Agricultural Identity and Systems of Power: Politics and Environment Construction in California's San Joaquin Valley

• In Event: 254 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Water

Abstract

The current drought in California is preceded by a long history of precipitation shortages and a century of major aquifer depletion in the interest of agricultural industry. Due to the geographic and climatic properties of California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV), drought is not an extraordinary event within the region; however, the manner in which drought and water shortages are framed to valley residents signals a political struggle for power over the social and environmental state of the SJV. As part of a larger project examining the politicization of drought as framed through a confluence of power, politics, race, and place identity, this paper provides a narrative of the social, political, and environmental conditions of the SJV. A forthcoming section of this specific piece—currently in progress—includes a network analysis of farmland holdings, government subsidy rates, and political donations for farms and farm owners located within the SJV. The network provides a mechanism for examining the systems of power operating to sustain an arguably unsustainable agricultural region.

Author

• Jeanine Cunningham, University of Oregon