Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Filtering by
- All Subjects: community
- All Subjects: Local Food
- Creators: School of Sustainability
"Black in Bleu" is a reflection on my life as a young, Black woman in America told through poetry, and music in conjunction with feminist activists' work as well as results from a survey amongst other young, black students. This paper is a window into Blackness reflecting my experiences as well as many others in a way to find love in that reflection. There is a playlist that goes along with the paper meant to be listened to simultaneously with the reading.
When initially planning our project, we outlined a research process to conduct interviews with garden participants to determine the best practices for community garden connection-making. However, after our initial discussions with the CPCG Advisory Committee, it became clear that their goals could be better achieved through an applied project focusing on increasing community connection than from a research project. We have adopted our former research question--which asked how community gardens could serve as a means for community connection-- as our premise, and we seek to build upon it through the creation of programs, partnerships, and pieces of art that collectively expand the garden’s connection to its surrounding community. To begin this process, we worked with the leaders of the CPCG to identify the group’s main goals that they sought to achieve with our support. In collaboration with the CPCG Garden Advisory Committee, the three goals that we identified were: 1) increasing neighborhood participation in the space, 2) launching the site’s new subscription program, and 3) transforming the garden space into a place of community.
Using Sant’Ambrogio and Open Air as case studies for the research, this paper provides insight on the degree of impact that local farmers’ markets can have on creating food sovereignty within communities; and how pre-existing factors and negative forces diminish the benefits of farmers’ markets and local food movements. Among many, some of these negative forces include the effects of social and cultural pressures that promote fast food and convenience; a broken agricultural system controlled by monopoly companies; industrial food items priced cheaper than small farmers can compete with; and an underscore of unethical behavior across all sectors (including organic and local) that inhibit honest farmers from making enough profit to survive.
The comparison between Sant’Ambrogio and Open Air Market indicates that big agriculture undermines the success of local farming movements in both countries, but Phoenix can still learn from the movement in Florence, which is rooted in a deep history of outdoor markets and rich food culture. Italy is fortunate in terms of their agriculture capacity because their climate allows for a diverse variety of crops; while Arizona does not have the same agricultural capacity as the Mediterranean climate of Italy, it is still valuable to mimic the network of local food systems that Italy has. In order to do so, Phoenician consumers should take advantage of the food that grows locally and then supplement it with more diverse crops from other areas of Arizona or the southwest.
The Open Air Market in Phoenix currently does not play an important role in the food system except for helping people to relate community and socialization to food. Transparency, communication and education are required to actually increase the success of small local farmers and to help the Open Air Market play a real role in the local food movement and the establishment of food sovereignty.