It’s not just the farm: enterprise and household responses to the pandemic by North Carolina niche meat producers

Andrew R. Smolski (), Michael D. Schulman, Silvana Pietrosemoli and Francesco Tiezzi
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Andrew R. Smolski: The Pennsylvania State University
Michael D. Schulman: North Carolina State University
Silvana Pietrosemoli: North Carolina State University
Francesco Tiezzi: Università degli Studi di Firenze

Agriculture and Human Values, 2025, vol. 42, issue 2, No 7, 713-727

Abstract: Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic raised questions about the viability of food chains and created new opportunities for small-scale producers. This study reports on findings from a project directed at investigating how niche meat farmers respond to external challenges and threats including those related to their position as small-scale producers and those that are pandemic-related. A purposeful sample (N = 5) of local meat producers in NC, recruited through their producer network, were interviewed twice (in 2021 and again in 2022) via Zoom. Informants were interviewed about the characteristics of their farm enterprises and households. The niche meat farmer informants in this study are diversified, values-based operations that utilize pasture-based production practices. They draw upon their farm enterprise and household assets, including the allocation of labor to farm, non-farm, and household activities, to meet economic production and social reproduction needs. Overall, our results show that the resiliency of the niche-meat producers flows from this integration of the farm enterprise and the household. While the data are based on a very limited sample, the results are consistent with literatures on women in agriculture and peasant economy. Therefore, we argue that future studies of how small-scale farms react to exogenous change, like the pandemic, include details on household composition and the gender division of labor for on-farm, off-farm, and social reproduction activities.

Keywords: Niche meat; Family farms; Resilience; Social reproduction; COVID-19 pandemic; Social and economic needs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-024-10639-3

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