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2. Framing of sustainable agricultural practices by the farming press and its effect on adoption
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Rust, Niki A. (author), Jarvis, Rebecca M. (author), Reed, Mark S. (author), and Cooper, Julia (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-02-21
- Published:
- United States: Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12622
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- V. 38
- Notes:
- 14pgs, There is growing political pressure for farmers to use more sustainable agricultural practices to protect people and the planet. The farming press could encourage farmers to adopt sustainable practices through its ability to manipulate discourse and spread awareness by changing the salience of issues or framing topics in specific ways. We sought to understand how the UK farming press framed sustainable agricultural practices and how the salience of these practices changed over time. We combined a media content analysis of the farming press alongside 60 qualitative interviews with farmers and agricultural advisors to understand whether the farming press influenced farmers to try more sustainable practices. Salience of sustainable agricultural practices grew between 2009 and 2020. Many of the practices studied were framed by the press around economic and agronomic aspects, and farmer respondents said the most common reasons for trying sustainable agricultural practices were for economic and agronomic reasons. The farming press tended to use more positive rather than negative tones when covering sustainable agricultural practices. Respondents used the farming press as a source of information, though many did not fully trust these outlets as they believed the farming press were mouthpieces for agribusinesses. Whilst a minority of farmers stated they were motivated to try a new sustainable agricultural practice after learning about it in the farming press, this was rare. Instead, the farming press was used by respondents to raise their awareness about wider agricultural topics. We reflect on the role and power given to agribusinesses by the farming press and what this means for agricultural sustainability.
3. Liberation extension: building capacities for civilizational transition
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Copeland, Nicholas (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-01-27
- Published:
- International: Springer Link
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D12541
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- 2022
- Notes:
- 12pgs, COVID 19 has exacerbated and underscored structural inequalities and endemic vulnerabilities in food, economic, and social systems, compounding concerns about environmental sustainability and racial and economic justice. Convergent crises have amplified a growing chorus of voices and movements calling for new thinking and new practices to adapt to these shifts, mitigate their impact, and address their root causes through far reaching changes in social and economic life and values, including breaking with the free market paradigm. In the face of a historic choice between transition or multiple systems collapse that deepen injustice and threaten planetary survival, I make the case for expanding on liberatory tendencies in Extension programs to build capacities for response-ability to transition toward more just and sustainable futures.
4. Means and ways of engaging, communicating and preserving local soil knowledge of smallholder farmers in central Vietnam
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Huynh, Ha T. N. (author), Lobry de Bruyn, Lisa A. (author), Knox, Oliver G. G. (author), and Hoang, Hoa T. T. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-03-03
- Published:
- USA: Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12624
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- V. 39
- Notes:
- 24 pgs, Increasing interest in farmers’ local soil knowledge (LSK) and soil management practice as a way to promote sustainable agriculture and soil conservation needs a reliable means to connect to it. This study sought to examine if Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) and farmer workshops were suitable means to engage, communicate and preserve farmers’ LSK in two mountainous communes of Central Vietnam. Twenty-four farmers with reasonable or comprehensive LSK from previously studied communes were selected for the efficacy of VSA and farmer workshops for integrating LSK into a well-accepted soil assessment tool (VSA). In field sites chosen by the farmers, VSA was independently executed by both farmers and scientists at the same time. Close congruence of VSA scores between the two groups highlighted that farmers could competently undertake VSA. Farmers’ VSA score was compared with their perception of field’s soil quality. For the majority of farmers’ perception of soil quality was consistent to their VSA score (62.5%), while the remainder perceived their soil quality was lower than their VSA score. For most farmers their assessment of soil quality using VSA valued their LSK, and the two measures were well aligned. Soil colour and presence or vulnerability to erosion were common soil characteristics mentioned by farmers and affected the final VSA score. Farmers’ participation in VSA and workshops strengthen farmers’ confidence in their LSK and provided guidance on the impact of their soil management on soil improvement and conservation.
5. Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Allen, Patricia (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- unknown
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 163 Document Number: C26942
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- DOI: 10.1007/s10460-008-9120-6
6. When farmers are pulled in too many directions: comparing institutional drivers of food safety and environmental sustainability in California agriculture
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bauer, Patrick (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- unknown
- Published:
- United States: Springer Publishing
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 185 Document Number: D11896
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- 37
- Notes:
- 20 Pages, Springer Online, Aspirations to farm ‘better’ may fall short in practice due to constraints outside of farmers’ control. Yet farmers face proliferating pressures to adopt practices that align with various societal visions of better agriculture. What happens when the accumulation of external pressures overwhelms farm management capacity? Or, worse, when different visions of better agriculture pull farmers toward conflicting management paradigms? This article addresses these questions by comparing the institutional manifestations of two distinct societal obligations placed on California fruit and vegetable farmers: to practice sustainable agriculture and to ensure food safety. Drawing on the concept of constrained choice, I define and utilize a framework for comparison comprising five types of institutions that shape farm management decisions: rules and standards, market and supply chain forces, legal liability, social networks and norms, and scientific knowledge and available technologies. Several insights emerge. One, farmers are expected to meet multiple societal obligations concurrently; when facing a “right-versus-right” choice, farmers are likely to favor the more feasible course within structural constraints. Second, many institutions are designed to pursue narrow or siloed objectives; policy interventions that aim to shift farming practice should thus anticipate and address potential conflicts among institutions with diverging aspirations. Third, farms operating at different scales may face distinct institutional drivers in some cases, but not others, due to differential preferences for universal versus place-specific policies. These insights suggest that policy interventions should engage not just farmers, but also the intersecting institutions that drive or constrain their farm management choices. As my framework demonstrates, complementing the concept of constrained choice with insights from institutional theory can more precisely reveal the dimensions and mechanisms that bound farmer agency and shape farm management paradigms. Improved understanding of these structures, I suggest, may lead to novel opportunities to transform agriculture through institutional designs that empower, rather than constrain, farmer choice.