An Equitable and Sustainable Generational Transition in the Agriculture-Food System through Entry by New and Aspiring Farmers: Policies and Perspectives from Europe/Spain and the United States/California (seeking student to focus on Spanish component of research)
Robin Marsh, Senior Researcher
Institute for the Study of Societal Issues
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
This project will address the overall question: how can regional, national and local policies, practices and transdisciplinary collaboration facilitate inclusive participation in a rural revitalization process based on just and sustainable agriculture? With the median age of farmers in the mid-to-late 50s and serious issues of rural depopulation in both Europe and the U.S., these societies face a policy challenge to attract, enable and reward new generations of farmers. Research will compare policies in Europe and the U.S. and conduct field work in Spain and California, two regions comparable in the importance of agriculture, climate, strong immigrant populations, and new/aspiring farmer and advocacy group innovation. We will also examine the wider context of cross-national debates on the ‘future of agriculture’, acknowledging the powerful and divisive politics that ultimately may determine whether or not a sustainable generational transition is possible at all.
Our key research questions are: 1) What is the policy environment in the US and Europe for lowering barriers to entry by aspiring farmers, especially youth and aspirants from historically socially marginalized groups? 2) Within California and Spain, how do diverse aspiring farmer visions of sustainability map onto established positions of radical and reformist agriculture-food system transformations? 3) In Spain, where rural revival of depopulated regions is taking off throughout the country with varied success, what lessons can we learn applicable to the U.S. and California? Planned outputs include widely disseminated comparative policy reports and briefs, a stakeholder knowledge and experience-sharing workshop, and an open access academic publication.
This project is funded by the Peder Sather Center at U.C. Berkeley in collaboration with Norwegian universities.
Role: The student for this URAP project will address research questions one and three (above). She/he will focus on the research component in Europe/ Spain (rather than U.S./California).
1) Building on previous URAP research, she/he will update, summarize and analyze policy documents for Europe/EU and Spain regarding barriers and opportunities for new, beginning, aspiring, and traditionally socially disadvantaged farmers. Within Spain, the policy review will include particular regions/comunidades of special interest such as Catalunia, Valencia, Navarra, and Andalucia.
2) She/he will assist in transcribing, coding and analyzing interview interviews with selected farmers and support organizations in Spain. 3) She/he will be invited to participate in the preparation of publications and other outputs as resources and time permit.
Qualifications: 1) Fluency in Spanish to be able to read all of the policy documents.
2) Preferably some prior experience doing qualitative research.
3) An academic major in the social sciences, preferably in political science, food systems, or public policy.
4) Excellent writing skills.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Dr. Alicia Donnellan Barraclough
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://sathercenter.berkeley.edu/
Related website: https://issi.berkeley.edu/