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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Creators: School of Sustainability
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
In 1996, I was born to two Filipino immigrants in El Paso, Texas. At the time, my father was in the process of completing his residency at the University of Texas, working strenuous 16-hour days almost every day as a fledgling resident physician. My mother was a full-time nurse then, working nightshifts to give her the freedom to tend to me during the day while my father was in training. Prior to their immigration to the United States under working visas in 1994, both of my parents came from families whose livelihood depended on agriculture. For my father, it was fishing, raising livestock, and tending to rice fields in a village called Siaton; for my mother, it was sugar cane processing and a family business of selling pigs in a town called Bogo. Despite facing many ups and downs along the way, these family occupations afforded my parents the opportunity to attend school from elementary to higher education. They eventually decided to pursue jobs in the health care industry so that they could immigrate to the United States, send money back to their loved ones in the Philippines, and provide a better life for the family they intended to start together.
ContributorsJumalon, Nikka Victoria (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / White, Adrienne (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The past decades have seen major changes with globalization, increased trade, digital technologies, and the increased threat of climate change consequences. These changes in trends have changed how the world communicates, travels, produces, manufactures, and develops. Yet despite having the most advanced technologies and the most connected world to date, other aspects of development and quality of life have not kept up the pace in adapting and changing based on these trends. Specifically in developing countries, while the outside environment may be changing, the systems, structures, and societal values in place have not fully adapted. These aspects of society are naturally slower to change which can be dangerous when dealing with the current issues the world faces, for example the proven increase in climate change consequences. The consequences of slow or no changes at all in systems, structures, and societal values fall disproportionately on women who are often now bearing more responsibility without the benefits due to outdated structures that were developed based on other environments and priorities. This gap between the formal structures and the rapidly changing environments and its effect on women can be seen through analyzing specific common trends in developing countries, such as the feminization of agriculture and climate change. Analyzing this gap from these specific trends can give insight into possible solutions to both speed up the closing of the gap and lessen the burdens for women in the meantime. The role of informal or community networks should be considered as a possible way to do this. The case of St. Lucia and its experience with both the feminization of agriculture and the threat of climate change will be analyzed to understand how informal or community networks could serve to help close the gap and lessen the burdens for women.
ContributorsDooley, Hanna Mary (Author) / Augustin-Behravesh, Shirley-Ann (Thesis director) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In this moment, as I find myself on the brink of transition from my undergraduate studies into my postgraduate endeavors, I find my conscious drift back and forth between reflection on my experience to date, and contemplation of what awaits. As I reach this milestone, I am challenged with the task of creating a thesis that not only projects what I have learned and how I have grown in my time at Barrett, the Honors College, but how I will continue to grow and impact the world into which I set out. This growth, subtle yet constant permeates my collegiate experience. I have grown in knowledge, experience, and maturity. I am more self-aware yet working to become less self-conscious, and more selfless. I have made lasting memories I wish I could relive and reckless mistakes I wish I could forget, but both wishes are unavailable, and would be unproductive if granted. I have only grown by being open to new experiences that I may one day cherish and avoiding the pitfalls that have brought forth instances of destruction and despair. I hope to represent this growth in this thesis so that it may serve as a launching pad for me and for those who read it, so that together we can begin to solve the problem I address, a problem that has grown but which we must not allow to grown out of control.
ContributorsRapier, Matthew Owen (Author) / Duerden, Sarah (Thesis director) / Foster, William J. (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This paper seeks to explore connections between the industries and sociopolitical environment in Costa Rica and human capital. Human capital for the purpose of this paper is an individual or a population’s ability to produce goods and services concerning human factors of productivity namely their health, education, or technical skillset. This question is interesting because improving human capital, in general, allows for more goods and services to be produced, and therefore higher welfare. This means recognizing conditions that improve human capital may provide a guide to enhanced prosperity. The paper identifies the characteristic industries in Costa Rica as tropical agriculture and small electronics manufacturing, provides insight as to how on the job training and externalities of these industries might affect human capital, and compares other similar nations’ data to world data provided by the world bank. The other central aim is to draw insight on how a nation having a standing military might impact human capital, which is relevant because Costa Rica abolished its military over fifty years ago.
ContributorsOttenheimer, William (Author) / Datta, Manjira (Thesis director) / Hanson, Margaret (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In the United States, healthy food is much more expensive than heavily processed meat, grains, and sugars. Meanwhile, heart disease and other autoimmune disorders are the leading causes of death in the country. The Green New Deal explicitly mentions that the agriculture system is in need of reformation and that healthy food must be supplied as a right to all citizens, however, there is no mention whatsoever of government farm subsidies. While corrupt subsidization is the main culprit for the broken agriculture system of today, the same tool can be used to transition to a regenerative system that not only can provide environmental support, but also supply healthy food as a right to everyone in the country.
ContributorsSanta Cruz, Diego Carlos (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Aly El Sayed, Sara (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to compare ecolabeling to conservation easements for facilitating multi-use land between food production and conservation. Biodiversity has been on the decline as human agriculture uses more land. According to Encyclopedia Britannica “Half of the world’s habitable land (some 51 million square km [19.7 million square miles]) has been converted to agriculture, and some 77 percent of agricultural land (some 40 million square km [15.4 million square miles]) is used for grazing by cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock. This massive conversion of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other terrestrial ecosystems has produced a 60 percent decline (on average) in the number of vertebrates worldwide since 1970”(Rafferty 2010). The purpose of this paper is to explore ways individual landowners and private businesses can continue to operate profitably on their land while reversing the harmful loss to biodiversity observed in the past 50 years. Two of the most popular methods of achieving conservation on workable land are ecolabeling and conservation easements.
ContributorsWilcox, Christopher James (Author) / Leonard, Brian (Thesis director) / Schoon, Michael (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is an organization promoting itself as "The National Voice of American Agriculture." However, small independent family farmers are losing their livlihoods, having their rural communities destroyed, and are suffering from mental illness due to the covert actions of the AFBF. In reality, the AFBF is a national advocate for agricultural conglomerates and industrial agriculture practice. The AFBF drives the American agribusiness sector and demobilizes small farmer mobilization for any iteration of a modern and sustainable agricultural revolution. This thesis seeks to evaluate the ways in which the Farm Bureau demobilizes farmers in their ideology, education, and activism and seeks to recommend effective ways challenge the American Farm Bureau in pursuit of an agriculturally just Green New Deal (GND). A GND for agriculture emphasizes the need for independent family farmers and ensuing components of sustainability, regenerative practice, and an integrated, healthy food system.
ContributorsRaderstorf, Alia Mcpherson (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Calhoun, Craig (Committee member) / School of Sustainable Engineering & Built Envirnmt (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
This paper explores how the United States federal government has historically supported animal agribusiness to the detriment of native ecosystems and wildlife. It focuses on agricultural subsidies and state-funded predator persecution, with an emphasis on the historical conflict between gray wolves and ranchers in America. This paper examines the ecological consequences of agricultural policy in the U.S. and potential solutions to these issues that account for the needs of humans, wildlife, and the environment.
ContributorsPoe, Katherine (Author) / Barca, Lisa (Thesis director) / Schultz, Judith (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
This creative project consists of a series of narrative and interactive videos that explains the Mediterranean Diet from both nutritional and cultural perspectives, its history, and shares the stories and insights of female farmers in Southern Italy. These women preserve native ancient varieties of edible flora and cultural practices that have evolved with the plants and the territory. This video series recognizes the women preserving their traditions and local varieties native to Southern Italy and highlights the importance of local place-based eating and foodways. The videos provide questions and vocabulary to engage with the audience and challenge them to develop ideas and ruminate on the material presented.
ContributorsLarson, Chloe (Author) / Vitullo, Juliann (Thesis director) / Dal Martello, Chiara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05
ContributorsLarson, Chloe (Author) / Vitullo, Juliann (Thesis director) / Dal Martello, Chiara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2022-05