Submitted by Nancy Peluso on
The proposed project seeks to understand the underlying social, political, and economic mechanisms responsible for honeybee declines. Our case focuses on the relationship between commercial beekeepers and the almond industry, most commercial beekeepers’ primary employer. Each January and February, beekeepers haul over 1.2 million colonies into California’s Central Valley to pollinate almonds. Yet while the almond industry has expanded five-fold in the past few decades, beekeepers report colony losses of over 30-40% each year.
How have beekeepers managed to pollinate this expanding almond acreage amidst these annual losses? And what impact has this had on honeybee health? This component of the research focuses on tracking how beekeepers have shifted their management practices and business models to meet the expanding demand for pollinators amidst their colony losses. Our methods couple semi-structured interviews with beekeepers and almond growers with analyses of historical archives and agricultural statistics.
This project would be an ideal fit for an S&E or CRS student looking for hands-on experience with analytical social science research in agrifood studies, including transcribing interviews, historical archive analysis, and analysis of agricultural statistical data. The undergraduate researcher would work under the close supervision of the graduate student conducting the research.
The student researcher will be expected to:
- Transcribe interviews with beekeepers and almond growers in California: The PhD researcher will conduct all interviews, but the student will have the opportunity to attend some interviews, transcribe, and receive some training on analysis.
- Conduct historical archive analysis (with guidance from PhD researcher)
- Create data table/s (and possibly maps) from industry statistics
- An upper division S&E or CRS student
- Some background or coursework in social science theory/practice
- An interest in agrifood systems/political ecology
- Comfort with online research
- Familiarity with the standard software suite (spreadsheets, word processing, etc.)
- Some background in geospatial information sciences and computer programming is desired, but not necessary.