Recent American Studies Graduate Nominated by Purdue for Prestigious Academic Prize

West Lafayette, IN — Dr. Virginia Pleasant, who received her PhD in American Studies in May, was recently selected to represent Purdue in the national CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award competition. These awards are given annually to individuals who have completed dissertations that, in the eyes of the award committee, represent original work and make a significant contribution to the discipline. Two awards are given out each year, and individuals must be nominated by a member institution. 

Pleasant’s dissertation, directed by the Center for the Environment’s former associate director, professor Laura Zanotti (ANTH), is titled “There’s More than Corn in Indiana: Smallholder and Alternative Farmers as a Locus of Resistance.”  The work, which provides a policy-driven ethnography of smallholder and alternative farmers in Indiana, reflects Pleasant’s interest in the multiple identities of such farmers and how they challenge ag-tech meta-narratives about how farming should ‘work’ in America. As Zanotti notes, her dissertation “is an important piece of American Studies scholarship that engages with the environmental humanities, political ecology, and decolonizing frameworks to advance our understandings of complex socio-ecological relationships, foodways, and adaptive strategies among farmers, including BIPOC farmers, in Indiana. This work provides important new insights on historical and varied food systems and offers a deeply researched counter-narrative to dominant notions of farming and its history in the midwestern United States.”

Center for the Environment intern Kaylee Fang caught up with Dr. Pleasant this month to find out more about her work. 

Alternative Farming in Indiana

Pleasant has had an interest in local food and farmers since she was an Undergraduate at Ball State University. Growing up in NW Indiana, Pleasant said that she has many memories of riding in the car and being surrounded by corn fields. Hoosiers are proud of their Indiana sweet corn, but it was not until much later that she realized those fields were not full of sweet corn, but rather the dent corn that is used for animal feed and processing. Her love for local food and passion for advocacy for local farmers continued after she moved to Indianapolis, and further developed when she joined the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, in the American Studies Program at Purdue, with a focus in Anthropology.  Her research focused on the locavore and slow food movements, but farmers were always the driving force of her work.  Pleasant’s aims shifted as she realized the importance of working with farmers and telling their stories to foment change in the food system while also addressing farmer needs. 

The Impact of COVID on Small Farmers

As Pleasant notes, "Pivoting" became the theme of 2020 as many farmers shifted their previous models of marketing and selling in order to move product, keep themselves safe from COVID exposure, and ensure they remained in business for the long term. Many markets and individual farmers had to navigate challenges by opening e-commerce options with curbside pick-up; many others accelerated their plans for opening on-farm stores complemented by multiple pick-up options. Though these strategies allowed them to stay in business and serve their communities, they came with expenses and a learning curve. Meanwhile, farm and small business relief programs administered by the government frequently passed by small and mid-scale farmers. 

As Pleasant explains, “The irony of the pandemic is that the small and mid-scale farms who were successful in gaining entry to wholesale (mostly restaurants) markets were devastated by the shut-downs and reduced ordering from their wholesale accounts. Because these farms were accustomed to wholesale, they were suddenly left with a lot of food ready to harvest and a limited direct-to-consumer customer base. Some of the most successful farms in the state of IN shut down as a result or, at the very least, significantly changed their business models and scaled back.” On the flipside, according to Pleasant, farmers with strong direct-to-consumer customer bases thrived and were selling out of product on a weekly basis.

Farmers also experienced added challenges in getting their animals harvested and processed due to bottlenecks in the meat processing industry. When large-scale packing plants shut down, the added pressure on small and midscale processors was more than most could handle – there simply were not enough meat processors to meet the increased demand.

Overall, Pleasant argues that the pandemic did improve consumer and legislative awareness of the gaps in our conventional food system, as well as the great opportunities that are present in our local food systems. However, this awareness did not generally translate into financial or other support for farmers who were doing their best to ensure that communities had consistent access to healthy food.

Thoughts on Environmental Justice

Though the growing practices implemented and crops produced by small farmers are extremely diverse, all of the farmers Pleasant worked with placed a heavy emphasis on stewardship. Most explicitly talked about how their practices are regenerative, or go "beyond organic," as they encourage biodiversity, revitalize ecosystems, and build soil health on the farms. By doing this, many of these farmers, Pleasant noted, have been able to eliminate or minimize the use of synthetic chemical inputs like pesticides and herbicides.

As an alternative to large scale production, which is typically predicated on monocropping, efficiency, mechanization, and (arguably) an ethos of extraction, small scale diversified farms, according to Pleasant, champion agroecological practices that work with the land instead of attempting to conquer or manage nature.

In short, the farmers expressed to Pleasant their desire to build and support ecosystems and the environment on their farmsteads and within their communities. This is in addition to the impact that shortening our food value chains has on reducing carbon emissions – simply put, if the food is not traveling thousands of miles, we are reducing the carbon footprint of the supply chain.

Research Takeaways

Pleasant noted that, though common metanarratives frequently devalue the work of small-scale farmers by trivializing their contributions to food production and the local economy, conventional production systems frequently fail to provide for local communities. Citing the work of Ken Meter, Pleasant observes that Indiana consistently ranks in the top 10 of agricultural production (based mostly on large scale commodity production) and yet imports 90% of its food and up to 98% of its fresh fruits and vegetables. Pleasant argues that improving transparency in the food system could do much to catalyze a shift in our agricultural markets and landscapes.

This is the first installment of the Center for the Environment’s focus on outstanding graduate research focusing on environmental challenges.

Writers: Kaylee Fang, Communication Intern, Center for the Environment and Lynne Dahmen, Managing Director, Center for the Environment

About Purdue’s Center for the Environment: The Center for the Environment promotes proactive, interdisciplinary research, learning, and engagement that addresses important environmental challenges. The Center connects the faculty and students across departments and disciplines who work on environmental challenges by actively supporting the development and implementation of innovative projects and teams