Introduction: 

Urban Environmental Encounters is featuring the first  joint departmental senior capstone class of  students from the Environmental and Urban Studies programs including BA students from Lang College, BA and BS students from SPE’s Bachelors Program for Adult and Transfer Students, and dual degree students pursuing BA/BFA degrees at Lang and Parsons. This confluence of young activists, designers, planners, media influencers, and change-makers created a fertile ground for collaborative, transdisciplinary research projects on a broad range of topics including sustainability, food waste and insecurity, foodscapes, food (in)justice, urban and indigenous agriculture, environmental knowledge production and distortions, gentrification, urban green spaces, trans ecologies, racism in technology and design, coastal protection systems, regenerative communities, social media, health consequences of air pollution, and the environmental effects of the military-industrial complex. The tremendous breadth of subject areas is matched only by a similarly astonishing diversity of final products that, in addition to traditional research papers, also included a short documentary, a pictorial magazine, a children’s book, and the prototype of a hybrid coastal protection device. 

The United States has a waste problem and a hunger problem. Nearly 40% (130 billion meals) of all food in America is wasted, while 10.2% (13.5 million) of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2021. Through research and one case study analysis, I aim to draw these two issues together and develop mutual solutions. One nonprofit organization, Rethink Food, is doing exactly that. Through two different programs, this organization is trying to create new pathways in the food system to bring restaurants, community organizations, and consumers together. Through my research and through interviewing the CEO, Matt Jozwiak, and CNO, Nathan Ricke, of Rethink, I conclude that alternative food networks are not only possible but necessary. Creating ways for restaurants to interact with and give back to their community by reducing food waste while also allowing that community to decide what food or help is appropriate for them is the first major step in reducing food waste and food insecurity in our food system. Matt and Nathan explained to me that their programs allow restaurants and community organizations to do “what they’re good at.” This means allowing restaurants to focus on production and for community organizations to focus on distribution. By allowing restaurants and community centers to focus on what they were built to accomplish, each partner is also forced to bond through the links connecting restaurants to community centers. These links are unusual in the current food system. It is rare that donations move so freely between for-profit entities while also allowing for relationships to be built. By using Rethink Food as an almost perfect example of what is needed and what is possible within the structure of our existing food system, I conclude that connections between restaurants and the community within which they operate is vital and a key step forward in building a more equitable and less wasteful food system.

“Racism by Design” is a conversation about the intersection between race, technology, and design. This project took its initial form as a guest speaker event, hosted in collaboration with Lang CESJ. The guest speakers were Jennifer Rittner, Sareeta Amrute, and Jack Jin Gary Lee. Their work intersects on racism in the topics of design, technology, and legislation. Now more than ever, technology is rapidly and seamlessly integrated into our lives. In its many forms, technology can be used as a tool for progress and social advancement. However, our awareness of the coded algorithms that help inform decisions about and within our cities is much less known. With the current rapid technological advancements and technologies alignments with unbridled capitalism, it is crucial to interrogate who these tools are inaccessible to and how technology surveils. My project grew from an investigation into white supremacy and racism, and how it shapes our experiences with technology. This conversation invites white people to be part of the discussion: to listen, be openly inquisitive and be participants in breaking down the system that we are socialized to uphold. For historically excluded and racially marginalized people, technological developments mean increased policing, hyper criminalization and cultural extraction. From colorism in camera registration to the default white page and access to government documents, technology is experienced on an intersectional level.

Elisabeth Childers-Garcia

Pronouns: she/her

Gentrification Comes to Sunset Park: A Critique of the Industry City Redevelopment Project

This paper analyzes how the redevelopment projects in historically disinvested neighborhoods are causing gentrification. In the NYC context, there has been much emphasis on redevelopment projects in Manhattan, however, it is important to analyze the implications these projects have on immigrant low-income neighborhoods.  These implications and effects will be analyzed through a case study of Sunset Park and the redevelopment project Industry City.  A historical account of Sunset Park that looks at secondary quantitative data and primary archival materials puts the neighborhood’s  present and future in context. Following a historical account, the combination of primary qualitative and secondary quantitative data is used to demonstrate how Industry City is creating an inequitable and unsustainable development that relies on an extractive economy through exclusionary designs that erase the neighborhood's communities and historical past. The main findings in this case study are: 1) land use policy is not equitable, 2) the current waterfront of Sunset Park heavily relies on an extractive economy that predicates its profit on the neglect of the neighborhoods community, climate, and health, and 3) community engagement in redevelopment projects like Industry City needs to be reconfigured to be more equitable. 

Single-use plastic products litter our daily lives and it’s virtually impossible to live a day without encountering an object that either contains or interacts with plastic. If the current rates of consumption are to continue, the earth and its inhabitants will face many consequences including polluted water, ingestion of plastic, and more. It was estimated that there is currently about 75 to 199 million tons of plastic in the ocean. In order to deal with this issue, we need to take a deeper look into the role plastic plays in our lives and reassess our relationship with the material. This thesis focuses on how we might decrease the consumption of single use plastic by changing mindsets and perceptions of plastic. By interviewing experts in the field and researching the material, the goal is to develop a strategy to reach a future in which plastic doesn’t become a hindrance to the natural processes of our environment and negatively impact our lives. The results of my research revealed that it will take a joint effort of several strategies to figure out how we can decrease our reliance on single-use plastics and utilize them more strategically. Most important are fundamental policy changes along with strategies to educate the public about plastic use, avoidance, and proper disposal. It is also fundamental that we reassess our relationship with plastic as a material and learn to value and respect the advancements that it has provided for our society. I will conclude by providing my personal perspective on my desired future of plastics that will focus on how to change mindsets around plastic usage and how to teach others about why plastic is important but the systems around it have been mistreated. I want to emphasize that plastic itself is not the problem but it is our responsibility to reassess our own actions and make big steps from the top down on how plastic should be used.

One thing that any urbanite can agree on is that parks and greenspaces are treasured and valued pieces of a city. The more, the merrier! And yet, there are undeniably areas within cities that are underserved in their access to greenspaces. So what happens when these neighborhoods finally get their parks? 

This paper seeks to understand the role that newly built greenspaces play in the overall change of neighborhoods and how those relate to the process of gentrification. Through studying three specific case studies in New York City - Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO, and the Highline in Chelsea - I seek to evaluate the neighborhood and community changes that occurred in the 5 to 10 years following their creation. I am particularly interested in population changes consisting of age, racial and ethnic composition, as well as income and education levels. I am also considering changes in neighborhood physicality,  understood as the appearance of new chains (such as Whole Foods or Target) and any growth in newly constructed buildings. I ultimately seek to understand if these green spaces are a result of past gentrification processes or an “omen” of incoming gentrification. I hope to understand the extent to which newly formed greenspaces accelerate these processes of neighborhood change. 

It is apparent that we are in the midst of the Anthropocene and moving towards an Urbanocene, as more people are now living in cities and this urban growth is expected to continue exponentially. Urban resilience and sustainable urban ecosystems are becoming increasingly important as city populations grow and external challenges, such as climate change, are becoming more intense and frequent. Improving urban agriculture is a great way to enhance  urban resilience and mitigate climate change. In order to improve urban agriculture systems, it is essential to look beyond established knowledge systems and sustainable design strategies. Urban agriculture systems need to embrace a different approach to create productive and still environmentally efficient urban systems that value interconnected systems and reduce resource use. A new perspective to urban agriculture could benefit tremendously from older, traditional, and indigenous knowledge systems and their reliable sustainable practices. My research analyzes how indigenous communities have traditionally used agricultural practices while maintaining a collaborative relationship with the natural environment. This research synthesizes these traditional practices and considered their potential for being implemented in an urban environment. I found that many Indigenous agriculture traditions focus on the interconnection of a variety of systems as well as community involvement in order to conserve resources and install positive outcomes into the environment. Preserving and cultivating biodiversity is key value for Indigenous agriculture. This can be found in a variety of polyculture systems such as agroforestry and hydroponic farming. Another important value in many Indigenous communities is creating systems that care for working cohesively and collaboratively with the natural environment. This inherent principle has been represented in Indigenous sytems that use complex multifunctional systems that focus design around the natural environment. Incorporating generation Indigenous knowledge in the design of agriculture systems has allowed Indigenous communities to prioritize native species and work with create a mutually beneficial system within nature. I demonstrate that such traditional, collaborative, and sustainable practices could be adapted to profoundly improve modern and sustainable urban food production. Taking inspiration from Indigenous agriculture traditions could influence us to reconsider how we understand sustainability within an urban context. 

My project is guided by a fundamental critique of the current  approach to education within the United States and its territories which tends to support an understanding of material using curriculum as an isolated subject organized by academic disciplines, instead of interdependent subjects. Approaching the transmission of knowledge through a mode of cyclical understanding encourages transdisciplinary learning and a deeper awareness to the interconnectedness of information in actual lived experience rather than abstract theory. I choose to prioritize the lived experience instead of the learned experience so as to be able to deconstruct the invisible barriers which create unequal educational experiences. I center this research in the context of a small island space, being the island I was born and raised on, Saint Thomas in the U.S Virgin Islands. This paper draws upon empirical and non-empirical research, ethnographic research, field work as a teacher within the PS 282 Park Slope School, self directed professional and personal interviews with ancestral Virgin Islanders scholars, teachers and authors, and reflection on my positionality as a first generation Saint Thomian. 

In order to demonstrate my research, I have written a short-story titled, Sekani and The Kapok Tree which will be accompanied by several illustrations within this paper. This story discusses disaster capitalism, the capitalocene, animism, altruistic behavior, and ecology and ancestry and intertwined subjects which surfaced as main themes throughout my research. This story and its illustrations  is in the process of becoming a  young adult book and is estimated to be self-published in November 2023. Keep an eye out for it.

Natalie Ferry

Pronouns: she/her

TikTok, Information Fatigue, and Climate [In]Action

The Climate Crisis is the largest threat to human existence, yet our efforts towards mitigation do not accurately reflect the urgency of this issue. My background in product design and environmental studies led me to investigate climate action through the lens of user experience and systems thinking. I chose to focus on the social media platform TikTok due to its exponential user growth over the last few years. Tik Tok has a unique product design that relies on AI to provide users with infinite content that is specific to each individual. This model means that people can scroll endlessly on and always find something that is relevant or interesting to them. 

This constant consumption of new information has been more recently questioned by psychologists, scientists, and academics who believe that there are negative correlations between our ability to act on individual values and the amount of media we consume. My thesis looks at media consumption and the impacts of information fatigue on cognitive and behavioral changes related to climate action. I rooted my research in a foundational understanding of psychology and combined this with qualitative and quantitative analysis from various TikTok accounts, their media, and their impacts.

Through my research I concluded that TikTok does contribute to information fatigue and environmental inaction more often than it leads to impactful mitigation efforts. TikTok is not an accredited source and none of the content is fact-checked by the company. This leads to misinformation being widely spread throughout the platform. In the instances where climate related information was shared most times it was about the devastating impact of climate change and offered no resources on how to make meaningful change or take action. This sort of  “dead-end” content is easy to ignore, especially when at the swipe of a finger you can be inundated with cat videos, celebrity drama, and the latest internet trend. 

While TikTok isn’t currently doing much good for the environment I do believe there is room to make improvements. Content that shared solutions and direct ways to make meaningful change through links and clear information were well received. This type of content tends to receive less views, but TikTok as a company has the power to control how many climate related videos pop up on someone's feed. If TikTok decided to increase climate literacy and boost content about climate mitigation efforts I believe it could make a huge impact on climate change efforts globally.

The subject of my thesis is the “greenwashing” jargon that has turned The United Nations Development Goals into little more than propaganda for and in service of powerful corporations, government entities, and NGOs. Looking at how language is used, this paper will interrogate familiar “green” jargon such as “sustainability.” The meaning of sustainability has been lost in the muck of public relations campaigns of powerful institutions. For many of these institutions it is an attempt at rehabilitation and image improvement. The cynical use of the term “sustainability” is common in the PR material that is spewed out of these organizations. This abuse of “green” language goes hand in glove with the destructive practices these institutions are attempting to obscure. I believe the term “greenwashing” still conveys an accurate description of the and deceptive use of language; even as it has become a more common and familiar term. The corporate association with the UN Development Goals became mere propaganda for manufacturing public consent. In sum it is a ruling class effort and propaganda campaign to seize control of  environmental language and movement. This control extends to land, rare earth minerals, and labor worldwide through the use of greenwashing language such as the term “sustainability.” 

My research investigates the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to answer the broader question as to how corporations, governmental entities and NGOs use their association with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as camouflage to hide their environmental degradation? To answer this question, I am primarily relying on secondary resources consisting of past interviews, articles and companies websites that critique the use of greenwashing and other forms of propaganda that serve powerful corporations and other institutions. I have also conducted one expert interview in the form of an emailed questionnaire to Cory Morningstar who is an independent investigative journalist, writer, and environmental activist, who focuses on global ecological collapse and political analysis of the non-profit industrial complex. 

I came to the conclusion that the United Nations and its public-private partnerships (corporations and NGOs) are financializing all the areas of the natural environment in which they function. In addition, these partnerships are more of an obstacle to their stated goals rather than being a force at achieving these goals. A solution to this problem would be to strictly regulate the participation of profit motivated corporations in their involvement with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A better process would be one that is transparent and democratic. The process would include a public education campaign that is backed by a science that has no conflicts of interest (one that is not connective with profit motivated corporations). The ultimate object would be to transform the way people see the natural world as one that is worth saving in itself and not merely one that serves the interests of our capitalist economy.

This thesis project is a combination of a theoretical paper and a mini-documentary film. Through a discursive discussion on transpositions and relational signs the preface to this paper and film examines trans-legibility. Highlighted in this discussion is the purpose of embodied knowledge and knowledge as handiwork. Embodied knowledge in trans studies becomes supplemented by an assemblage transpositional pedagogy. A discursive practice to find what’s without; a way of centering what’s missing to find embodiment. This practice asks for a “transmaterial approach”, using both theoretical writing and artistic medium.

Through a study on biology, trans studies, and animal studies discourses this paper and its accompanying film articulates a materialist transecology. The ‘trans’ prefix grasps for an ecology in motion; an ecology that finds itself within a given subject through chemical and conceptual animality. The essay conceptualizes the existence of a transecology and further posits a transecology within the historical and materialist trans-ecology of the street. Through the trans-ecology of the street I identify the dissolution of the environment and the body within the figure of the Street Queen to conceptualize the transecology of the street-body. The body that is ontologically its environment. 

In the film I take a historical, personal and artistic perspective to the creation and collection of the now legible street-body. The film discusses the affective qualities of street-life for the interview subject, Francine. Beyond the immediate transecology of the street Francine describes the socioeconomic and political territory that situated trans street-life in New York City in the later half of the 20th century. The geographic and economic locale of Times-Square is explored as it relates to life for Street Queens. This trans-ecology activates the street as a central place for trans-life, sociality and economics, from which an ontological relationship with the street grows. 

Current studies regarding sustainability often recommend alternating from one type of “wasteful” technology to another “cleaner” technology. While technology undoubtedly plays a role in society and the concept of sustainable development, non-Western cultures such as those of Indigenous peoples and “peasant” populations hold knowledge of how to utilize the most sustainable gifts from the planet. This paper argues that sustainable solutions must include the preservation  of traditional ecological knowledge, the caring and remediation of the earth and biodiverse agriculture, and the belief of these to be integral to living life. This research is based on my personal  lived experiences and the study of my own grandmother and mother from the Podlaskie region of Poland, farmer Jose Moore from Cahuita in Costa Rica, and the Indigenous Bribri of Costa Rica who I met while studying abroad 3 years ago. A collection of visuals in a magazine display what a sustainable earth through tradition may look like- regenerative, familial, and resourceful. In order to be accessible to the cultures I am studying and the majority of my community, the visual artifact is published in Polish, Spanish, and English. I hope this work inspires readers to look at what parts of their identity and traditions already align with a more sustainable lifestyle, and prompt questioning how to reclaim and reincorporate this knowledge into their life now, whether that means practicing tradition or keeping its knowledge alive. The ultimate conclusion of this project is that sustainability is not hegemonic- like culture it involves using what is specific to one's surroundings, personhood, community and lifeway.

Militaries are global heating accelerators.Behind all militaries there is a complex flow of fossil fuel energy that is the life blood of our warfighting capabilities.The purpose of this research is to evaluate the relationship between Pentagon fuel use, climate change, and the environmental impact of the cost of war. This research will accrue all different types of knowledge that pertains to fossil consumption in the U.S military. Specifically, I will be evaluating US military energy consumption by assessing multiple categories of energy consumed by DOD domestically/aboard,including defense logistics petroleum purchases, DOD vehicle fuel consumption, bunker fuel user, capacities and relative fuel efficiency of several Air Force aircrafts , war related greenhouse gas emission from overseas contingency operation, DOD facilities energy use  across time series data,  US military assets with climate-related vulnerabilities, and other empirical studies that relate to military fossil fuel use. This research will be drawing on time series data of military emissions of the DOD between the years of   1975-2021. As well as goes into the mechanism that DOD uses to greenwash their emissions.

 I will also talk about the different federal agencies that handle the logistics of fossil fuel use for the military, as well as the historical function of war as an expansionary for federal emission. I want to map out the United States military intervention, and its creation of deforestation. The project will map out historical conflicts like the: Civil War, Korean War, and Vietnam War. I will explore how war not only uses massive amounts of fuels but also destroys carbon sinks. Furthermore, the research will dive into  military industrial complexes , and their relationship to the mining sectors as a part of indirect military GHG emissions. I will map emissions from private weapons manufacturers and show the emissions of multiple companies that work with the U.S government. I demonstrate that such enormous energy use exceeds that of many industrial countries, is detrimental to the natural environment, contributes to massive public expenditures, and  inevitably results in even more conflict perpetuating the global climate and security crisis. This problem requires a fundamental rethinking of current practices including substantial cuts in military spending, technological improvements and investments in green energy, and a rethinking of  geopolitical framework and international cooperation.

Coasts provide numerous benefits and services to both life on land and life in water. They sit at the intersection of two worlds making them a critical component in maintaining a stable environment. With growing concerns about the impact of climate change and sea-level rise on the erosion of coastal environments and ecosystems, it has become essential to reconsider current practices in coastal protection.

One of the most frequently utilized remedies include Hard Coastal Protection (HCP) systems featuring large human-made structures that create barriers to obstruct sea currents . Such HCPs, however, are being implemented without adequate understanding of broader ecological implications. Specifically, the obstructions created by HCP diminish the environment's ability to tolerate disturbances resulting in the fact that more HCPs are required to mitigate these effects. Upon extensive research, I propose another alternative. 

Taking Miami Beach, FL as a case study, I propose a hybrid coastal protection system where biomimicry is applied as a design strategy to help mitigate the impact of coastal erosion, storm surge, and coastal flooding without further deteriorating the ecosystem. For decades, the Miami Beach coastline has been experiencing critical erosion. Both HCP and SHP (Soft Coastal Protection) systems have been implemented yet the root cause of the problem is never addressed. Extensive mangrove deforestation has left the southeastern Florida coast vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This hybrid coastal protection system will look to natural ecosystems that can be implemented and mimicked through design for a more adaptable and flexible coastal protection. Grove Pods are modular units that can be placed in areas where additional coastal protection is required.

The ability for an environment to be resilient in the long term, will provide more ecological benefits and economic advantages in protecting both the natural and built environment creating a cohesive network between both ecosystems. 

Could a changing menu be the secret to adjusting to a changing food-scape? It is well established that the agricultural industry at large is a major contributor to global climate change, chiefly through the destruction of land and ecosystems through practices like mono-cropping or the atmospheric emissions produced by food waste and distribution. Additionally, modern agricultural practices have caused irrefutable damage to our air, water, and soil, and as such, a loss of biodiversity which is necessary for healthy crops (Marlow, Diet and the Environment). What is less well understood is how restaurants purvey their food and quietly communicate food choices in their menus, therefore contributing to such problems. A large part of this issue is the lack of education people have about their food, where it comes from, and how it’s grown. With that said, restaurants play an undeniable role in the food-scape of any given city and as such, must hold responsibility for the illusions they perpetuate between people and the food they eat. 

My project uses the menu of Little Ruby’s Cafe in NYC and their year-round offerings of fresh tomatoes as a case study to research how and where they purvey their produce and what exactly could be done differently along the way. Tomatoes are only in season in New York between mid-June and early October. In order to continue offering fresh tomatoes year-round, farmers and distributors in the North East have to circumvent the natural tomato season by either embracing less energy efficient farming techniques such as greenhouses or shipping them in long-distance from wherever they’re still able to grow.  Yet, when eating seasonally, we encourage the diversity that soil needs to replenish itself and therefore, continue feeding us. By also examining Little Ruby’s food distributor, Baldor Industries, and Backyard Farms, Baldor’s main tomato farm in the North East, I seek to ascertain to what extent the restaurant is able to minimize environmental damage by adhering to seasonally appropriate practices. On the basis of my observations, I argue that restaurants should take more responsibility in the messages their menus promote and should utilize them to start conversations about seasonality and our changing food-scape.

Growing up in the Hudson Valley and I was surrounded by farming my entire life and was lucky enough to have access to fresh, nutritiously diverse food. It was always made clear to me growing up that agrichemicals have a detrimental impact on the environment, but the inequity in the food system was never addressed. It wasn’t until moving down to New York City for school that I grew to understand the inequity in access that also exists. The health of the Earth and its inhabitants are directly tied to food and farming. Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are contaminating the land, affecting water quality, biodiversity, and soil health, but they are also able to provide larger yields and less expensive food. Even with this food prices have continued to rise, making it increasingly difficult for people to access nutritionally sufficient meals. Organic farming sits between these issues, being healthy for the planet but out of reach for most Americans. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) as they are used in crop farming also tie into this discussion and will play a significant role in the landscape as we move forward. I use wheat as a case study to illustrate the differences in profitability of organically and conventionally farmed crops as well as the effect that GMOs have on cost and productivity. The interaction between these two fields will likely be paramount to sustainable farming in the future. The roles of government and businesses need also to be considered. Agribusinesses and industrial agriculture have one goal, to be as efficient and profitable as they can, the patenting of crops and the litigious nature of these organizations as well as the price markups to further increase profits are blatant examples of this. Government regulations and policies are responsible for stepping in and protecting citizens from these predatory practices. The basis of this paper is secondary research and interpretation of existing data related to the topics. I found that through government intervention, specifically subsidies and increased social programs, organic farming can be made available to a wider portion of the American population. It was also found that GMO crops increase or maintain productivity while lowering use of agrichemicals. Looking forward, it's important to consider both the planet's health and the people’s when developing sustainable farming plans.

The public discourse around fossil fuel emissions is primarily centered around its effects on global warming, but what is less known is its impacts of air quality on public health, particularly on autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a systemic autoimmune disease that impacts joint function and, in late stages, multiple organs. It has both genetic and environmental causes, and as more information about the negative effects of air pollution on the human body are discovered, the opportunity arises to interrogate the root causes of RA flare ups. This emerging knowledge research paper focuses on this relationship between rheumatoid arthritis and air pollution by evaluating the existing knowledge of the intersection. In doing so, I draw comparisons between the invisibility of air pollution, which cannot be seen at low levels but still affects the body, and the invisibility of many autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis occurs at higher rates in women, and culturally, in the US and beyond, we have the tendency to turn a blind eye towards disability, especially when not visually obvious. This has led to a gap in knowledge that limits progress on disease management and mitigation. Through this research, I argue that there is a link between air pollution and RA flare ups and that the lack of knowledge around this subject is rooted in misogyny and ableism. The paper concludes with a study proposal for New York City to test the relationship between RA and three air pollution criteria.

Everyone wants to talk about sustainability these days. It’s as if the word is sexy, a way to flirt with the idea of being an ethical person. Green infrastructure, clean energy, climate-smart technology—all terms that have lost their sensibility and now function as buzzwords, bouncing between the mouths of entrepreneurs, and policy-makers, and academics alike. It is refreshing that people are finally realizing the extent of the ecological crisis, but the systematic change our planet yearns for will not be achieved through single technologies or “green” initiatives. Sustainable models simply won’t suffice because they are designed to reinforce models that are currently failing. The world is in imminent danger if anthropogenic systems aren’t completely modified to incorporate restorative ecological principles alongside extraction and functionality. 

More than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and this number is expected to increase to 70% by 2050. The opportunity for future development to intertwine with regenerative practices could produce the socio-ecological change that we are all hoping for. Still, the question remains: Can a community be fully regenerative? My thesis argues that the current capitalist model has degraded the environment to a state that only regenerative practices can repair. I will critique the ideology of a “planet B” that underlies the ecological experiment known as the Biosphere 2 to set the stage for my future vision for its surrounding space. My research into capitalist ideologies, ecological systems, and regenerative practices will culminate into a development plan for a potential regenerative community in Oracle, Arizona on the land surrounding the Biosphere 2 known as CDO Ranch. This project will overall inform how regenerative design reframes societal systems by denouncing the rift between humans and nature and proposing human-ecological symbiosis through restorative mechanisms as a way to approach future development.

Who was supporting you in your work? How did you work with them?

Matthew Kwatinetz, NYU Professor. This project is being facilitated under Q Partners “Q”, a double bottom line investment and consulting firm focused on sustainability, cultural incubation, and community inclusion. Q was founded in 2008 by Matthew Kwatinetz, former Executive Vice President  at NYC’s Economic Development Corporation and current Professor at New York University (NYU). To conceptualize this project, Q has partnered with CDO Ventures, an asset management company that holds rights to the land around the Biosphere 2 property. As a research assistant for Q Partners, I have taken several ideas formed during initial stages of the project in 2021 by Q and CDO and expanded on them to create this community plan. The plan will encompass features of the mixed-use development and make recommendations for systems of food production, transportation, water and energy usage, and waste management. To clarify, this is an initial proposal that is based on estimates and would require professionals in respective fields with much more expertise to execute and develop.

How was this project or experience has been impactful or transformative?

The goal of my project is to create a space that fundamentally changes the way humans interact with their environment. I gained valuable insight on how to replace harmful development projects based on  capitalistic frameworks with ecologically symbiotic, just, and regenerative frameworks. It inspired me for not only what the future holds when our generation gains control, but also what I am capable of creating.

What would you do differently?

I am a pretty big procrastinator, so going forward, I would have liked to spend more time to expand certain aspects of my thesis. I wish I had the time to review more community design plans, financial real estate models, and professional expertise to inform the implementation and design strategies needed to execute my plan. I also wish I had reached out to conduct interviews to supplement my research.

Southern states like Louisiana and Texas are landscapes that have been riddled with coal mines and fossil fuel power plants are crucial for their economy, while simultaneously being leaders in agriculture. The use of the land for food and fuel are conflicting interests as one is dependent on the other for a healthy environment. Even with fertilizers, pesticides, and subsidies to keep their modern agriculture industry afloat, millions of people in these regions still suffer from poor diet and illnesses related to environmental degradation and pollution

Traveling to New Iberia, Louisiana and Bastrop, Texas to conduct case study research with three different BIPOC activist farmers revealed the intersectional phenomena of injustice caused by land use by power stakeholders in these regions. The dynamic work done by these individuals in their small southern cities while suffering from the impacts of disinvestment and environmental injustice in their community demonstrated the importance of their work. In academic literature there is a heavy emphasis on acknowledging food sovereignty and regenerative agriculture work done by white farmers yet rarely ever by BIPOC farmers and activists, highlighting the gaps in research on the diverse approaches taken by those I interviewed. After learning about the initiatives of Phanat Xanamane, Brittney Benton, and Carl Cooper Jr., I wanted to further examine their  experiences as well as investigate the health impacts and outcomes in these  regions with a long history of wealth generation through  agriculture and energy extraction. 

Through my case study research I was able to extricate  knowledge from the individuals I stayed with and interviewed with the intentions of  bringing a recuperative lens to what it was like for each interviewee to challenge systemic food and environmental injustice in a politically less progressive state and with an underprivileged community. They brought attention to a narrative that highlighted the injustices caused by economic drivers in their states for agriculture and energy. I developed inferences from  these farmers on their practices successes and failures as well as a comparative analysis to one another so it could fill in the gaps on what academia has not covered. The leaders of the three different activist farmers were interviewed after the end of time spent doing experiential work based research in their practice. I collected empirical data through photo, recording, and notetaking. The empirical data gathered in  both Bastrop and New Iberia ultimately highlights  the lack of intersectional research on the diverse approaches of activist farmers’ work exemplified  by the stories from  Brittney, Phanat, and Carl thus highlighting their ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance.

Who was supporting you in your work?

Jurgen Von Mahs- professor. I was guided by him throughout my process of writing my thesis paper. He also prepared me for the case study work that I did using the Lang Capstone Grant and advised me to conduct ethical interviews.

How has this project has been impactful or transformative?

Through my case study research I was able to extricate knowledge from the individuals on the challenges of addressing systemic food and environmental injustice in a politically less progressive state and with an underprivileged community. They brought attention to a narrative that highlighted the injustices caused by economic drivers in their states for agriculture and energy. Their ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance was inspiring because each took a unique approach from their own personal "know-how" experience knowledge-base to best include and accommodate the needs of the community they were outreaching to with their land practice. In regions that are conservative historically and politically like Texas in Louisiana, acknowledgement and support of their projects is few and far in between. The case study research and interviews demonstrated the positive impacts they had in their community by transforming the land they had around them. Their energy and belief in their small scale projects for environmental and food justice is why sharing their stories is crucial; for expansion, investment, and support by other leaders.

What would you do differently?

I would tell a student to make an outline for the goals they have for their project, and make sure that these goals won't be tainted by extraneous factors. Make sure you have enough time, and don't be afraid to stray from the plan you had! In my case, I met people that I wasn't expected to meet just by being open and eager to taking on any opportunity. And from these people that were not part of the methodology, added great insight and depth to the areas of injustice I was investigating. There are hidden gems in experiences like these, so don't feel obligated to your original plan, as long as your academic and personal goals for growth and learning are being fulfilled.

What would you do differently?

I would tell a student to make an outline for the goals they have for their project, and make sure that these goals won't be tainted by extraneous factors. Make sure you have enough time, and don't be afraid to stray from the plan you had! In my case, I met people that I wasn't expected to meet just by being open and eager to taking on any opportunity. And from these people that were not part of the methodology, added great insight and depth to the areas of injustice I was investigating. There are hidden gems in experiences like these, so don't feel obligated to your original plan, as long as your academic and personal goals for growth and learning are being fulfilled.