Beyond the Moral Economy of Local Food: Land trusts, beginner farmers, and redefining conservation in the public interest

This is a study of the political ecology of land trusts and beginner farmers in coastal California. Findings suggest that there is a cultural, political, and economic struggle taking place in the study area around agricultural land resources and access to land, particularly that held in public's interest by land trusts. This struggle reflects national trends in the transition in values from nature-based conservation, to a vision of integrated agro-ecological conservation. Though land trusts continue to identify themselves primarily with the more traditional aspects of conservation, a moral economy, indeed a full discourse of local food was found to be influencing a shift in the portrayal of land trust identity and mission. Current popular trends towards the valuation of local food, through the local food movement, among other signs was reflected in the public image of land trusts. The vast discursive space between how land trusts self identify and how they portray themselves was also highlighted in farmer interviews. As entities of a neoliberalized state, land trusts are behooved to act according to public will. If the public will is shifting towards an increasing valuation of local food production, should that signal a shift in the type of conservation that is being performed in the name of public interest?;Keywords: Land Trusts, Beginner Farmers, Conservation, Discourse, Local Food, Political Ecology, Neoliberal...