Michael J. Broadway

Planning for change in small towns or trying to avoid the slaughterhouse blues

Abstract Rural farming communities throughout the Prairies and Great Plains have sought to reverse decades of slow economic decline by attracting value-added processing of agricultural products as a means of economic development. The meatpacking industry has been attracted to the region by the availability of fed cattle. It has created thousands of low-paying jobs and boosted local agricultural economies by increasing the demand for animals and feedstuffs, while at the same time impairing water quality and bringing a host of social problems to packinghouse communities. This article examines how the town of Brooks, Alberta prepared and dealt with these challenges over a two year period following the expansion of a beefpacking plant. Despite the advance warning of the social changes that would accompany the hiring of additional workers the town failed to meet the housing needs of newcomers recruited to work at the plant and experienced a significant increase in a variety of social disorders. The study concludes that preparing for change begins with the recognition that social and environmental impacts are inevitable with the arrival of a new industry. A pro-active response to protecting the environment and ensuring that basic human needs are met is better for a community and its workforce than having changes thrust upon it by an industry whose only interest is in maximizing profits.

Implementing the Slow Life in Southwest Ireland: A Case Study of Clonakilty and Local Food†

Abstract Cittaslow is an Italian‐based global network of towns and cities that grew out of the Slow Food movement. Cittaslow and Slow Food reject the standardization of culture and taste that has accompanied globalization. Instead, they focus on strategies that foster a sense of place that is derived from a towns unique environmental and cultural setting: its terroir. Clonakilty, a small town located thirty miles southwest of Cork, is Irelands first and only “slow city.” This paper examines how a sense of place is conveyed in the towns restaurants through the selection of menu items and locally produced food. The results indicate that independently owned restaurants are more likely to embrace Cittaslows efforts at conveying a sense of place than restaurants in hotels and pubs. Nearly all of the towns restaurants serving Irish food use locally available food suppliers.

‘Putting Place on a Plate’ along the West Cork Food Trail

ABSTRACT In 2011, Irelands National Tourism Development Authority (Fȃilte Ireland) announced a plan to increase the number of food tourists to the country. According to the plan, Irish food will be recognized for the quality of its regional food experiences that evoke a unique sense of place. To further the plan, it created a program entitled ‘Place on a Plate’ which encourages restaurant owners/chefs to offer fresh locally sourced seasonal food and list the names of local suppliers on their menus. This paper examines the effectiveness of this ‘Place on a Plate’ strategy by examining 53 restaurant menus along the West Cork Food Trail in southwest Ireland to determine whether they contain: (1) a statement as to the origin of their food supplies, (2) a listing of local food producers, and (3) geographical place name references on individual menu items. The study found that the majority of restaurants do not include a statement as to the origin of their food supplies, indeed only three out of the surveyed restaurants provided complete food supply listings. The largest number of menu items to be connected with a place were linked with Ireland followed by West Cork and the Atlantic. The results suggest that the ‘Place on a Plate’ strategy has had a limited impact and that more education needs to occur about its potential to contribute to West Corks gastronomic identity.

Settlement and Mobility Among Newcomers to Garden City, Kansas

During the early 1980s, the small town of Garden City, Kansas, experienced a sudden increase in population as a result of the opening of two large meatpacking plants. Many of the new jobs created within the community have been filled by newcomers. The newcomers consist of four principal groups, Anglos, Hispanics, Southeast Asian refugees and Blacks. The purpose of this study is to determine for a sample of newcomers (1) their length of residence within Garden City and (2) whether their settlement pattern contributes to their social isolation within the community. The study found that the majority of newcomers stay less than two years before leaving the area, while there was no evidence of distinctive ethnic enclaves.

Cleveland reimaged: changing news media images of Cleveland, 1985–2015

ABSTRACT Beginning in the late 1960s, Cleveland’s public image suffered a series of blows. Riots on the city’s east side claimed the lives of a dozen people and the Cuyahoga River (briefly) caught fire. In the 1970s, deindustrialization ravaged its iron, steel, and auto industries, resulting in tens of thousands of job losses and rising poverty rates. In 1978, Cleveland became the first U.S. city since the Great Depression to default on its bonds. Between 1970 and 1980, the city lost nearly a quarter of its population. In response, business and political leaders developed an economic development plan that attempted to change the city’s image by improving its downtown. This paper analyzes the changing image of Cleveland as conveyed by newspaper headlines and articles from outside the metropolitan area from 1985 to 2015. The results indicate while the city’s external image improved as a result physical improvements in downtown infrastructure and tourist attractions, deteriorating social and economic conditions in the remainder of the city were largely ignored.

The Geographies of Canada

Remy Tremblay and Hugues Chicoine, eds. Brussels, Belgium: Peter Lang, 2013. 494 pp., maps, photos.

The Wages of Food Factories 1

45.95 paper (ISBN 978-2-87574-017-5).When I received the invitation to review this volume I was ...

“Mad cow” and the Neighbours: Canada's beef with the US border closure

The goal of modern, industrial agriculture has become the production of large quantities of uniform products at the cheapest price. Emblematic of these trends, and in many ways responsible for them, is the meat and poultry industry, which has led American agribusinesss headlong plunge into vertical integration and contract farming. Through restructuring, it has managed to externalize many of its costs and impose them on job-hungry small towns in the Midwest and South. The meat and poultry industry, and the food factories that produce and process its products, impose needless harm on animals, land, workers, and communities. This article examines the consequences of industrial food production and processing and suggests possible public policies and actions to mitigate the harmful effects of food factories.

Coffeehouses and the art of social engagement: an analysis of portland coffeehouses

In May 2003 Canadas Food Inspection Agency announced that a single case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) had been diagnosed in a native born Canadian cow. In the aftermath of this announcement, the United States closed its border to Canadian beef and live cattle exports. At the time, the United States accounted for nearly all of Canadas live cattle and the majority of its beef exports, so the loss of this market was critical. By September 2003 the border reopened to beef exports from cattle less than 30 months of age, but it would be over two years before cattle under 30 months would be admitted. This article outlines the consequences of the border closure on Canadas cattle industry and considers the obstacles to lessening its dependence upon the US market.

Lost in Translation? The Diffusion of Tim Hortons’ Restaurants in the Great Lakes Borderlands

Abstract Coffeehouses have been a part of Americas cultural landscape since the seventeenth century. Their fortunes have risen and fallen with the changing demand for coffee and consumer preferences. This paper examines their historic function of promoting social engagement as so‐called third places among independently owned coffeehouses in the city of Portland, Oregon. Individual coffeehouses were evaluated to determine the extent to which they provided a supportive physical environment for social engagement in which a space is transformed into a place and detailed patron behavior was recorded over a three‐week period. Few coffeehouses provided a supportive physical environment. The majority of coffeehouse patrons during the weekday and weekend ordered drinks ‘to go.’ Among those who stayed during the weekday most sat alone and worked. Coffeehouse are spaces to ‘be alone together.’ It was only on lunchtime weekends that coffeehouses were full of the sound of conversations. Further study should consider the effect of eliminating free Wi Fi and banning laptops on social engagement and whether other place attributes need to be incorporated to promote social engagement.