Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Food | Immigrants|Future| Place Adapting Identity for Callender, Iowa

Moe, Joshua J.

Abstract Details

2011, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
Rural Iowa’s current path is economically, socially and ecologically unsustainable: rural flight (depopulation) has left many farming communities lacking jobs, social interaction and basic amenities like schools, hospitals, banks and grocery stores. Once independent, small towns now function as distant ex-burbs tens of miles from functional cities. As energy (transportation) costs rise, these small towns will become increasingly unlivable. Thus, a livable future for rural Iowa hinges upon radical transformation. Energy costs will also affect large cities that require food to be shipped long distances—frequently thousands of miles—from field to table. As energy (transportation + production) costs raise and cities sprawl, the cost of food will explode. Cities will need food produced close to them. A recent study conducted by the Leopold Center at Iowa State University projected an ecologically and economically sustainable transformation for both small towns and cities in the Midwest founded on growing fruits and vegetables rather than corn and soybeans. This economic and ecological transformation implies dramatic corollary transformations in the physical and cultural landscape of rural communities; specifically, implementing this system would create thousands of seasonal jobs likely fulfilled by transient, non-white, migrant laborers. Additionally, the industrial facilities required to support the new industry are foreign—in scale and function—to rural Iowa. This thesis envisions the social and structural challenges that one community in rural Iowa—Callender—will have when implementing the Leopold Report. Through a process of mapping the past and projecting the future, tactics are developed to mitigate the global needs of the future (rethinking food production) with the local desire for place and identity. The mitigation of this conflict materializes in the design of a hybrid distribution facility and the reuse of an historic gain elevator.
George Bible, MCiv.Eng (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, PhD (Committee Chair)
193 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Moe, J. J. (2011). Food | Immigrants|Future| Place Adapting Identity for Callender, Iowa [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1305893143

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Moe, Joshua. Food | Immigrants|Future| Place Adapting Identity for Callender, Iowa. 2011. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1305893143.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Moe, Joshua. "Food | Immigrants|Future| Place Adapting Identity for Callender, Iowa." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1305893143

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)