Date of Completion
2022
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Community Development and Applied Economics
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Victor Izzo
Second Advisor
Martha Caswell
Keywords
agroecology, political transformation, university farms, university administration, transformative agroecology
Abstract
Within the framework of the fifteen principles of agroecology generated by CIDSE (2018), this work evaluates the performance of the political dimension of agroecology by the University of Vermont (UVM) Horticulture Research and Education Center (HREC) in South Burlington, Vermont. It analyzes the strengths and key barriers to HREC’s performance of the four political principles of agroecology, notably discussing the farm’s status as a university farm as a key variable to that performance. It also analyzes the relationship between HREC and UVM and themes that emerged from participants around strengths and gaps in that relationship. To assess the viability of these results amongst other university farms, this work also analyzes the performance of the political dimension of agroecology at three other university farms and compares the relationship between these farms and their partner universities to the relationship between HREC and UVM. This work highlights university farms as key stakeholders for education, farming communities, and the communities surrounding these farms, and assesses dynamics around investments into these farms from their partner universities.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Bauer, Avi H., "Performance of Political Agroecological Principles at University Farms: Site Assessment of the Horticulture Research and Education Center" (2022). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 447.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/447