Laurel Bellante

    Laurel joined CLIMAS in fall of 2010 as a research assistant on the NOAA-funded project, "Poverty and Climate Change in the Southwestern U.S." As a second-year graduate student at the Center for Latin American Studies, Laurel is working on her Master's thesis regarding emerging alternative food networks in Chiapas, Mexico. She is also a supporting researcher for Tracey Osborne's work on the political economy of carbon offset projects in Mexico, as well as the Confluence grant research on the Cultural Dimensions of Transborder Foodsheds based out of the Southwest Center. Her interests include the political ecology of food and agriculture in Mexico and the borderlands, agrarian issues, climate change mitigation and climate justice.