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2. Crop advisers as conservation intermediaries: perceptions and policy implications for relying on nontraditional partners to increase U.S. farmers’ adoption of soil and water conservation practices
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Eanes, Francis R. (author), Singh, Ajay S. (author), Bulla, Brian R. (author), Ranjan, Pranay (author), Fales, Mary (author), Wickerham, Benjamin (author), Doran, Patrick J. (author), and Prokopy, Linda S. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-02
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10369
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 81 : 360-370
- Notes:
- 11 pages., Via online journal., Federal agricultural land use policies in the United States aimed at protecting soil health and water quality typically rely on persuading individual farmers to voluntarily adopt conservation practices. An expanding body of literature suggests that private sector intermediaries, such as crop advisers, are increasingly trusted sources of information for farmers about conservation practices and thus may be persuasive actors in the conservation-adoption realm. While previous studies have explored farmers’ perceptions of crop advisers facilitating conservation practice adoption and participating in conservation programs in agricultural landscapes, little research to date has explored crop advisers’ perceptions of this role, and few agricultural land use policies have explicitly included crop advisers as conservation partners. This study fills a critical void in the literature by evaluating the Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program, an innovative agricultural policy that relies on crop advisers to recruit farmers into the program and assist them with the adoption of conservation practices. Through a survey and interviews with crop advisers in the Saginaw Bay watershed in Michigan, USA, we explore crop advisers’ perceptions of their role in the program and of delivering conservation information to farmers. We found that crop advisers have positive attitudes towards land/water resources and conservation practices, believe they have an important intermediary role to play in facilitating conservation practice adoption, and believe their supervisors are supportive of them promoting conservation. However, difficulties in collaboration and communication between the private and governmental sectors – resulting from perceived differences, operational differences, and territoriality – present a key barrier to crop advisers increasing their intermediary role in the promotion and implementation of federal conservation programs. Future research and policy initiatives should explore how to address public-private territoriality and whether crop advisers should be incentivized to deliver information about conservation practices and/or assist in enrolling farmers in federal conservation programs.
3. National food security, immigration reform, and the importance of worker engagement in agricultural guestworker debates
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Zoodsma, Anna (author), Dudley, Mary Jo (author), and Minkoff-Zern, Laura-Anne (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-08-08
- Published:
- USA: Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12646
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
- Journal Title Details:
- V. 11, N.4
- Notes:
- 13 pages, This article looks at the United States’ federal H-2A Temporary Agricultural Visa Program and reforms proposed by the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. In this policy analysis, we draw on media content analysis and qualitative interviews to compare the viewpoints of farmers, workers, grower and worker advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians. We find that perspectives on the program are dependent upon actors’ level of direct interaction with workers. Moderate-sized farmers and regionally based worker advocacy groups tend to be the most concerned with day-to-day program operations and fair working conditions. In contrast, national-level advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians are less critical of the program and seek to broadly expand farmer access to guestworkers, justifying proposed program reforms with discourses of national food security and immigration reform. Ultimately, we suggest that engaging a food systems lens to understand these policies provides a more nuanced perspective, addressing national food security and immigration as related issues.
4. Surviving as an argentine farmer: factors that influence risk management strategies
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Clay, Pablo Mac (author), Accursi, Federico M. (author), and Harmath, Pedro (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-08-01
- Published:
- Germany: CENTMA Research
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12699
- Journal Title:
- International Journal on Food System Dynamics
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 13, N.3
- Notes:
- 16pgs, Agricultural production is a challenging business in Argentina due to output variability, unfavorable government policies, and the absence of public risk management programs. Based on probit modeling and information surveyed from producers farming in the Humid Pampa, this paper studies the influence of (a) risk attitudes, (b) risk perceptions, and (c) socioeconomic factors on the probability of choosing five different risk management strategies. Besides confirming that some results previously found in the literature apply to the Argentine case, we find that local farmers have a particular understanding of specific risk management strategies. Some strategies usually applied to reduce risks, such as the use of futures markets or vertical integration are perceived by Argentine farmers as risk-increasing. Cost control is the preferred strategy for risk-averse farmers. Policymakers and companies providing services should take into consideration the particular way in which Argentine farmers perceive and manage risks to build a common language.
5. The “age of agricultural ignorance”: trends and concerns for agriculture knee-deep into the twenty-first century
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Evans, Sterling (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- JSTOR
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10650
- Journal Title:
- Agricultural History
- Journal Title Details:
- 93(1): 4-34
- Notes:
- 32 pages., via online journal., The phrase in the title is not mine. I am borrowing it here from syndicated columnist and cowboy poet Baxter Black, who borrowed the title of one of his own columns “Growth of Agricultural Ignorance” from the editor of the Delmarva Farmer (a weekly agricultural publication serving the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia region). In many ways I agree with the term, and believe it is accurate in part to describe American society in the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss some trends in American agriculture, and for that matter, agricultural history, and some concerns that I have about them. Not all the trends are bad, of course, and perhaps in some ways, at least, American society is less agriculturally ignorant than Black and others suggest.