Department of Nutrition and Food Studies faculty and students are actively engaged in ongoing research projects that span the globe. Our research teams are always looking for students interested in gaining hands-on experience. Current opportunities are searchable below by interest areas and the faculty leading them, as well as through a keyword search of project titles and descriptions. By clicking on a faculty member’s name, you can learn more about their work on their profile page.
Agricultural Guestworkers and the New Immigrant Economy
Category: Farming, Immigration, LaborThe study looks at agricultural guestworkers (H-2A employees), and builds on my expertise in policy, immigration, and agriculture. For this project, I have collaborated with the Cornell Farmworker Program to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative interview data in the Northeast region and also with Canadian researchers on a comparative analysis of these transnational labor programs. Although the program is in increasing demand, there is little research documenting worker and farmer experience with this program. By better creating understanding of the work conditions of this under-studied, yet growing group of agricultural workers, this research encourages new ideas for improving food system health and equality. This work is uniquely situated in terms of timing and politics to impact both policy and academic scholarship on labor, food, and immigration.
Researchers:
Minkoff-Zern, Syracuse University
Mary Jo Dudley, Cornell University
Bhavneet Walia, Syracuse University
Rick Welsh, Syracuse University
Visit the project website
Assessing haying and grazing regulations on Conservation Reserve Program lands
Category: Birds, ConservationInvestigators seek to identify and assess the haying and grazing practices on Conservation Reserve Program Lands which both protect ground bird nesting sites and are acceptable to farmers.
Project Status: Funding one graduate student currently. Conducting a literature review of farmer and landowner attitudes of, and experiences with, the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. Students interested in learning more should contact Rick Welsh.Coast to Cow to Consumer: Use of Algae Feed Supplements to Enhance Productivity and Reduce Methane Emissions
Category: Climate Change, Dairy, Dietary DiversityInvestigators seek to understand if conventional dairy farmers are knowledgeable about algae feed supplements and its potential to reduce enteric methane emissions from dairy cows.
Project Status: Funding one graduate student currently. Analyzing data collected from a survey of attendees at a Cornell Dairy Nutrition Conference. Students interested in learning more should contact Rick Welsh.Visit the project website
Food Policy Councils as a Vehicle to Address the Racial Wealth Gap in Food System Labor
Category: LaborThis research project, funded by the Lender Center for Social Justice and Metlife foundation, we are studying Food Policy Councils and their engagement with food system labor. My collaborator and I will conduct in depth case studies with community-based grassroots councils, asking about opportunities and challenges for food activists and policy makers in aliening with food systems workers, with hopes of addressing tensions that we see in the sustainable food movement spaces, with regards to facing class and race based inequalities related to labor and resource access. The project comes out of research for my recent book- where I hope to apply theory to practice and make recommendations for best approaches to enact organizational and structural change.
Project Status: Project in progress, working with graduate students in Food Studies. Students interested in learning more should contact Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern.Visit the project website
Food sovereignty and displacement: gardening for food, mental health, and community connection
Category: Food Sovereignty, Immigration, RefugeesThis project explores the relationship between refugees’ experience of trauma, relocation, and recovery as related to gardening, food access strategies, and community-based livelihood practices and is a collaboration with Syracuse colleagues in Public Health and Marriage and Family Therapy. In this study, which received funding from the Fahs-Beck Foundation and the Lerner Center for Population Health and Health Promotion at Syracuse University, we took an interdisciplinary approach to understanding food access, livelihood practices, and well-being among refugees who have experienced trauma. In this multi-sited and mixed-methods study, we worked with refugees engaged in gardening programs and those who are not, to analyze the role of gardening in coping with immigration and trauma related stresses as well as economic well-being and food provisioning. We also partnered with a local nonprofit group that works with the regional refugee population to assure the applied use of this line of inquiry for the broader refugee community. Through this research, we have been able to provide new recommendations regarding how to incorporate food and gardening-based practices in refugee therapy and general outreach.
Researchers:
L-A Minkoff-Zern (Syracuse University)
Bhavneet Walia (Syracuse University)
Rashmi Gangamma (University of Colorado, Denver)
Visit the project website
Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project (SUFFP): Community & Traditional Knowledge and Practice to Reduce Runoff and Restore Food Ecosystems
Category: Climate Change, Dietary Diversity, Gastronomy, Urban ForestFunded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of the USDA Forest Service, the Project Goal is to develop edible green infrastructure that supports nutrition and ecosystem-wide benefits along a riparian corridor (Furnace Brook headwaters to Onondaga Creek to Onondaga Lake) on the canopy poor, low income, minority-majority southside of the Syracuse. Project addresses US Forest Service Program Area 2, Reduce Runoff with green infrastructure & edible plant communities. Planting 460 trees, 250 shrubs on 2 acres along 9.0 mile corridor in Syracuse to: increase intercept 1.8M gal, lower stormwater impact 0.4M gal over 20 yrs, and increase available dietary diversity. SUFFP promotes community’s increased canopy, food access, jobs, low-income neighborhood dev. SUFFP partners: SU, ESF, Syr City, Ctr Native Peoples and the Environment (ESF), Onondaga Earth Corps, southside organizations, community activists; Onondaga Community College (OCC).
Researchers:
Stewart Diemont (ESF) Environmental Biology, Project PI;
Matthew Potteiger (ESF) Landscape Design;
Anne Bellows (SU) Food and Nutrition Access, Subgrant PI;
Sudha Raj (SU) Nutrition
Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project for Green Infrastructure
Category: Climate Change, Dietary Diversity, Gastronomy, Urban ForestFunded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of the USDA Forest Service, the Project Goal is to develop edible green infrastructure that supports nutrition and ecosystem-wide benefits along a riparian corridor through low income and canopy lack on Syracuse southside. Project addresses Forest Service Program Area 2 Reduce Runoff through green infrastructure with edible communities — 451 trees, 211 shrubs on 2.64 acres along 3.0 mile corridor in Syracuse, NY to: increase intercept by 1.7M gallons; lower stormwater impact by 0.4M gallons over 20 years. SUFFP provides increased canopy food access, jobs, low-income neighborhood development. SUFFP partners: SU, ESF, Syracuse City, Onondaga Earth Corps, southside community organizations.
Researchers:
Stewart Diemont (ESF) Environmental Biology, Project PI;
Matthew Potteiger (ESF) Landscape Design;
Anne Bellows (SU) Food and Nutrition Access, Subgrant PI;
Sudha Raj (SU) Nutrition
Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project for Green Infrastructure
Category: Climate Change, Dietary Diversity, Urban ForestFunded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of the USDA Forest Service, the Project Goal is to develop edible green infrastructure that supports nutrition and ecosystem-wide benefits along a riparian corridor through low income and canopy lack on Syracuse southside. Project addresses Forest Service Program Area 2 Reduce Runoff through green infrastructure with edible communities — 451 trees, 211 shrubs on 2.64 acres along 3.0 mile corridor in Syracuse, NY to: increase intercept by 1.7M gallons; lower stormwater impact by 0.4M gallons over 20 years. SUFFP provides increased canopy food access, jobs, low-income neighborhood development. SUFFP partners: SU, ESF, Syracuse City, Onondaga Earth Corps, southside community organizations.
Researchers:
Stewart Diemont (ESF) Environmental Biology, Project PI
Matthew Potteiger (ESF) Landscape Design
Anne Bellows (SU) Food and Nutrition Access, Subgrant PI
Sudha Raj (SU) Nutrition
The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability
Category: Farming, Immigration, Labor, RefugeesAlthough the majority of farms in the United States have US-born owners who identify as white, a growing number of new farmers are immigrants, many of them from Mexico, who originally came to the United States looking for work in agriculture. This project explores the experiences of Latino/a immigrant farmers as they transition from farmworkers to farm owners, offering a new perspective on racial inequity and sustainable farming. I found that many of these new farmers rely on farming practices from their home countries—including growing multiple crops simultaneously, using integrated pest management, maintaining small-scale production, and employing family labor—most of which are considered alternative farming techniques in the United States. I argue that immigrant farmers, with their knowledge and experience of alternative farming practices, are—despite a range of challenges—actively and substantially contributing to the movement for an ecological and sustainable food system.
Project Status: project complete, published as solo authored book manuscript and articles Students interested in learning more should contact L-A Minkoff-Zern.Visit the project website
Use of Algae Feed Supplements in Organic Dairy to Enhance Productivity and Reduce Methane Emissions
Category: Climate Change, Dairy, OrganicInvestigators seek to understand why organic dairy farmers use algae feed supplements in their herds’ diets and the potential for it to reduce enteric methane emissions from dairy cows.
Project Status: Funding one graduate student currently. About to undertake a national level survey of organic dairy producers on knowledge and use of algae feed supplements. Students interested in learning more should contact Rick Welsh.Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food System
Category: LaborMy second book project, Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food System (Forthcoming, UC Press) is an intersectional intervention into the study of labor and food systems. In this book, my co-author and I have conducted a comprehensive study of food system sectors and the conditions for workers from farm labor to food waste, drawing on the vast literature in this field from Latinx Studies to Anthropology to Labor Studies, highlighting the voices of activists and organizers. We also conducted our own analysis of government data to discern the state of workers today. Looking across sectors, we make the case for a food systems perspective, connecting working conditions and resistance in both productive labor in the workplace and reproductive labor in the home. The aim for this book to be an accessible guide for students, scholars, and activists who are learning about and working on food labor issues.
Researchers:
L-A Minkoff-Zern, Syracuse University
Teresa Mares, University of Vermont