S2E4 Rural Land in Idaho

It is no secret that rural lands are vanishing within the Treasure Valley and elsewhere across the Gem State. This land use change can have a range of impacts on the individuals, households and communities in Idaho. Join Dr. Jodi Brandt & Dr. Rebecca Som Castellano, both from Boise State University, for a discussion and Q & A on the ways this change is measured, the implications of this, and the social effects disappearing farmland can have on impacted communities.

Bios: Jodi joined the Human-Environment Systems Research Center at Boise State University in 2015. The goal of her research is to better understand how human societies and healthy ecosystems can thrive, on a rapidly changing planet. She focuses on quantifying human-environment interactions and whether they create sustainable environmental trajectories. She works with a wide range of people, including economists, ecologists and anthropologists, farmers, hunters and tribal communities.

Rebecca L. Som Castellano is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Boise State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Rural Sociology at The Ohio State University, her M.A. in Sociology from the University of Kentucky and her B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University. Previous research projects have included examination of the actors and interests involved in the construction and development of National School Lunch Program policy; inequalities within sustainable agriculture initiatives; food insecurity in both urban and rural contexts; and climate change adaptation. Frequently working in interdisciplinary collaborations, her current work focuses on the experiences of Latina farm workers in Southern Idaho, and land use change, including concern with the development of farm land and sagebrush steppe in Idaho. She is also currently working to develop research focused on how COVID has shaped local food consumption. For her work, she has been awarded several national awards, including a USDA National Needs Fellowship. Her research has been funded through a range of grants, including the American Sociological Association, the United States Department of Agriculture, and Mountain West CTR-IN Program for Clinical and Translational Research.

Watch the video here.