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2. Ending Lacewing Acres: toward amplifying microperspectives on farm closure
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Dubisar, Abby M. (author) and Slocum, Julia A. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-07-08
- Published:
- USA: Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12651
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
- Journal Title Details:
- Iss. 11, Vol. 4
- Notes:
- 15 pages, Farmers are invited to tell stories about their farms, especially about their farm’s origin and history. However, some farm stories go untold, are uninvited, or become obscured, including stories of farm closures. With this case study, we invite journalists and academics to provide further opportunities for farmers to tell their own closure stories. Written by the farmer and her CSA member and friend, who researches farmer communication, this case study calls on farmers to tell their farm-closure stories in the complicated and robust ways such stories deserve. We draw on academic and public scholarship about farm closures and farmers’ disclosures to feature how one farmer decided to end her farm and farming career. We chronicle her decision-making process and her strategies to communicate the closure of her farm, as well as analyze themes from how audiences reacted to her news. We also offer a range of reasons for inviting such telling of complex closure stories.
3. Using targeted messages to improve farmer engagement in conservation programs
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Weigel, C. (author), Cruse, R. (author), and Reddy, S. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-09-16
- Published:
- USA: Soil and Water Conservation Society
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12645
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
- Journal Title Details:
- V. 77, Iss. 5
- Notes:
- 6 pages, In this time of information overload, successfully engaging farmers with compelling outreach materials is a major challenge for conservation programs and related research projects. One potential approach is targeting information to the recipient, e.g., local rather than regional soil and water conditions, when sending messages to farmers. Targeted information may increase engagement by making materials stand out as more relevant and useful; conversely, it may decrease engagement by making farmers wary of the program and how it is using the information. We tested the effect of targeted information on farmer engagement using a large, randomized controlled trial in Iowa. In partnership with Iowa State University, we sent 2,996 farmers a single mailing with information about erosion at the local watershed (targeted) or state (control) level and measured their responses to a two-minute survey. We found that targeted information increased relative response rates by 20%, from 13.8% to 16.4%. This level of increase is meaningful for practitioners, as well as statistically significant. Our findings show that targeted information can be an important tool for practitioners and researchers seeking to better connect with farmers who are inundated with marketing mail.