Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:33:27.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An assessment of SARE-funcled farmer research on sustainable agriculture in the north central U.S.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Margaret M. Kroma  and
Cornelia Butler Flora
Margaret M. Kroma*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850
Cornelia Butler Flora
Affiliation:
Professor of Sociology and Director, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011.
*
Corresponding author is M.M. Kroma (mmk26@cor nell.edu).
Get access

Abstract

Emergent research shows how some farmer groups in the United States are gaining visibility as a critical knowledge community, making important contributions to the ecological health and overall sustainability of the natural resource base. This study focuses on funded farmer research projects in the north central region, to analyze the process and outcome of local inquiry embodied in the discursive contents of reports to a funding agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. The analyses suggest that farmers' locality-specific agricultural practices may constitute a reflective and learning community, generating local knowledge keenly attuned to an underlying value system that supports actions towards sustainability.

Keywords

alternative agriculturelearning communitieslocal knowledgeon-farm researchsocial networks
Type
Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 2001 , pp. 73 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Altieri, M.A. 1993. Crop Protection Strategies for Subsistence Farmers. Westview Press, Boulder, CO; IT Publications, London.Google Scholar
2.Colin, J. 1994. Systems of production and production of knowledge. Fanning Systems Research-Extension 4:31–46.Google Scholar
3.Denzin, N.K. 1989. Interpretive Interactionism. Applied Social Research Methods Vol. 16. Sage Publications, London.Google Scholar
4.Dlott, J.W., Altieri, M.A., and Masumoto, M.. 1994. Exploring the theory and practice of participatory research in U.S. sustainable agriculture: A case of insect pest management. Agric. Human Values 2:126–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Eyerman, R., and Jamison, A. (ed.). 1991. Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach. Polity Press, Cambridge, U.K.Google Scholar
6.Feldman, S., and Welsh, R.. 1995. Feminist knowledge claims, local knowledge, and gender divisions of agricultural labor: Constructing a successor science. Rural Sociol. 60:23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Flora, C.B., and Kroma, M.. 1998. Gender and sustainability in agriculture and rural development. In D'Souza, G.E. and Gebremedhin, T.G. (eds.). Sustainability in Agricultural and Rural Development. Ashgate, Brookfield, VT. p. 105–118.Google Scholar
8.Francis, C., King, J., DeWitt, J., Bushnell, J., and Lucas, L.. 1990. Participatory strategies for information exchange. Amer. J. Alternative Agric. 5:153–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Gerber, J.M. 1992. Farmer participation in research: A model for adaptive research and education. Amer. J. Alternative Agric. 7:118–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Hassanein, N. 1999. Changing the Way America Farms: Knowledge and Community in the Sustainable Agriculture Movement. Our Sustainable Future Vol. 12. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
11.Hassanein, N., and Kloppenburg, J.R. Jr., 1995. Where the grass grows again: Knowledge exchange in the sustainable agriculture movement. Rural Sociol. 60:721–740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Kloppenburg, J.R. Jr., 1991. Social theory and the de/reconstruction of agricultural science: Local knowledge for an alternative agriculture. Rural Sociol. 56:519–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Liebhardt, W.C. 1993. Fanner experience with rotational grazing: A case study approach. In Liebhardt, W.C. (ed.). The Dairy Debate: Consequences of Bovine Growth Hormone and Rotational Grazing Technologies. University of California, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Davis, p. 131–188.Google Scholar
14.Liebman, M., and Janke, R.. 1990. Sustainable weed management practices. In Francis, C.A., Flora, C.B., and King, L.D. (eds.). Sustainable Agriculture in Temperate Zones. Wiley and Sons, New York. p. 111–143.Google Scholar
15.McCorkle, C.M. 1994. Farmer Innovation in Niger. Studies in Technology and Social Change No. 21. Iowa State University, Technology and Social Change Program, Ames.Google Scholar
16.Meares, A.C. 1997. Making the transition from conventional to sustainable agriculture: Gender, social movement participation, and quality of life on the family farm. Rural Sociol. 62:21–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Miles, M.B., and Huberman, A.M.. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. 2nd ed.Sage Publications, London.Google Scholar
18.Molnar, J.J., Duffy, P.A., Cummins, K.A., and Van Santen, E.. 1992. Agricultural science and agricultural counterculture paradigms in search of a future. Rural Sociol. 57:83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.NCR SARE. 1997. Operations Committee Report and Update for Fiscal Year 1996, North Central Region SARE. University of Nebraska, Lincoln.Google Scholar
20.Rochon, T. 1998. Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism and Changing Values. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Rosmann, R.L. 1994. Farmer-initiated onfarm research. Amer. J. Alternative Agric. 9:34–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Striegel, R.M. 1996. Development and Initial Validation of the Sustainable Quality of Life Questionnaire. Ph.D. diss. University of Iowa, Iowa City.Google Scholar
23.US GAO. 1992. Sustainable Agriculture: Program Management, Accomplishments, and Opportunities. GAO/RCED-92-233. U.S. Gen. Acctg. Ofc, Washington DC.Google Scholar
24.Wainwright, H. 1994. Arguments for the New Left: Answering the Free Market Right. Blackwell, Oxford, U.K. p. xii.Google Scholar
25.Warren, D.M. 1994. Indigenous agricultural knowledge, technology and social change. In McIsaac, G. and Edwards, W.R. (eds.). Sustainable Agriculture in the American Midwest: Lessons from the Past, Prospects for the Future. University of Illinois Press, Urbana. p. 35–53.Google Scholar