Negotiating agricultural change in the Midwestern US: seeking compatibility between farmer narratives of efficiency and legacy

Nathan J. Shipley, William P. Stewart and Carena J. Riper ()
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Nathan J. Shipley: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
William P. Stewart: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Carena J. Riper: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Agriculture and Human Values, 2022, vol. 39, issue 4, No 23, 1465-1476

Abstract: Abstract Agroecosystems in the Midwestern United States are undergoing changes that pressure farmers to adapt their farming practices. Because farmers decide what practices to implement on their land, there are needs to understand how they adapt to competing demands of changes in global markets, technology, farm sizes, and decreasing rural populations. Increased understanding of farmer decision-making can also inform agricultural policy in ways that encourage farmer adoption of sustainable practices. In this research we adopt a grounded view of farmers by interpreting their decision-making through their stories of everyday life. We use a narrative analysis to identify recurrent themes that characterize farmer decisions as active negotiations between the demands of efficiency in maximizing crop yields with a desire to steward land through past, present, and future generations. Together these narratives portray farmer decisions as a place-making process that seeks compatibility among distinct aspirations for their land.

Keywords: Sustainable agriculture; Place meanings; Narrative analysis; Midwest; Farmer decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-022-10339-w

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