the negative impacts of liberalized agricultural trade, structural adjustment and food import dependence on the country’s food system, which render it largely irrelevant. However, the domestic food system, encompassing production, trade and consumption of food on the island, is still very much relevant today. What explains the endurance of Jamaica’s domestic food system despite the country’s strong reliance on food and agricultural imports and exports? This dissertation makes the case that the domestic food system endures because it serves integral roles in society through its diversity, flexibility and embeddedness, qualities that tend to be obfuscated by dominant bodies of critical food studies scholarship. The central objectives of the research are: (1) to explain three specific roles that Jamaica’s domestic food system serves today; (2) to bring insights to critical food scholarship, specifically, food sovereignty and alternative food networks (AFN) scholarship by applying a conceptual framing that analyzes the ways that Jamaica’s domestic food system is embedded in its particular social, ecological and historical context; and (3) to provide reflections on the policies that could support Jamaica’s current efforts to support its domestic food system. The findings presented in this dissertation result from fieldwork conducted in Jamaica in 2015 and 2016 designed to investigate the specific roles the domestic food system serves today, in response to the research question. Using an interpretivist case study approach, this dissertation relies on mixed methods research, including a comprehensive literature review of food and agricultural development in Jamaica, a household survey (n=702) of food security levels in Kingston, conducted as part of a broader research program on food security, triangulated with direct observation in locales where people purchase food, key informant interviews with stakeholders in the food system (n=17) and semi-structured interviews with small-scale farmers and food traders (n=45) in Kingston and Jamaica’s bread basket in the southern region of St. Elizabeth. The data collected in the course of this research show that the supply chain of food that is grown and eaten on the island serves three distinct functions that are deeply embedded in society and play important roles related to: 1) urban food access; 2) informal livelihoods; and 3) food culture. These three main functions that emerged from the data thus form the core of my argument. First, the data show that the domestic food system enables access to a range of fresh produce for Jamaica’s urban population, specifically in its capital city, Kingston. Second, the domestic food system is a source of income for Jamaica’s small-scale farmers and food traders. Farmers’ and traders’ are, and have always been, firmly linked to a capitalist market in a myriad of ways, yet also embedded in the informal economy. Lastly, the domestic food system represents an integral part of Jamaicans’ individual and national identity, fostering both farmers’ and eaters’ sense of place. Small-scale farmers still draw on a range of place-specific agricultural techniques, and the Jamaican diet remains characteristically creole, drawing on imports as well as domestically grown food. Further, the state has a history of supporting the domestic food system as a way to articulate the country’s national identity. This dissertation analyzes the bricolage of everyday activities that keep the domestic food system consistently relevant and, in many cases, vibrant. This dissertation adds theoretical nuance to critical food studies by framing Jamaica’s domestic food system as part of a diverse economy, a concept created by economic geographers to study the embeddedness of markets in society. The framework, when contextualized in the specific political economic context of former plantation economies, reveals the unique, complex ways that domestic food system in Jamaica simultaneously circumvent and reproduce global food system dynamics. It is important to understand the roles and functions of the domestic food system in countries that rely on imported food to get a more complete picture of how localized food systems can co-reside with high reliance global food and agricultural markets. The results presented in this dissertation provide an in-depth, contextualized analysis of the current state of Jamaica’s domestic food system that are likely to be relevant to the Government of Jamaica’s contemporary efforts reduce dependence on imported food.
Navigating the Land Between Religions: New Perspectives on the Fair Trade and Food Sovereignty Movement Strategies to Challenge International Trade Governance
(University of Waterloo, 2017-09-27) Burnett, Kimberly; Clapp, Jennifer
The fair trade and food sovereignty movements adopt very different strategies for challenging the existing international agricultural trade regime. Food sovereignty contests and resists the existing system, employing contentious politics and an “outside strategy” motivated by the view that the regime cannot be reformed. Meanwhile, fair trade largely focuses on existing opportunities within the system, taking up a collaborative, “inside strategy” in an effort to progress towards an equitable and just trade system. These movements have notable differences in their views on how to change how trade is governed. This research seeks to explain and understand why these two different movements take up different strategies in pursuit of a common goal. To understand and explain these two strategies, I analyze their strategies and activities, and the factors that explain these, through an interdisciplinary analytical framework that bridges the theory and practice of governance and change. My findings and analysis demonstrate that when we analyze these movements through such a lens, we see more clearly the complexities of governing international trade and challenging neoliberal hegemony, and how the seemingly divergent strategies of these movements are complementary to achieving economic justice. The fair trade movement’s inside, collaborative strategy has leveraged available opportunities to shape policy, raise awareness on injustices in trade and global supply chains, and to change the norms and discourses on international trade. These activities are complemented by political advocacy that is rarely acknowledged in the academic analysis of the movement. Those in the movement who work with fair trade markets do not treat markets as a sufficient mechanism to address injustices in the international trade system. Rather, they see markets as a short-term option for poor producers, and as a mechanism to contribute to facilitating new opportunities to make long-term changes in the system. However, the movement responds to existing conditions, and does not seek to push for new opportunities where none exist. Food sovereignty, meanwhile, has forged space for peasant voices and democratic legitimacy in global governance of food and agriculture through its contentious politics, and has been part of the movement that has raised significant awareness and distrust around free trade agreements. But the movement appears to be guided by more principles than a strategy that has identified the processes for achieving its goals for fairer trade. It also does not fully appreciate how its strategy affects export commodity farmers. While it seeks to dismantle, rather than reform, the WTO, it does not have a concrete vision for an alternative without the WTO. With a vision that no opportunities can emerge from its contentious politics, its strategy does not align with what we know about this type of strategy’s contributions to change. I conclude that both movements’ strategies are necessary to changing the international agricultural trade regime, and neither alone is sufficient. I question and? problematize a tendency to analyze movements that treat their strategies and activities in isolation of broader contributions to common problems. This is matters for academic analysis of these and other movements moving forward. Rather than evaluating movements in isolation, might we consider instead what contributions they bring, and be careful to consider these contributions as part of a broader collection of movements and activities?
Private Carbon Credit Initiatives in the Agricultural Sector: Investigating Motivations and Understanding Their Effects
(University of Waterloo, 2023-12-15) Hannay, James A.L.; Clapp, Jennifer
This thesis project examines the emergence of privately led soil carbon sequestration (SCS) credit programs, specifically for traditional cropping systems, in the agriculture sector in North America. Carbon credits have received renewed attention and legitimacy as a policy response to climate change in the wake of corporate net-zero and sustainability goals, as well as the Paris Climate Agreement’s establishment of a new carbon trading system. The climate-food nexus has become the focus of many international organizations and climate change mitigation initiatives. One proposed mitigation solution is the creation of carbon credit programs in the agricultural sector, particularly for the implementation of new cropping practices for soil carbon sequestration. While some of these carbon credit programs are government-run, most agricultural carbon credit programs are run by private agri-business firms in voluntary carbon markets. Employing a critical political economic theoretical framework, this study examines some of the motivating factors for agribusinesses to engage with private SCS credit initiatives, as well as the consequences that these initiatives have for agricultural practices, the economics of agriculture, and farmers in North America. Utilizing scholarly literature, document analysis, and interviews, this study demonstrates that agribusinesses have three main motivations for engaging with SCS credit initiatives: pre-emptive action and reactive responses to changing regulations; bolstering corporate reputations; and avenues for new profit through SCS initiatives, especially the use of farmer data collected through new digital monitoring technologies. These motivations demonstrate the desire of agribusinesses to shape responses to climate change in their favour, sustaining “business as usual” business practices, thereby maintaining and expanding opportunities for profit. The thesis also shows that private SCS credit initiatives encourage a lock-in of agriculture into industrial farming methods while precluding discussion on substantive change in the agriculture sector. SCS credit initiatives also continue the trend of the economization process that have been prevalent under neoliberal capitalism. By taking a market-based instrument approach to climate change, agribusinesses create new spaces for profit and control of agriculture supply chains. These initiatives also pose justice issues, with farmers likely bearing the cost of pursuing these private carbon credit programs. Lock-in of ecologically harmful farming practices, economization, and subsequent justice issues generated through private SCS credit initiatives create adverse effects for both farmers and the environment.
Situating Sino-African agricultural demonstrations in the global food order: Case studies from Rwanda and Uganda
(University of Waterloo, 2016-04-21) Lawther, Isaac; Clapp, Jennifer
This thesis explores two Sino-African agricultural centres in Rwanda and Uganda that demonstrate Chinese agricultural technologies, and examines them as they relate to the changing global food order. When Sino-African agricultural engagement emerged as a topic of discussion in critical food studies literature in the mid-2000s, a number of scholars assumed the relationship was emblematic of a Chinese foray into Africa to grab land. However, since the first appearance of claims that the Chinese government and associated agricultural firms were orchestrating an agricultural venture in Africa, many Sino-African specialists focused their attention on countering these claims, instead arguing that China’s impact in rural Africa is quite modest, and the relation is in fact the continuation of a long history of engagement. Despite the active debate among scholars about Sino-African agricultural relations on the question of land grabbing, very little attention was paid to how disseminating Chinese agricultural technologies in Africa relates to the shifting dynamics of the global food landscape. Food studies literature tends to project the historic tendencies of Western opportunism in Africa onto contemporary dynamics of Sino-African affairs – leading to claims that China is neo-colonial and grabbing land. In countering these claims, Sino-African specialists orient their findings on a case-by-case basis, and argue that China’s presence in Africa is too small to make a considerable difference in Africa’s rural sector. The back and forth between these two narratives has ultimately been unproductive when trying to draw conclusions about the current relationship between China, Africa, and the politics of global food and agriculture. In this thesis, I aim to resituate the debate on Sino-African agricultural partnerships to consider it as part of the changing global food system. To do so, I ask a question that is seldom presented in existing literature: Why is it that African countries are keen to articulate with China in their own agricultural development? This seemingly simple question helps to bridge the gap between the opposing positions on Sino-African agricultural relations as it engages African countries on how they make decisions in determining their own agricultural trajectory. It also explores what it is that China offers in agricultural development from the perspective of those that it partners with. The study is based on two Sino-African agricultural technology demonstration centres that were born out of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation summit in 2006. In asking this question, I arrive at three main conclusions. First, I find that China’s agricultural technologies are relatively easy to adopt in the rural African setting, and that building partnerships with China offers a window of opportunity for African countries to determine their own developmental trajectory. Second, I find that the Sino-African agricultural development centres allow the Chinese companies that run them preferential access to local markets. Third, I find that the relationship is not without its problems, and its impact should not be inflated, as it ultimately remains a work in progress.
Social Finance for Sustainable Food Systems
(University of Waterloo, 2021-09-22) Stephens, Phoebe; Clapp, Jennifer
The scholarly literature demonstrates that dominant financial investment patterns tend to contribute to unsustainable outcomes in the food system. Mainstream lending hurts prospects for building more sustainable food systems as it tends to favour large-scale industrial food and farming businesses. Mainstream finance tends to under-resourced alternative food systems by not providing them with the capital they need to grow and thrive. Further, financialization, which can be understood as the growing share of financial rather than productive activities in the economy, shapes the broad contours of the food system and also exacerbates unsustainability. Despite the powerful dynamics exerted by finance on food systems, there is room in the alternative food systems literature for an analysis of the role of finance in supporting transitions towards more sustainable food systems. Social finance is a growing investment approach that aims to reorient finance for greater sustainability outcomes and some believe that it holds promise for addressing the problems with mainstream finance in the food system. This dissertation contributes a novel perspective to the literature on alternative food systems. It asks: (1) What explains the rise of social finance initiatives that target food systems?; (2) Which characteristics of the initiatives support or inhibit transitions towards more sustainable food systems? (3) What broader lessons arise regarding the design and implementation of these initiatives for scholars and practitioners interested in food system change? To answer these questions, this qualitative study provides analysis that draws on semi-structured interviews with 34 participants in Canada, United States and the Netherlands related to social financing funds that are geared towards food system change, as well as primary documents such as impact investment reports and fund websites and a review of the grey and scholarly literatures. The analysis is spread across four main empirical chapters, each of which answer the above research questions in different ways, and taken together, contribute to advancing the arguments that arise from this work. First, the rise of social finance initiatives that target food systems emerged through a combination of factors including: i) the unsustainability of the dominant industrial food system; ii) the increased financialization of the food system; iii) the lack of financial capital available to alternative food systems; and iv) growing interest in alternative financing mechanisms after the 2008 financial crisis. Second, these initiatives show varying degrees of transformative potential, depending on their investment ethos and the version of sustainability (weak or strong) to which they subscribe. The primary hurdles that are holding these initiatives back relate to their reliance on individuals to make change, small scale, inability to consistently ensure accountability of their impacts to investors and the misalignment between the time horizons of investments compared to those required to make meaningful social and environmental impact. Finally, the findings point to broader lessons about the role that social finance can play in sustainability transitions. I do not consider social finance, in its current form, a robust or radical enough approach to encourage profound sustainability transitions but it could be a helpful tool as part of a larger innovation ecosystem to support sustainable food systems.
Under the Skin: Assessing the Ideological Underpinnings and Material Reality of Cultured Meat
(University of Waterloo, 2022-11-24) Giles, Richard Eugene; Clapp, Jennifer
The relationship between industrial animal agriculture, resource depletion, and environmental instability has become increasingly clear in recent years. In keeping with the longstanding focus on consumers, and consumption’s role in mitigating climate issues, a number of potential “resolutions” for this subject area have been promoted, including “local” food and plant-based diets. Cultured meat – the act of growing meat in a laboratory setting – has seen increased attention as a theoretical silver bullet, able to appease both consumer demands and environmental concerns. Recent developments have also presented the general public with the possibility that cultured meat may be a reality in the near future. This dissertation investigates the promises, imagination, and narratives surrounding cultured meat. This work demonstrates that there is a need for caution; multiple aspects of cultured meat require further investigation, debate, and reconciliation before the promises of this sector can be seen as viable. The current state of the cultured meat industry is fraught with conflicting claims, inconsistent and incoherent information, and projections which do not align with ongoing revelations. Academic literature and media discussion also needs to be treated with critical attention; overarching themes in the literature point to an early normalization of cultured meat without a strong evidential basis, and there is a need to acknowledge the under-developed nature of much of the discourse writ large. Furthermore, cultured meat is not often discussed in reference to a systemic context – this dissertation addresses this issue by placing the subject matter in the context of anthroparchy and carnism, two theories related to the natural and animal condition. These theories are utilized to test claims that cultured meat is disruptive, as well as investigate whether cultured meat reinforces ongoing systemic practices, or even expands them in unexpected directions. Such an approach is important in ensuring that cultured meat is contextualized, understood in reference to larger frameworks of material and immaterial matters. This investigation finds that there is considerable reason to be wary of claims that cultured meat is truly “revolutionary.” The dissertation contrasts the current “state of the industry,” as well as the themes seen in ongoing discourse, with long-standing and emerging discourses which have been important in legitimizing cultured meat as a theoretical – and investment-worthy – innovation. Long-standing narratives of cultured meat as a “disruptive” entity are called into question, both in terms of cultured meat’s current developmental status, and in terms of various imagined futures stemming from these narratives. Such narratives are contrasted with claims that cultured meat is simultaneously familiar, a mere continuation of ongoing practices but in newer, more environmentally friendly form. Finally, the dissertation also identifies recent narratives and imagery which, though a small part of the overall discourse, hold massive implications for cultured meat, and larger societal concerns, in both material and immaterial manners. These narratives require critical investigation in tandem with the systemic theories of anthroparchy and carnism. Despite the wide-ranging, theoretical impacts of cultured meat on animal(s), nature, and other elements, the narratives of these impacts often refer to animal and nature in a broad, general sense, if such reference is even made. This dissertation emphatically demonstrates the limitations of current approaches, and makes a clear case that cultured meat should not be treated as an interesting novelty, nor a force of inherent good or liberation, but an entity which necessitates wide-ranging inquiry, regardless of how cultured meat comes to fruition. This dissertation ultimately calls for a more robust discourse and research agenda surrounding cultured meat; a greater sense of caution regarding its prospects; and a stronger reference to the material and immaterial conditions of the animals who will be the subject of cultured meat production.
Unearthing the power in GMO discourse: An analysis of Canadian agriculture and agrifood debates
(University of Waterloo, 2017-01-24) Tourangeau, Wesley; Clapp, Jennifer
The overall purpose of this doctoral research project is to add to our knowledge and understanding of power relations embedded in discourses regarding Canadian agriculture and agrifood debates. Power can be obscured by discourse, and discourse infiltrates acts of power. The primacy of scientific knowledge, specifically reductionist versions of modern science, in decision-making on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a fitting example; science-based information plays a critical role in safety assessments, while also holding a discursive role in the legitimation of GM technology. As such, we need to take a closer look at acts of speaking and writing about GMOs—the complex, historically embedded context of debating over the benefits and risks of agricultural biotechnology through conversations, publicity materials, news media, and other forums. To achieve this more detailed examination, this thesis examines power relations through a broad, multi-dimensional lens, from the immediate and overt interactions of actors engaging in decision-making processes, to the embedded and amorphous influences of social norms and histories. The overarching research question for this study is: In what ways do conceptualizations of power and discourse help to further our understandings of disputes over genetically modified organisms in Canada? This question guides this project through case studies regarding present issues and contexts in Canadian agriculture and agrifood debates, focusing on three different discursive arenas. First, the thesis examines pro-biotech and anti-biotech discourses to add new insights concerning the power relations embedded in efforts to inform public opinion on the topic of agricultural biotechnology. This analysis highlights the Canadian state’s overall positive position toward agricultural biotechnology, which provides leverage to pro-biotech public relations while delimiting anti-biotech campaigns. Further, it illustrates that the potency of pro-biotech frames is sustained by historically and culturally embedded norms and values. These findings uncover a clearer picture of the complexity of power relations within agri-biotech discourse, and the extent to which anti-biotech groups are disadvantaged in these debates. Second, an analysis was performed on the parliamentary proceedings of Bill C-18, Canada’s Agricultural Growth Act, which amended several pieces of agricultural legislation. This article contributes to a broader and more integrated approach to exploring the ways in which power dynamics are articulated in law and policy debates. Discourse analysis of 32 parliamentary documents helps to shed light on a range of patterns regarding relations of power and control in the text and context of these debates. Based on this analysis, I discuss the relations of power which work together in an imbricated manner to produce an imbalanced climate for agriculture and agrifood law and policy development—one that prioritizes economic liberalization, global competitiveness, and private property rights. The third and final case study focuses on news media discourse regarding the introduction of genetically modified alfalfa in Canada. Based on a discourse analysis of 88 news reports on GM alfalfa published over a four year period, this study identifies constitutive power relations that influence the direction of reporting. Specifically, this news coverage is influenced by normative conditions regarding news values and media culture which shape the report writing and editing process, and neoliberal normative assumptions that help to re-embed dominant knowledges regarding market mechanisms and private property rights. This doctoral research project makes contributions to knowledge through an interdisciplinary analysis of power and discourse in Canadian agriculture and agrifood debates. The three case studies offer substantive empirical contributions to the areas of Canadian agriculture and agrifood studies, particularly regarding GMOs. As an interdisciplinary project, this research contributes to literatures across sociology, environmental studies, science and technology studies, and political science. Furthermore, important insights are developed from the fusion of a four-dimensional power framework with methods of discourse analysis. Future research could benefit from an elaboration of the theory-method approach outlined in this study. Discourses and power relations are co-constructed in varied contexts and necessitate an approach that engages with such dynamics.
Yes but No: Havana Peace Agreement’s Ambiguous Sway on Colombia’s Rural Development Policy
(University of Waterloo, 2018-09-26) García Trujillo, Andrés; Clapp, Jennifer; C
On 24 November 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace accord to end a six-decade war. One of the items included in the accord was the Comprehensive Rural Reform (CRR), an agreement laying out substantive measures on rural development aimed at improving land access, public goods provision and peasant’s agricultural supports. This thesis explores whether negotiated transitions can serve to enact distributive rural change through an in-depth examination of the relationship between Colombia’s rural development policy and the peace accord. It traces the antecedents, negotiation and early implementation of the CRR. The thesis draws from my direct involvement in the peace process as a government advisor and three years of fieldwork in Bogotá. In order to explain both the CRR’s emergence and the reasons for its ambivalent effect on policy, the thesis develops a framework that weaves together insights from three strands of literature – agrarian political economy, peace implementation and institutional change. By connecting global economic trends, emerging norms, and domestic political dynamics, this framework enables an analysis that captures how the exceptional circumstances of the transition in Colombia influenced policy outcomes. The thesis argues, on one hand, that the peace agreement did open policy space for a distributive rural agenda. This policy space gained leverage due to two factors: first, favorable global and domestic norms appropriated by key decision makers during the negotiation phase; and second, the drafting of robust provisions in the peace agreement translatable into policy actions. On the other hand, the thesis shows that once the negotiation ended, the reform’s scope for change was severely constrained by internal and external obstacles faced by the government. Internally, policy capture by agribusiness elites, coupled with a lack of bureaucratic coordination in the implementation and political pressures exerted by the government’s coalition to move away from the CRR, effectively undermined the government’s distributive agenda. Externally, a strong right-wing opposition heavily affected the legitimacy of both the government and the peace process overall.

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