The term sustainability usually elicits ideas of a green planet, solar panels, electric vehicles, and plastic-free oceans.
However, this outlook—sustainability primarily focused on the environment—lacks a critical component that University of Georgia researchers are elevating in the realm of food systems and agriculture.
“All pillars of sustainability matter, but social sustainability can get left out of the conversation,” said Jennifer Jo Thompson, senior research scientist in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
Social sustainability is connected to food systems and agriculture at all stages—from the moment a seed is planted, through its growth cycle, to when food lands on tables, to how food waste is managed and returned to earth. Food intersects the wellbeing of people and communities, Thompson said: working conditions and pay for growers; food price and safety; access to fresh and healthy produce; the financial and mental tolls of farming; inclusivity of food markets; access to culturally-sensitive food; and how food connects people to their communities.
If you aren’t paying attention to these social issues, it undermines meaningful progress on all sustainability goals.
“You can’t have environmental sustainability if you’re not also addressing equity, mental health, education, and other critical social factors, because none of these exists in isolation,” said Tyra Byers, director of the Sustainability Certificate in the Odum School of Ecology and an affiliate of the UGA Office of Sustainability. “You can’t think about solving any one problem in sustainability without considering social issues, because everything is connected.”
Still, social sustainability and food systems are complicated, and there are no easy answers to these challenges. But UGA researchers are working on innovative projects to address them, shaping lasting solutions for more sustainable food systems and agriculture.
Increasing food security and connection
Increased access to safe, healthy, local food is directly connected to the wellbeing of people and communities. To make any progress toward sustainability goals, Thompson stressed that people must be healthy, fed, and connected to their community. Food insecurity is often linked to other inequities that disproportionately affect the underserved.
Thompson’s lab works with community partners, like the Athens Farmers Market, to develop and improve produce prescription programs, which give lower-income participants free fruits and vegetables for their family without costing farmers income. In Clarke County alone, one in six people lack food security, according to U.S. hunger relief nonprofit Feeding America.
“By providing vouchers for fresh fruits and vegetables, along with nutrition and culinary education, these programs aim to reduce food insecurity and help people feel more connected to their food—but not at a cost to farmers,” said Thompson of the collaboration, which helps students in her service-learning course engage in community-based research.
Farmers still get paid through vouchers, which are funded by a combination of grants and partnerships. “This kind of program is a win-win-win,” Thompson said, “because it’s good for farmers, good for communities, and good for eaters—especially those with a lower income.”
Income, of course, isn’t the only social factor that limits access to fresh food. Thompson’s lab conducts research to better understand the full range of social barriers, enabling program design that empowers people to take better advantage of their benefits.
The Athens Farmers Market’s FARMRx program provides both transportation to help people get to the market and cooking and nutrition classes to help them better use seasonal ingredients. Thompson discovered through a needs assessment, however, that time constraints and lack of child care could be just as prohibitive as transportation. Providing food deliveries and child care during classes could alleviate some of that stress. Her lab collaborated with statewide organizations, like Wholesome Wave Georgia, to design programs that will connect more Georgians with fresh, healthy, affordable produce.
Thompson’s lab also worked with schools and nutrition directors to examine impacts of farm-to-school programs, discovering in one project that school gardens can foster connection and help students break down social barriers as they garden, cook, and learn together. They leveraged findings into a training program that helps teachers integrate school gardens into their curriculum.
“Because these programs tend to be a new and novel space for everyone, kids let their guard down and are able to engage more authentically with one another,” she said. “Not only can school gardens help teach students about sustainability and food insecurity, but they also have broader social implications and can serve as a powerful venue for connection across racial and economic differences.”
Expanding sustainable agriculture
Producing enough crops for a growing population is an integral part of sustainability, according to Nicholas Basinger, an associate professor of weed science in CAES. But farmers face challenges with long-term crop productivity, such as weeds, pests, diseases, low commodity prices, and high overhead costs.
Cover crops are a proven way to increase crop productivity and benefit the overall agricultural ecosystem. They help control weeds, improve soil health, boost water retention, and reduce soil erosion. But only a small percentage of growers plant cover crops.
Basinger and Thompson are investigating the logistical and social barriers that limit cover crops’ adoption. For one, farmer mindset plays a large role, according to Thompson, because they are concerned about things like logistics, time, costs, and cover crop management. Policies that disincentivize the use of cover crops are also a factor.
“Given the financial challenges of farming, many farmers are just trying to get by, and it’s really hard for growers to think about any sort of sustainable practice,” Basinger said.
Basinger’s research aims to identify easy-to-use, cost-effective methods that address these barriers.
One project explores the viability of consolidating the timeline for cover crops to reduce workload. Historically, farmers have needed to kill and brown cover crops before they can plant their seasonal crops, but Basinger proposed a method that would allow them to plant while cover crops are still green. Trial data suggests farmers can get similar benefits with weed management while eliminating steps and labor.
His lab is also examining potential benefits of living mulches—or, essentially, permanent cover crops—and whether using drones to plant cover crops can maintain effectiveness of weed management. They work with UGA Extension agents to help local farmers put research findings to work.
“Anything that can make sustainability easier for the grower means they’re more likely to adopt that practice,” Basinger said.
Connecting culture, land, and agriculture
The largest remaining Saltwater Geechee community in the nation has lived in Sapelo Island’s Hog Hammock community for centuries. Today, their culture and way of life face constant threats from sea level rise and development on the island.
“The nexus between culture, land, and sustainability is so important,” said Nik Heynen, Distinguished Research Professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Geography and co-director of UGA’s Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land, Sea, and Agriculture. “I believe many big environmental crises are happening because we’re disconnected and disengaged from the land, food systems, and agriculture.”
Heynen has collaborated with the Hog Hammock community for over a decade on a project that aims to use food and agriculture to preserve and regenerate culture, promoting responsible stewardship of the land.
“We want to make connections between sustainability, agriculture, cultural preservation, and land stewardship—and help people recognize the power and agency they have,” he said.
The group wants to re-establish heritage crops like sugar cane, Geechee red peas, indigo, and garlic and use traditional agriculture to connect their culture to the land for generations to come. Since its inception, the project benefited from a partnership with the late Cornelia Walker Bailey, a leader in the community, and her son, Maurice Bailey.
Because Sapelo Island was once a plantation, this project has involved the complicated work of addressing the trauma that many Saltwater Geechee associate with crop production, Heynen said, and reclaiming their relationship with agriculture.
“Miss Cornelia believed agriculture was her people’s birthright and intertwined with knowledge and expertise they inherited from their ancestors,” he said. “Our hope is to bring back these crops in a way that helps the Saltwater Geechee people preserve their culture—and that spurs economic development and job creation, and connects their culture to this threatened land.”
Heynen also works with Shell to Shore, an organization that recycles oyster shells from across Georgia to restore oyster habitat and slow the sea level rise on Sapelo Island. This effort will help preserve the community’s home and the land used for agriculture.
Developing innovation solutions to real-world problems
Sustainability challenges are big, messy, and complex.
“We can’t solve them with any one discipline or one way of thinking,” said Byers, who also serves as director of UGA’s interdisciplinary Sustainability Certificate, which intersects economic, environmental, and social issues. “We need to integrate every element of sustainability into solutions to complex local and global problems.”
The Sustainability Certificate was designed to empower students with skills needed to address global challenges. Through a combination of academic coursework and hands-on research projects, students learn how vital it is to incorporate social issues into sustainability.
“Many come in thinking sustainability is all about the environmental,” Byers said. “They soon realize how connected everything is and appreciate the vital nature of social sustainability.”
She pointed to the program’s work with the Georgia Peanut Commission. Through this partnership, students consider the myriad issues affecting sustainability of peanut farming, including the economic viability of peanut production, the mental health and isolation of peanut farming, and how growing in a changing climate affects mental health.
“Many come in thinking sustainability is all about the environmental. They soon realize how connected everything is and appreciate the vital nature of social sustainability.”
– Tyra Byers, program coordinator in the Office of Sustainability
In addition to core classes, students complete capstone projects, which involve partnering with an organization, agency, business, or nonprofit to work on a sustainability challenges, such as increasing access to healthy food, empowering kids with food education, or identifying new, sustainable markets for farmers. Many students have focused their work on food systems and agriculture through collaborations with local farmers markets, the Georgia Peanut Commission, Farm to Neighborhood, and the Marigold Collective, among others.
Additionally, UGA graduate students can earn the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Food Systems, which focuses on developing solutions to challenges across food production, access, and utilization.
Thompson’s lab, meanwhile, has worked to introduce more social sustainability into the classroom through a collaboration with Spelman College in Atlanta.
“People of color deal with a disproportionate amount of the inequities in the food system yet hold only 3% of graduate degrees and faculty positions across food studies,” Thompson said.
She and her Spelman partners are attempting to close this gap through professional development and mentorship for people pursuing degrees and careers in food studies, as well as leadership positions in food systems. The program helps UGA faculty members hone mentorship skills, while Spelman creates a learning community of undergraduate and graduate students that benefit from this support. There are also cross-institutional activities that connect students from both schools who are interested in food systems.
“We want to create pathways for students of color to go into food systems so our leadership can be more representative of the population, and thus, better address some of the inequities that exist,” Thompson said.
