Alan Hunt

 

PhD Student in Rural Development alanhunt

Master of Environmental Management in Environmental Economics & Policy (2005), Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
BSc (cum laude) Environmental Studies (2003), Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, USA

Centre for Rural Economy
School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU

Room 5.11

+44(0)191 222 5677 (direct dial)

a.hunt@ncl.ac.uk

 

Supervisors

Dr Elizabeth Oughton, Dr Jane Midgley and Professor Philip Lowe

Thesis Title

What promise do “local” foods hold for our global era?

Profile

I grew up on a small farm in rural New Jersey during a period of rapid farmland loss. Curious about how the values of place, economics, and community identity interact, I pursued a BSc in Environmental Studies at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. During a semester abroad in Norwich, England in the spring of 2002, I was captivated by the popularity of farmers' markets and their potential to support smaller-scale farming operations.  Despite growing up in a rural area in a metropolitan region, this was the first time I encountered a farmers’ market.  As a result, farmers’ markets – and their ability to link producers and consumers to the landscape – served as inspiration for both my BSc thesis and Masters’ thesis at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

From 2005 to 2010, I was actively working on federal policy for local food systems and healthy food access in Washington, DC for the Northeast Midwest Institute (2005-2009) and the Wallace Center (2009).  This included the passage of several new laws in the 2008 US Farm Bill: a priority for local food projects in the Rural Business and Industries Loan Guarantee program (Section 6015), the Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center, and a USDA Food Desert Study.  In 2009, I started a consulting firm, Local Food Strategies LLC.  Since then I worked on farm to school legislation, policy research for a national grocery store financing program, served as a grant reviewer for the USDA Community Food Projects grant program, assisted with a Congressional Hearing on Health and Food Access, and produced reports surveying local community responses to obesity and credit access for young, beginning, and small farmers involved in organic and local food sectors.  I have worked with interest groups across the farm and food sector, including sustainable agriculture, mainstream agriculture, social justice, rural development, minority farmer rights, and environmental groups.

I am a Fulbright Scholar from 2010-2011, with my Fulbright project focusing on understanding how the British local food movements have carried out national policy change.


Research Interest

Having worked in policy only in the US, I wanted to undertake a cross-cultural comparison of how local food policies have developed in the US and in the UK, to develop a deeper perspective on the policy process and drives behind the growing local food sector.  Some of the questions I hope to address in my PhD research are:

How does a decentralized social movement, like that for local food, develop and implement national policy?

  • Why is a sector of local and regional food provision developing now in national policies of developed countries?
  • How do interest groups navigate potential conflicts between the strong, sometimes uncompromising messages needed to gain members, funding, and status and the incremental, compromise-oriented nature of the policy process?
  • How do the policy outcomes of “policy entrepreneurs” – individuals with high political access and agency – compare to the policy achievements of interest groups?

Refereed Publications

Alan R. Hunt (2007) “Consumer interactions and influences on farmers’ market vendors.”  Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 
Alan Hunt and Peter Rogers (2001) Book Review: “Clark C. Gibson, Politicians and Poachers: the political economy of wildlife policy in Africa.”  Africa. vol. 71, iss. 4, p. 732.

Other Publications

Alan Hunt (2009) “Selling Locally: New market, familiar challenges.”  Farm Bureau News.
Alan. R. Hunt (2008) “Thinking Outside the Cereal Box”. Guest author, Grist.org.