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Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California

Author

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  • Sonja Brodt
  • Gail Feenstra
  • Robin Kozloff
  • Karen Klonsky
  • Laura Tourte

Abstract

While questions about the environmental sustainability of contemporary farming practices and the socioeconomic viability of rural communities are attracting increasing attention throughout the US, these two issues are rarely considered together. This paper explores the current and potential connections between these two aspects of sustainability, using data on community members’ and farmers’ views of agricultural issues in California’s Central Valley. These views were collected from a series of individual and group interviews with biologically oriented and conventional farmers as well as community stakeholders. Local marketing, farmland preservation, and perceptions of sustainable agriculture comprised the primary topics of discussion. The mixed results indicate that, while many farmers and community members have a strong interest in these topics, sustainable community development and the use of sustainable farming practices are seldom explicitly linked. On the other hand, many separate efforts around the Valley to increase local marketing and agritourism, improve public education about agriculture, and organize grassroots farmland preservation initiatives were documented. We conclude that linking these efforts more explicitly to sustainable agriculture and promoting more engagement between ecologically oriented farmers and their communities could engender more economic and political support for these farmers, helping them and their communities to achieve greater sustainability in the long run. Copyright Springer 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Sonja Brodt & Gail Feenstra & Robin Kozloff & Karen Klonsky & Laura Tourte, 2006. "Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(1), pages 75-88, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:23:y:2006:i:1:p:75-88
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-004-5870-y
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Aditya R. Khanal & Ashok K. Mishra & Omobolaji Omobitan, 2019. "Examining organic, agritourism, and agri-environmental diversification decisions of American farms: are these decisions interlinked?," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 27-45, December.
    2. Megan Swindal & Gilbert Gillespie & Rick Welsh, 2010. "Community digester operations and dairy farmer perspectives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 461-474, December.
    3. Amy Trauger & Carolyn Sachs & Mary Barbercheck & Kathy Brasier & Nancy Kiernan, 2010. "“Our market is our community”: women farmers and civic agriculture in Pennsylvania, USA," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(1), pages 43-55, March.
    4. Filippa Pyk & Assem Abu Hatab, 2018. "Fairtrade and Sustainability: Motivations for Fairtrade Certification among Smallholder Coffee Growers in Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Douglas H. Constance, 2023. "The doctors of agrifood studies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 31-43, March.
    6. Scott, Steffanie & Si, Zhenzhong & Schumilas, Theresa & Chen, Aijuan, 2014. "Contradictions in state- and civil society-driven developments in China’s ecological agriculture sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 158-166.

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