IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v37y2020i4d10.1007_s10460-020-10123-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When farmers are pulled in too many directions: comparing institutional drivers of food safety and environmental sustainability in California agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Baur

    (University of Rhode Island)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Baur, 2020. "When farmers are pulled in too many directions: comparing institutional drivers of food safety and environmental sustainability in California agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1175-1194, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:37:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-020-10123-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-020-10123-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-020-10123-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-020-10123-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick Baur & Christy Getz & Jennifer Sowerwine, 2017. "Contradictions, consequences and the human toll of food safety culture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 713-728, September.
    2. Adam Reimer & Aaron Thompson & Linda Prokopy, 2012. "The multi-dimensional nature of environmental attitudes among farmers in Indiana: implications for conservation adoption," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 29-40, March.
    3. Jill Harrison & Christy Getz, 2015. "Farm size and job quality: mixed-methods studies of hired farm work in California and Wisconsin," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 617-634, December.
    4. Rehber, Erkan, 2018. "Contract Farming in Practice: An Overview," Research Reports 290069, University of Connecticut, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    5. Uematsu, Hiroki & Mishra, Ashok K., 2012. "Organic farmers or conventional farmers: Where's the money?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 55-62.
    6. Heimlich, Ralph E. & Claassen, Roger, 1998. "Agricultural Conservation Policy At A Crossroads," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 27(01), pages 1-13, April.
    7. Heimlich, Ralph E. & Claassen, Roger, 1998. "Agricultural Conservation Policy at a Crossroads," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(1), pages 95-107, April.
    8. Laura DeLind & Philip Howard, 2008. "Safe at any scale? Food scares, food regulation, and scaled alternatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(3), pages 301-317, September.
    9. Paul Verbruggen & Tetty Havinga, 2017. "Hybridization of food governance: An analytical framework," Chapters, in: Paul Verbruggen & Tetty Havinga (ed.), Hybridization of Food Governance, chapter 1, pages 1-28, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Rebecca Taylor & David Zilberman, 2017. "Diffusion of Drip Irrigation: The Case of California," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 39(1), pages 16-40.
    11. Adam Calo, 2018. "How knowledge deficit interventions fail to resolve beginning farmer challenges," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(2), pages 367-381, June.
    12. Calvin, Linda, 2007. "Outbreak Linked to Spinach Forces Reassessment of Food Safety Practices," Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, pages 1-8, June.
    13. Douglas Constance, 2009. "2008 AFHVS presidential address," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(1), pages 3-14, March.
    14. Klonsky, Karen & Greene, Catherine R., 2005. "Widespread Adoption of Organic Agriculture in the US: Are Market-Driven Policies Enough?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19382, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    15. Harvey S. James & Mary K. Hendrickson, 2008. "Perceived economic pressures and farmer ethics," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 38(3), pages 349-361, May.
    16. Miguel Altieri & Peter Rosset & Clara Nicholls, 1997. "Biological control and agricultural modernization: Towards resolution of some contradictions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 14(3), pages 303-310, September.
    17. Brodt, Sonja & Klonsky, Karen & Tourte, Laura, 2006. "Farmer goals and management styles: Implications for advancing biologically based agriculture," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 90-105, July.
    18. Martha McMahon, 2013. "What Food is to be Kept Safe and for Whom? Food-Safety Governance in an Unsafe Food System," Laws, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-27, October.
    19. Marian Garcia Martinez & Paul Verbruggen & Andrew Fearne, 2013. "Risk-based approaches to food safety regulation: what role for co-regulation?," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 1101-1121, October.
    20. Diana Stuart, 2008. "The illusion of control: industrialized agriculture, nature, and food safety," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(2), pages 177-181, June.
    21. Tingting Liu & Randall J. F. Bruins & Matthew T. Heberling, 2018. "Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Best Management Practices: A Review and Synthesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-26, February.
    22. Geovana Mercado & Carsten Nico Hjortsø & Benson Honig, 2018. "Decoupling from international food safety standards: how small-scale indigenous farmers cope with conflicting institutions to ensure market participation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(3), pages 651-669, September.
    23. Garcia Martinez, Marian & Fearne, Andrew & Caswell, Julie A. & Henson, Spencer, 2007. "Co-regulation as a possible model for food safety governance: Opportunities for public-private partnerships," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 299-314, June.
    24. Maki Hatanaka & Jason Konefal & Douglas Constance, 2012. "A tripartite standards regime analysis of the contested development of a sustainable agriculture standard," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 65-78, March.
    25. Woods, Timothy A. & Tropp, Debra, 2015. "CSAs and the Battle for the Local Food Dollar," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 46(2), pages 1-13, July.
    26. Neva Hassanein, 2011. "Matters of scale and the politics of the Food Safety Modernization Act," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(4), pages 577-581, December.
    27. Ben B. Davies & Ian D. Hodge, 2006. "Farmers’ Preferences for New Environmental Policy Instruments: Determining the Acceptability of Cross Compliance for Biodiversity Benefits," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 393-414, September.
    28. Knowler, Duncan & Bradshaw, Ben, 2007. "Farmers' adoption of conservation agriculture: A review and synthesis of recent research," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 25-48, February.
    29. Bigelow, Daniel & Borchers, Allison & Hubbs, Todd, 2016. "U.S. Farmland Ownership, Tenure, and Transfer," Economic Information Bulletin 262138, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    30. Colin Ray Anderson & Janneke Bruil & Michael Jahi Chappell & Csilla Kiss & Michel Patrick Pimbert, 2019. "From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-28, September.
    31. Ayars, J.E. & Fulton, A. & Taylor, B., 2015. "Subsurface drip irrigation in California—Here to stay?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 39-47.
    32. Buzby, Jean C. & Frenzen, Paul D., 1999. "Food safety and product liability," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 637-651, December.
    33. Claassen, Roger & Cattaneo, Andrea & Johansson, Robert, 2008. "Cost-effective design of agri-environmental payment programs: U.S. experience in theory and practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 737-752, May.
    34. Jane Mills & Peter Gaskell & Julie Ingram & Janet Dwyer & Matt Reed & Christopher Short, 2017. "Engaging farmers in environmental management through a better understanding of behaviour," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 283-299, June.
    35. Jogn C. Bergstrom & Terence J. Centner, 1989. "Agricultural Nuisances and Right to Farm Laws: Implications Of Changing Liability Rules," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 19(1), pages 23-30, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hannah Romanowski & Lauren Blake, 2023. "Neonicotinoid seed treatment on sugar beet in England: a qualitative analysis of the controversy, existing policy and viability of alternatives," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 13(3), pages 453-472, September.
    2. León-Bravo, Verónica & Caniato, Federico, 2024. "Sustainability performance measurement in the food supply chain: Trade-offs, institutional pressures, and contextual factors," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 633-646.
    3. Guo, Zhangdong & Chen, Xiaoqi & Zhang, Yongwang, 2022. "Impact of environmental regulation perception on farmers' agricultural green production technology adoption: A new perspective of social capital," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Georgiana-Raluca Ladaru & Diana Maria Ilie & Maria Claudia Diaconeasa & Ionut Laurentiu Petre & Florian Marin & Valentin Lazar, 2020. "Influencing Factors of a Sustainable Vegetable Choice. The Romanian Consumers’ Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-20, November.
    5. Benjamin Iuliano, 2024. "No farm is an island: constrained choice, landscape thinking, and ecological insect management among Wisconsin farmers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(4), pages 1631-1646, December.
    6. Maki Hatanaka & Jason Konefal, 2025. "Governing by data: metrics and sustainability in produce agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(1), pages 289-301, March.
    7. Quoc Nguyen-Minh & Raffaele Vignola & Inge D. Brouwer & Peter Oosterveer, 2025. "Transitioning practices of vegetable small-scale actors in Vietnam: an interplay of food safety, labor demand, and soil environment," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(2), pages 825-843, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jessica Rudnick & Mark Lubell & Sat Darshan S. Khalsa & Stephanie Tatge & Liza Wood & Molly Sears & Patrick H. Brown, 2021. "A farm systems approach to the adoption of sustainable nitrogen management practices in California," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 783-801, September.
    2. Julia M. L. Laforge & Colin R. Anderson & Stéphane M. McLachlan, 2017. "Governments, grassroots, and the struggle for local food systems: containing, coopting, contesting and collaborating," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 663-681, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Bartosz Bartkowski & Stephan Bartke, 2018. "Leverage Points for Governing Agricultural Soils: A Review of Empirical Studies of European Farmers’ Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-27, September.
    5. E. Rouvière & K. Latouche, 2014. "Impact of liability rules on modes of coordination for food safety in supply chains," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 111-130, February.
    6. Braito, Michael & Leonhardt, Heidi & Penker, Marianne & Schauppenlehner-Kloyber, Elisabeth & Thaler, Georg & Flint, Courtney G., 2020. "The plurality of farmers’ views on soil management calls for a policy mix," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Fabian Klebl & Peter H. Feindt & Annette Piorr, 2024. "Farmers’ behavioural determinants of on-farm biodiversity management in Europe: a systematic review," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(2), pages 831-861, June.
    8. Emmeline Topp & Mohamed El Azhari & Harun Cicek & Hatem Cheikh M’Hamed & Mohamed Zied Dhraief & Oussama El Gharras & Jordi Puig Roca & Cristina Quintas-Soriano & Laura Rueda Iáñez & Abderrahmane Sakou, 2024. "Perceptions and sociocultural factors underlying adoption of conservation agriculture in the Mediterranean," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(2), pages 491-508, June.
    9. Fares, M'hand & Rouviere, Elodie, 2010. "The implementation mechanisms of voluntary food safety systems," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 412-418, October.
    10. Baylis, Kathy & Peplow, Stephen & Rausser, Gordon & Simon, Leo, 2008. "Agri-environmental policies in the EU and United States: A comparison," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 753-764, May.
    11. Patrick Baur & Christy Getz & Jennifer Sowerwine, 2017. "Contradictions, consequences and the human toll of food safety culture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 713-728, September.
    12. Yang, Wanhong & Bryan, Brett A. & MacDonald, Darla Hatton & Ward, John R. & Wells, Geoff & Crossman, Neville D. & Connor, Jeffrey D., 2010. "A conservation industry for sustaining natural capital and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 680-689, February.
    13. Dru Montri & Kimberly Chung & Bridget Behe, 2021. "Farmer perspectives on farmers markets in low-income urban areas: a case study in three Michigan cities," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(1), pages 1-14, February.
    14. Giulio Sperandio & Mauro Pagano & Andrea Acampora & Vincenzo Civitarese & Carla Cedrola & Paolo Mattei & Roberto Tomasone, 2022. "Deficit Irrigation for Efficiency and Water Saving in Poplar Plantations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-16, October.
    15. Ryschawy, Julie & Tiffany, Sara & Gaudin, Amélie & Niles, Meredith T. & Garrett, Rachael D., 2021. "Moving niche agroecological initiatives to the mainstream: A case-study of sheep-vineyard integration in California," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    16. Oscar Montes de Oca Munguia & Rick Llewellyn, 2020. "The Adopters versus the Technology: Which Matters More when Predicting or Explaining Adoption?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 80-91, March.
    17. Whitten, Stuart M., 2017. "Designing and implementing conservation tender metrics: Twelve core considerations," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 561-571.
    18. Kristina Beethem & Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt & Jennifer Lai & Tian Guo, 2023. "Navigating the information landscape: public and private information source access by midwest farmers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1117-1135, September.
    19. Jennifer Jo Thompson & A. June Brawner & Usha Kaila, 2017. "“You can’t manage with your heart”: risk and responsibility in farm to school food safety," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 683-699, September.
    20. Mohamed Ghali & Maha Ben Jaballah & Nejla Ben Arfa & Annie Sigwalt, 2022. "Analysis of factors that influence adoption of agroecological practices in viticulture," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 179-209, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:37:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-020-10123-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.