Why Don't They Just Change? Contract Farming, Informational Influence, and Barriers to Agricultural Climate Change Mitigation

Schewe, Rebecca L.; Stuart, Diana

doi:10.1111/ruso.12122

Cited by 28 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even if farmers were making these connections, between their practices and the effects of heavy rain events, it is unlikely they could prioritise mitigation actions given the constraints of the competitive system (Schewe and Stuart 2017;Stuart and Houser 2018). Farmers' are constrained within the material motivational context of capitalism (Magdoff et al 2000), which likely dissuades them from considering the seriousness of the environmental consequences, including contributions to climate change and water quality.…”

Section: Interpretative Relevance As a Frame For 'Rational' Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change in Context: Toward a Political Economy of Relevance

2019

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Sociologists commonly hypothesise that experiencing the impacts of climate change will lead actors, including farmers, to desire to address climate change. It is increasingly clear that farmers can detect the regional biophysical expressions and impacts of climate change. However, this has not led farmers to desire to take action on climate change. This begs the question: how then are farmers interpreting these experiences? We argue that political‐economic context, the structural conditions of capitalist production, contributes to how farmers perceive and understand the impacts of climate change. We draw from our novel political economy of relevance theoretical framework and apply this framework to a sample of over 100 qualitative interviews with Iowa and Indiana row‐crop farmers. We focus on their experiences with heavy rain events, a key impact of climate change in the Midwest. Our findings suggest that farmers become aware of, interpret and respond to heavy rain events within the context of capitalist production. This leads most farmers to see heavy rain events as barriers to achieving capitalist goals, rather than as signals of the reconsider climate scepticism or the need to mitigate contributions to climate change.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretative Relevance As a Frame For 'Rational' Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change in Context: Toward a Political Economy of Relevance

2019

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“…Smaller qualitative inquiries such as this one can then inform larger confirmatory approaches to linking farmers' views of climate impacts to their perspectives on mitigation and adaptation measures (Arbuckle et al, 2013a;Liu et al, 2014). For the purposes of our inquiry, this set of responses allowed the analysis to begin by specifying some environmental factors that might inform farmers' views of adaptive and mitigative practices in this region (Clarke, 2013;Mase et al, 2017;Schewe and Stuart, 2017;Gardezi and Arbuckle, 2018;Fletcher et al, 2020).…”

Section: Salience Of Climate Change In Farmers' Qualitative Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Product Diversification, Adaptive Management, and Climate Change: Farming and Family in the U.S. Corn Belt

et al. 2021

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A variety of factors shape farmers' views as they face the rising effects of climate change and consider a range of adaptation strategies to build the resilience of their farming systems. We examine a set of related questions to explore farmers' perspectives on risks and potential shifts to their operations: (1) Relative to other environmental factors, how salient of a challenge is climate change and climate-related impacts to farmers? (2) Do farmers intend to adapt to climate impacts generally?, and (3) What factors shape their use of a specific and underexplored adaptive response—farm product diversification? The data come from a survey of 179 operators within a 30-county region of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The region spans various rural-urban gradients. Respondents generally represent smaller operations [median of 80 acres (32 hectares)]. Because our selection methods aimed to over-sample from food-producing farms, 60% of respondents produced some type of food or value-added product, and 40% produced only commodity feedstocks and biofuels. Although the group as a whole indicated only “somewhat” of a concern about changing weather patterns, and half did not anticipate adapting their farming practices to climate change, farmers' responses to a write-in question denoted regional climate effects as challenges to their farms. Analysis of subgroups among the respondents, according to their views of climate change, adaptation, and further diversifying their agricultural products, distinguished farmers' family considerations, and gender. Methods to elicit subgroups included correlation, regression, cluster analysis, and an examination of the many respondents (29%) who indicated uncertainty about adapting practices. Women, who participated in 29% of responses, indicated more concern with changing weather patterns and more openness to adapting farming practices compared to men. Farmers with the most family relationships to consider, and those with the greatest aspirations to employ descendants, were the most receptive to adapting their farming practices. This was the case even when respondents' concern over climate change was low. Results point to the importance of family relationships as a factor in farmers' openness to implementing adaptive and potentially mitigative actions.

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“…This means that adaptations are integrated into actions linked to sustainable development, resource management and disaster preparedness [28]. However, much of this work on adaptation refers to farm families where risks from climate change may be a direct threat to their livelihood [29][30][31]. Less work has been concentrated on adaptation and, more particularly, mitigation by households in urban and suburban locations involving specific actions by householders as opposed to supporting higher taxes for energy and fuel.…”

Section: Barriers To Climate Change Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Farmers and Peri-Urban Fringe Residents in South Australia

et al. 2018

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This paper reports on results from two major research projects conducted in South Australia. The first investigates adaptation to climate change in two of the state's major grain and sheep farming regions, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The second uses a postal questionnaire and an internet-based survey of residents in the peri-urban fringes of Adelaide, the state capital, to examine knowledge of and attitudes to climate change and resulting adaptations, especially in the context of increasing risk of wildfires. The research on adaptation to climate change in agriculture focused on formal institutions (e.g., government agencies) and communities of practice (e.g., farm systems groups). Both groups noted that farmers autonomously adapt to various risks, including those induced by climate variability. The types and levels of adaptation varied among individuals partly because of barriers to adaptation, which included limited communication and engagement processes established between formal institutions and communities of practice. The paper discusses possibilities for more effective transfers of knowledge and information on climate change among formal institutions, communities of practice, trusted individual advisors and farmers. Research in the peri-urban fringe revealed that actions taken by individuals to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change were linked to the nature of environmental values held (or ecological worldview) and place attachment. Individuals with a strong place attachment to the study area (the Adelaide Hills) who possessed knowledge of and/or beliefs in climate change were most likely to take mitigating actions. This was also linked to previous experience of major risk from wildfires. The paper concludes by discussing prospects for developing co-management for reducing the impact of climate change across multiple groups in rural and peri-urban areas.

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Why Don't They Just Change? Contract Farming, Informational Influence, and Barriers to Agricultural Climate Change Mitigation

Cited by 28 publications

References 75 publications

Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change in Context: Toward a Political Economy of Relevance

Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change in Context: Toward a Political Economy of Relevance

Product Diversification, Adaptive Management, and Climate Change: Farming and Family in the U.S. Corn Belt

Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Farmers and Peri-Urban Fringe Residents in South Australia

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