25 pages, The 2020 growing season presented new and significant challenges for farmers and farms across the United States as they navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. The rich and diverse agricultural landscape of Washington State offers a valuable microcosm in which to explore the experiences of farms in the U.S. during the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on directly marketing small farms in western Washington State, with a focus on farmers’ experiences with resilience. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 farmers and used thematic analysis to explore the influence of the pandemic on overall experiences, responses, and values and perceptions related to small farms. Interviewees provided insights on the impacts of the pandemic on their daily farm operations, production costs, marketing channels, demand, and revenue. Farmers also reported shifting personal and public attitudes towards small farms during the pandemic. Product diversity, flexibility, multiple forms of support, values, and access to resources emerged as drivers of COVID-19 impacts and farm adaptations. When compared to existing frameworks on farm resilience, farms in this study are seen to demonstrate resilience via buffer and adaptive capabilities, which enable them to absorb and adjust to shocks. Farmers also discussed resilience via transformative capability, the potential to create new systems, leveraging the collective power of small farms to shape future food systems. Future research on the resilience of small farms should focus on ways to both promote resilience attributes and facilitate the ability of farmers to act on resilience capabilities.
International: Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 133 Document Number: D11396
Notes:
10 pages., Via online from website., "Experts say the rise of artifical intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will. Includes references to impacts on farmers, farming and climate.
24 pages, Farmer-led research (FLR) is a process of inquiry wherein farmers use scientific methods to address their own on-farm curiosities and challenges in ways that are compatible with the scale and management style of their operations. With its flexible, adaptable, participatory, grassroots-oriented nature, FLR has typically been employed by farmers interested in ecological farming techniques and technologies, and evidence shows that it contributes to the adoption and improvement of ecological management practices across a range of contexts. Engagement in FLR initiatives has also been linked to positive social outcomes, including community-building, farmer empowerment, and enhanced capacity for leadership and collective action. In this paper, we present a case study of the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario’s (EFAO) Farmer-Led Research Program (FLRP), which is currently one of relatively few FLR initiatives in North America. We draw on data from a participatory, mixed-methods research project. Our results highlight how the FLRP is enabling farmers to feel more knowledgeable, confident, motivated, and inspired to adopt and/or improve ecological practices on their farms, in part by supporting them in building robust social networks that align with their farming values and priorities.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 151 Document Number: D10100
Journal Title Details:
Volume 64. : pgs. 61-114
Notes:
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51721-9
Online ISBN: 978-319-51721-6, Pages 61-114 in Stevens, J. (ed), Impulsivity. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Volume 64.
Book series., Author suggests: "Meaning clearly influences people's choices; otherwise, framing and priming would not work. Culture is probably the most significant source of frames and primes. ... For southwestern Malagasy and probably for all humanity, the meaning behind unpredictability and anticipation relates to a clockwork understanding of interacting factors that are ultimately influenced by God, ancestors, and other supernatural forces.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08639
Notes:
Located in Review of Extension Studies, volumes for 1946-1956, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., Summary of research report. Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan. Technical Bulletin 83. 31 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: B03330
Notes:
Phase II; Contains Preface only. Abstract available in Main Stacks 630.73 Un364r., Chicago : University of Chicago, Department of Eduction, 1960. 247 p. (Ph D. dissertation)
