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.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08599
Notes:
Located in Review of Extension Studies, volumes for 1946-1956, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., Summary of a research study involving the Young Farmer and Homemaker Service Letter. New York Agricultural College Extension, Ithaca. 2 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08635
Notes:
Located in Review of Extension Studies, volumes for 1946-1956, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., Summary of research report. Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station, University Park. Bulletin 577. 30 pages.
Dillon, John L. (author), Heady, Earl O. (author), and Department of Economics and Sociology, Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University; Department of Economics and Sociology, Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1960
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05350
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, Ames, Iowa : Department of Economics and Sociology, Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 1960. 23 p. (Research Bulletin no. 485)
Clarke, G.B. (author / Agricultural Economics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK) and Agricultural Economics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1963
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05317
Notes:
cited reference, In: J.M.A. Penders, ed. Rural Extension at the Crossroads. Wageningen, The Netherlands: International Agricultural Centre, 1963. p. 124-135.
Benvenuti, B. (author / Rural sociologist, OESO, Division Analysis of the conditions of production of agriculture, Brussels, Belgium) and Rural sociologist, OESO, Division Analysis of the conditions of production of agriculture, Brussels, Belgium
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1963
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05314
Notes:
cited reference, In: J.M.A. Penders, ed. Rural Extension at the Crossroads. Wageningen, The Netherlands: International Agricultural Centre, 1963. p. 92-103.
Penders, J.M.A. (author / Director of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Hague) and Director of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Hague
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1963
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05320
Notes:
cited reference, In: J.M.A. Penders, ed. Rural Extension at the Crossroads. Wageningen, The Netherlands: International Agricultural Centre, 1963. p. 237-249.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes2 Document Number: C12338
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Pages 340-343 in Borton, Raymond E. (ed.), Selected readings to accompany getting agriculture moving. Volume 1. Agricultural Development Council, New York, NY. 526 p.
Bock, I.M. (author / Agricultural Extension Research Unit, School of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Melbourne) and Agricultural Extension Research Unit, School of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Melbourne
Format:
Research paper
Publication Date:
1975
Published:
Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 45 Document Number: B05549
