Researcher(s):
Michelle Moulton
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2013 Completed: May 2014 Go to project site
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In this thesis, I explore the unintentional environmental exclusion of certain bodies in alternative food distribution networks in Portland, Oregon. I look specifically at two nonprofits – Portland Fruit Tree Project and Zenger Farm - that attempt to make fresh, local, and organic produce more accessible to low income and minority communities. Through interviews with staff, surveys of participant demographics, and Geocoding participant addresses on ArcGIS, I discovered the funding sources of these non-profits, what their outreach goals are, and how expansive their distribution network is. Additionally, using spatial analysis tools on ArcGIS, I delineated two regions in Portland that are most likely to experience food insecurity, and collected data on how aware these communities are of the services of these nonprofits, their level of interest in these nonprofits, and their perceptions of accessible food sources. I found that these nonprofits have a fairly wide distribution network, but primarily appeal to white , albeit low-income, community members that are apart of the dominant cultural discourse in Portland. Communities of color in Portland are more likely to lack amenities and would, in theory, benefit most from these services. Although these non-profits have recently initiated valiant attempts at outreach, these services are essentially unknown to the targeted communities. With theoretical backing, I argue that my finds show that the discourses surrounding these nonprofits echo notions of “purity” associated with an environmentalism that has historically been inaccessible. These notions of “purity” are opposed to agro-industrial consumptive lifestyles, and have the potential to stigmatize those who participate in those lifestyles. Furthermore, these nonprofits are able to function based off of uneven capital distribution in their favor, yet their mission statements would be irrelevant without this uneven capital distribution. I suggest Community Mapping as a multiclass, participatory approach that these nonprofits can be apart of to move towards working with, rather than for, these targeted communities.