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Contemporary Land Transitions in the US: Critical Questions of Concentration and (Re)Distribution

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Madeleine Fairbairn

Co-authored by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment, the article was published in Geography Compass.

January 22, 2026

Minkoff-Zern Speaks With Vermont Public About Her Book ‘Will Work for Food’

“So many small farmers across Vermont and New York and elsewhere, are competing in a really unequal, unfair system. You have this structure where the vast majority of the food dollar—the money we pay for the food—is not going to the farm, the farm level, at all. So small-scale farmers are really struggling today, not just the workers but the farmers and the farm owners,” says Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment.

December 17, 2025

Minkoff-Zern Discusses Her Book, ‘Will Work For Food,’ on Human Restoration Project Podcast

The book, co-authored by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment, captures the grim realities faced by food workers alongside the opportunities for solidarity at every point in the system while amplifying the successes and challenges faced by movements to make food work, good work.

September 27, 2025

Minkoff-Zern Shares Insights With KPBS on Increased Deportations and the Food System Workforce

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment, tells KPBS, “Our entire food system is dependent on immigrants.”

August 7, 2025

Will Work For Food: Labor across the Food Chain

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Teresa Mares

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment, has co-written a new book, Will Work For Food: Labor across the Food Chain (University of California Press, 2025). Minkoff-Zern and co-author Teresa Mares explore the often-overlooked role of labor in the food system, highlighting the exploitation faced by frontline workers from farms to restaurants.

July 16, 2025

Heflin Speaks to Reuters About Federal Pass-Through Grants

Today, pass-through funding allows federal agencies to tap into local expertise and knowledge as well as help the federal government keep its own staffing levels down, says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

April 3, 2025

Minkoff-Zern Quoted in Stateline Piece on Impact of Federal Cuts, Data Removal on Bird Flu Outbreak

Helping dairy and poultry farmworkers get tested is important for public health response. But many farmworkers are immigrants with no sick leave and who may speak primarily Indigenous languages or Spanish. The Trump administration’s deportation efforts have caused further reticence to report symptoms, says Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment. 

March 3, 2025

Embodying Biodiversity: Sensory Conservation as Refuge and Sovereignty

Terese Gagnon, Shannon Novak

Shannon Novak, professor of anthropology, has contributed to “Embodying Biodiversity: Sensory Conservation as Refuge and Sovereignty” (University of Arizona Press, 2024). The book was edited by Terese Gagnon ’18 M.A. (Anth)/’21 Ph.D. (Anth), a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

December 23, 2024

See related: Agriculture, Environment, India

Heflin Quoted in Newsweek Article on the Farm Bill Reauthorization and Its Impact on SNAP Benefits

“If the appropriations bills are not passed by the end of December, January benefits will still go out because SNAP benefits are obligated in the prior month (December),” says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

October 2, 2024

Koch Talks to AZPM About the Connections Between Arizona and the Arabian Peninsula

He [Crown Prince Saud Al Saud] had come to Arizona in 1943 and he had seen Arizona's dairy industry and really was impressed by it. So he went back to take over this government controlled farm in Saudi Arabia, the Al Khad farms, and asked the farmers in charge of that to set up their own dairy operation like what he had seen in Arizona,“ says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

September 4, 2024

ML Platforms Can Contradict Dairy Scientists, Feed Firm Websites Regarding Dairy Cattle Performance

Siobhan O'Keefe, Rick Welsh, Mercy Oppong, Ryan Fitzgerald, David Conner, Michelle Tynan, Nichole Price, Charlotte Quigle

“Machine Learning (ML) Platforms Can Contradict Dairy Scientists and Feed Firm Websites Regarding Dairy Cattle Performance from Feeding Seaweed Supplements,” co-authored by Professor of Sociology Rick Welsh, was published in Choices.

September 3, 2024

DeCorse Quoted in The Guardian Article on the First Archaeological Dig of São Tomé and Príncipe

“We have good insight into the big picture of slavery in São Tomé,” says Christopher DeCorse, professor of anthropology. But, “we don’t know how these plantations functioned. You have records of the number of people. You have dates. But the lifeways of people on a day-to-day basis are not so much. That reveals the grittiness.”
July 8, 2024

Natalie Koch Speaks on ‘Arid Empire’ for Arizona State Library

The Maxwell School professor’s recent book is relevant as the state grapples with controversy over a Saudi dairy company’s farming.

April 11, 2024

Report Co-Authored by Golden on Economic Impact of Bio-based Products Highlighted by USDA

The report, based on 2021 data, showed that the biobased products industry continued to grow, even during the economic setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

March 12, 2024

Koch Speaks With Freakonomics Radio About Why Arizona Grows Feed for Cows in Saudi Arabia

"What makes Arizona special is that when you have this desert land, you can grow alfalfa at an incredibly fast rate because of the amount of sunshine. So, as long as you have plentiful water, you can just grow," says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

March 6, 2024

Catherine Herrold Receives Award to Study Locally Led Development in Serbia

The associate professor will analyze how Serbians organize for social change at the local level.

February 9, 2024

Golden Comments on California’s Emission Reporting Law in Bloomberg Law Article

California, the world’s fifth largest economy, “just leapfrogged over everyone” through legislation that became law last month that requires companies to start reporting carbon emissions from the energy used for operations and outputs beginning in 2026, says Jay Golden, Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance.

November 25, 2023

Koch Discusses Arizona’s Water Shortage, the Role of Saudi Agribusiness With Al-Monitor, The World

“The (Saudi) government is very aware of the unsustainable agriculture practices that lead to a situation where the groundwater is no longer really able to sustain any substantial commercial agriculture,”  says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

October 9, 2023

Ethan Coffel Receives NSF Award to Study Climate and Agriculture

The funding will enable the Maxwell School assistant professor to build on his study of the crop-climate feedback cycle. 

August 2, 2023

Koch Quoted in The Hill Article on Saudi Arabian Alfalfa Farms in Arizona

“If they [Saudi Arabia] want to be able to guarantee their population food security, they know that they can’t really do that domestically,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. The Arizonan land was particularly appealing to the kingdom “because you can get more bang for your buck when you buy that farm,” says Koch.

May 10, 2023

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