Farmworkers harvesting summer squash in Costa Rica
Food Systems and Sustainability Lab

Galt Lab

Publications

Publications

Find my publications in my Google Scholar profile or ResearchGate profile, or in the list below.

Please contact me through ResearchGate if you want any of my journal articles and cannot access them through the links below.

BOOKS

Galt, Ryan E. 2014. Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian Capitalism in Costa Rica. Society, Environment, and Place Series. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. [UA Press website, promo code FLR for 20% off; Amazon]

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Carlisle, Liz, Maywa Montenegro de Wit, Marcia S. DeLonge, Alastair Iles, Adam Calo, Christy Getz, Joanna Ory, Katherine Munden-Dixon, Ryan Galt, Brett Melone, Reggie Knox, and Daniel Press. 2019. Transitioning to sustainable agriculture requires growing and sustaining an ecologically skilled workforce. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 01 November 2019. [DOI]


Carlisle, Liz, Maywa Montenegro de Wit, Marcia S. DeLonge, Adam Calo, Christy Getz, Joanna Ory, Katherine Munden-Dixon, Ryan Galt, Brett Melone, Reggie Knox, Alastair Iles, and Daniel Press. 2019. Securing the future of US agriculture: the case for investing in new entry sustainable farmers. Elementa 7(1): p. 17. [PDF]


Galt, Ryan E., Julia Van Soelen Kim, Kate Munden-Dixon, Libby O. Christensen, and Katharine Bradley. 2019. Retaining members of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in California for economic sustainability: what characteristics affect retention rates? Sustainability, Special Issue: Management of Community Supported Agriculture, 11(9), p. 2489 [PDF]


Galt, Ryan E., Katharine Bradley, Libby O. Christensen, and Kate Munden-Dixon. 2019. The (un)making of “CSA people”: member retention and the customization paradox in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in California. Journal of Rural Studies 65: 172-185. [PDF]


Galt, Ryan E., Katharine Bradley, Libby O. Christensen, and Kate Munden-Dixon. 2018. Exploring member data for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in California: comparisons of former and current CSA members.  Data in Brief 21, 2082-2088. [PDF]


Christensen, Libby O., Ryan E. Galt, and Alissa Kendall. 2018. Life-cycle greenhouse gas assessment of Community Supported Agriculture in California’s Central Valley. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 33(5): 393-405. [PDF]


Valley, William, Hannah Wittman, Nicolas Jordan, Selena Ahmed, and Ryan Galt. 2018. An emerging signature pedagogy for sustainable food systems education. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 33(5): 467-480. [PDF]


Romero, Adam M., Julie Guthman, Ryan E. Galt, Matthew Huber, Becky Mansfield, Suzana Sawyer. 2017. Chemical geographies. Geohumanities 3 (1): 158–177. [PDF]


Galt, Ryan E., Katharine Bradley, Libby O’Sullivan Christensen, Cindy Fake, Katherine Munden-Dixon, Natasha Simpson, Rachel Surls, and Julia Van Soelen Kim. 2017. What difference does income make for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members in California? Comparing lower-income and higher-income households. Agriculture and Human Values 34 (2): 435-452. [PDF]

Galt, Ryan E. 2016. The relevance of regional political ecology for agriculture and food systems. Journal of Political Ecology, Special Section on “(Re)considering "regional" political ecology?” 23: 126-133. [PDF]

Galt, Ryan E., Katharine Bradley, Libby O’Sullivan Christensen, Julia Van Soelen Kim, and Ramiro Lobo. 2015. Eroding the community in community supported agriculture (CSA): competition’s effects in alternative food networks in California. Sociologia Ruralis. [Full text (protected]

Surls, Rachel, Gail Feenstra, Sheila Golden, Ryan Galt, Shermain Hardesty, Claire Napawan, and Cheryl Wilen. 2015. Gearing up to support urban farming in California: preliminary results of a needs assessment. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems  30 (1): 33-42. [Full text (protected)]

Jordan, Nicholas, Julie Grossman, Patrick Lawrence, Alison Harmon, William Dyer, Bruce Maxwell, Kirsten Valentine Cadieux, Ryan Galt, Alejandro Rojas, Carmen Byker, Selena Ahmed, Thomas Bass, Ermias Kebreas, Virajita Singh, Thomas Michaels, and Connie Tzenis. 2014. New curricula for undergraduate food-systems education: a sustainable agriculture education perspective. NACTA (North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture) Journal 58 (4): 302-310. [Full text (protected)]

Beckett, Jessica, and Ryan E. Galt. 2014. Land trusts and beginning farmers’ access to land: exploring the relationships in coastal California. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 4 (2): 19-35. [Full text (protected)]

Galt, Ryan E., Leslie Gray, and Patrick Hurley. 2014. Subversive and interstitial food spaces: transforming selves, societies, and society-environment relations through urban agriculture and foraging. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, Special Issue: Subversive and Interstitial Food Spaces, 19 (2): 133-146. [Full text (protected)]

Bradley, Katie, and Ryan E. Galt. 2014. Practicing food justice at Dig Deep Farms & Produce, East Bay Area, California: self-determination as a guiding value and intersections with foodie logics. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, Special Issue: Subversive and Interstitial Food Spaces, 19 (2): 172-186. [Full text (protected)]

Galt, Ryan E. 2013. The moral economy is a double-edged sword: explaining farmer earnings and self-exploitation in Community Supported Agriculture. Economic Geography 89 (4):341–365. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2013. Placing agrifood systems in first world political ecology: a review and research agenda. Geography Compass 7(9): 637-658. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2013. From Homo economicus to complex subjectivities: Reconceptualizing farmers as pesticide users. Antipode 45 (2):336-356. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E., Damian M. Parr, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Jessica Beckett, Maggie Lickter, and Heidi L. Ballard. 2013. Transformative food systems education in a land-grant college of agriculture: the importance of learner-centered inquiries. Agriculture and Human Values 30 (1): 129-142. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E., Damian Parr, and Janaki Jagannath. 2013. Facilitating competency development in sustainable agriculture and food systems education: a self-assessment approach. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 11 (1):69-88. [Full text (protected)][Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E., Susan Clark, and Damian Parr. 2012. Engaging values in sustainable agriculture and food systems education: toward an explicitly values-based approach. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 2 (3):43-54. [Full text (protected)][Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E., Libby O’Sullivan, Jessica Beckett, and Colleen Hiner. 2012. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is thriving in the Central Valley. California Agriculture 66 (1):8-14. [Full text (open-access)]

Hiner, Colleen C., and Ryan E. Galt. 2011. Participation and capacity building in community visioning: NIMBYism and the politics of the rural-urban interface in Elk Grove, California. Journal of Rural and Community Development 6 (2):104–123. [Full text (open-access)]

Tomich, Thomas P., Sonja Brodt, Howard Ferris, Ryan Galt, William R. Horwath, Ermias Kebreab, Johan Leveau, Daniel Liptzin, Mark Lubell, Pierre Merel, Richard Michelmore, Todd Rosenstock, Kate Scow, Johan Six, Neal Williams, Louie Yang. 2011. Agroecology: a review from a global change perspective. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 36: 193-222. [Full text (protected)] [Full text (one-time access]

Galt, Ryan E. 2011. Counting and mapping Community Supported Agriculture in the United States and California: contributions from critical cartography/GIS. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 10 (2), 131 - 162. [Full text (open-access)]

Galt, Ryan E. 2010. Scaling up political ecology: the case of illegal pesticides on fresh vegetables imported into the United States, 1996-2006. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 100 (2): 327-55. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2009. The personal is political (ecological): some reflections on five days to, in, and from Las Vegas, March, 2009. Human Geography 2 (2): 91-5. [Full text (protected)] [Full text (PDF)]

Galt, Ryan E. 2009. Overlap of U.S. FDA residue tests and pesticides used on imported vegetables: empirical findings and policy recommendations. Food Policy 34: 468-476. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2009. “It just goes to kill Ticos”: national market regulation and the political ecology of farmers’ pesticide use in Costa Rica. Journal of Political Ecology 16: 1-33. [Full text (open-access)]

Galt, Ryan E. 2008. Beyond the circle of poison: significant shifts in the global pesticide complex, 1976-2008. Global Environmental Change 18 (4): 786-799. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2008. Toward an integrated understanding of pesticide use intensity in Costa Rican vegetable farming. Human Ecology 36 (5):655–77. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2008. Pesticides in export and domestic agriculture: reconsidering market orientation and pesticide use in Costa Rica. Geoforum 39 (3): 1378–92. [Full text (protected)] [Pre-publication version]

Galt, Ryan E. 2007. Regulatory risk and farmers’ caution with pesticides in Costa Rica. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 32 (3): 377-394. [Full text (protected)][Full text (PDF)]

Zimmerer, Karl S., Ryan E. Galt, and Margaret Buck. 2004. Globalization and multi-spatial trends in the coverage of protected-area conservation (1980-2000). Ambio 33 (8): 520-529. [Full text (protected)] [Full text (PDF)]

BOOK CHAPTERS

Galt, Ryan E. and Lauren Asprooth. in press. “The Effects of Agrochemicals on Humans.” In Handbook on the Human Impact of Agriculture, Harvey James (ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Galt, Ryan E. 2020. “The Costa Rican Agrifood System, 1961-2014: Assessing Neoliberalism’s Impacts on Agriculture and Diets.” In Lessons from the Ecolaboratory: Negotiating Environment and Development in Costa Rica, R. Fletcher, B. Dowd-Uribe and G. A. Aistara (eds.). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Galt, Ryan E. 2020. “Farm-to-bar and bean-to-bar chocolate on Kaua‘i and the Big Island, Hawai‘i: an industry profile and quality considerations.” In Fermented Landscapes,  Colleen Myles (ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Galt, Ryan E. 2017. “Alternative food movement.” In Douglas Richardson, Noel Castree, Michael F. Goodchild, Audrey Kobayashi, Weidong Liu, and Richard A. Marston (eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. New York: Wiley and American Association of Geographers.

Blesh, Jennifer and Ryan E. Galt. 2017. “Transitions to agroecological nutrient management practices in the USA corn belt.” In Agroecological Practices for Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Applications, and Making the Transition, Alexander Wezel (ed.). London: World Scientific.

Iles, Alastair, Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, Maywa Montenegro, and Ryan E. Galt. 2016. “Agricultural systems: co-producing knowledge and food.” In Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (fourth edition), edited by Ulrike Felt, Rayvon Fouché, Clark Miller, and Laurel Smith-Doerr. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Galt, Ryan E. 2015. Vegetables in Costa Rica: reduced pesticide use through agroecological techniques. In Replacing chemicals with biology, pp. 145-153, edited by Meriel Watts with Stephanie Williamson. Pesticide Action Network International. [Press release] [Full text (PDF)]

Galt, Ryan E. 2011. Circulating science, incompletely regulating commodities: governing from a distance in transnational agro-food networks. In Knowing nature: conversations at the intersection of political ecology and science studies, pp. 227-243, edited by Mara J. Goldman, Paul Nadasdy, and Matthew D. Turner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Book] [Pre-publication version] 

BOOK REVIEWS

Jokisch, Brad D., Alison Alkon, Kristin Reynolds, Tad Mutersbaugh, Kees Jansen, and Ryan E. Galt. 2015. Book review forum: Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian Capitalism in Costa Rica. The AAG Review of Books 3(3): 146–156. [Full text]

REFERENCE VOLUME ENTRIES

Galt, Ryan E. in press. “Alternative food movement.” Invited entry for The Wiley-AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology.

Galt, Ryan E. 2010. “Concentration.” In, Dustin Mulvaney (ed.), Green Food: an A to Z Guide. Volume 3, The SAGE Reference Series on Green Society: Toward a Sustainable Future, Paul Robbins (ed.). SAGE: Thousand Oaks, California.

Galt, Ryan E. 2010. “Proletarianization.” In, Dustin Mulvaney (ed.), Green Food: an A to Z Guide. Volume 3, The SAGE Reference Series on Green Society: Toward a Sustainable Future, Paul Robbins (ed.). SAGE: Thousand Oaks, California.

Cantor, Alida, and Ryan E. Galt. 2010. “Land grant university.” In, Dustin Mulvaney (ed.), Green Food: an A to Z Guide. Volume 3, The SAGE Reference Series on Green Society: Toward a Sustainable Future, Paul Robbins (ed.). SAGE: Thousand Oaks, California.

Galt, Ryan E. 2010. “Export-led development.” In Barney Warf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Geography. SAGE: Thousand Oaks, California.

Galt, Ryan E. 2010. “Pesticides.” In Barney Warf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Geography. SAGE: Thousand Oaks, California.

REPORTS

Galt, Ryan E., Jessica Beckett, Colleen C. Hiner, and Libby O'Sullivan. 2011. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in and around California’s Central Valley: farm and farmer characteristics, farm-member relationships, economic viability, information sources, and emerging issues. Davis: University of California. [Full text (PDF)]

O'Sullivan, Elizabeth, Ryan E. Galt, and Gail Feenstra. 2010. Sacramento County Grow and Buy Local Report: An assessment of market opportunities for Sacramento growers. Davis: Agricultural Sustainability Institute, University of California, Davis.

Brodt, Sonja, Gail Feenstra, Tom Tomich, Ricardo Amon, Tim Crosby, Jamie Dean, Todd English, Ben Finkelor, Ryan Galt, Andrew Haden, Niels Halberg, Shermain Hardesty, Niels Jungbluth, Alissa Kendall, Klaas Jan Kramer, Pablo Päster, Nathan Pelletier, Rich Pirog, Steve Shaffer, Guy Shrubsole, Johan Six, Daniel Sperling, James Thompson, and Helene York. 2008. The Low-Carbon Diet Initiative: Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Food System using Life Cycle Assessment. Davis: Agricultural Sustainability Institute. [Full text (PDF)]

Galt, Ryan E. 2002. Agroforestry as a Tool for Biodiversity Conservation: Coffee and Cacao in Northern Latin America. A Strategic Report for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Chicago: The MacArthur Foundation.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Campbell, Dave, Gail Feenstra, Ryan E. Galt, and Courtney Marshall. 2011. Local and Regional Food Systems Bibliography: Categorizing Key Topics. University of California, Davis. Available from: http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/sfs/CFSresources.

PEDAGOGICAL MATERIALS

Galt, Ryan E. and Damian Parr, with Julia Van Soelen Kim, Katie Bradley, Natasha Simpson, Libby O’Sullivan, Thea Rittenhouse, Jessica Beckett, Rasheed Hislop, Maggie Lickter, Elli Pearson, Sarah Campbell, Scott Cosca, Johnny Orozco, Ruthie Schnitt, Scott Dunbar, Brett Webber, Christina Dickey, Allegra Roth, Aubrey White, Heidi Ballard, and Mark Van Horn. 2013. Lab Manual Version 3.3, CRD 20: Food Systems. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E., Damian Parr, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Jessica Beckett, Thea Rittenhouse, Katie Bradley, and Natasha Simpson. 2013. TA Instructions for CRD 20: Food Systems – A guide to facilitating students’ learning in lab. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E. and Damian Parr, with Julia Van Soelen Kim, Libby O’Sullivan, Thea Rittenhouse, Jessica Beckett, Katie Bradley, Rasheed Hislop, Natasha Simpson, Maggie Lickter, Christina Dickey, Allegra Roth, Aubrey White, Heidi Ballard, and Mark Van Horn. 2012. Lab Manual Version 3.2, CRD 20: Food Systems. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E., Damian Parr, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Jessica Beckett, Thea Rittenhouse, and Katie Bradley. 2012. TA Instructions for CRD 20-Food Systems: A guide to facilitating students’ learning in lab. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E. and Damian Parr, with Julia Van Soelen Kim, Libby O’Sullivan, Thea Rittenhouse, Jessica Beckett, Katie Bradley, Rasheed Hislop, Maggie Lickter, Aubrey White, Heidi Ballard, and Mark Van Horn. 2011. Lab Manual Version 3.1, CRD 20: Food Systems. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E., Damian Parr, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Jessica Beckett, Thea Rittenhouse. 2011. TA Instructions for CRD 20-Food Systems: A guide to facilitating students’ learning in lab. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E. and Damian Parr, with Julia Van Soelen Kim, Jessica Beckett, Libby O’Sullivan, Maggie Lickter, Aubrey White, Heidi Ballard, and Mark Van Horn. 2010. Lab Manual Version 3.0, CRD 20: Food Systems. University of California, Davis.

Galt, Ryan E. 2009. Lab Manual Version 2.0, CRD 20: Food Systems. University of California, Davis.

Who we are

We are a group of researchers looking at how to make agriculture and food systems more just and sustainable. We study the ways that political, economic, and social structures influence the resiliency and fairness of our food systems throughout the value chain from production to consumption. Our work has a particular emphasis on California and Latin America.