{"title":"How agricultural extension responds to amplified agrarian transitions in mainland Southeast Asia: experts’ reflections","authors":"Thong Anh Tran, Van Touch","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10577-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10577-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Recent decades have witnessed widespread agrarian transitions in mainland Southeast Asia. This paper examines how agrarian transitions are shaped by multiple drivers of change, and how these interwoven processes have triggered shifts in agricultural extension practices in three countries in the Lower Mekong Basin: Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Drawing on interviews with experts working on the fields of agrarian studies and rural development, this paper argues that agrarian transitions not only put a strain on agricultural extension systems in responding to evolving needs, but they also stimulate the co-production of innovative agricultural extension models to address gaps left by the limited presence of extensionists. The study gains insight into challenges faced by extensionists, including a lack of resources, skills, and capacities to meet growing needs, which simultaneously urged them to excel in their work performance. The paper highlights the proactive role of ‘champions’ in orchestrating collective efforts towards the co-production of innovative agricultural extension models (e.g. Metkasekor), and the formulation of pluralistic extension platforms in enabling such ‘co-learning-to-act’ practices. By translating these insights into the broader contexts of agricultural and rural development in the Mekong region and beyond, this paper aims to make a two-fold contribution. First, it will assert how the ‘business-as-usual’ extension model has failed to adequately address emerging needs as a result of agrarian transitions. Second, it will provide pathways for the recognition and legitimisation of the pluralistic extension approach that fosters stakeholders’ co-learning and productive engagement in extension practices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1773 - 1789"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10577-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141266214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
B. Clark, A. Proctor, A. Boaitey, N. Mahon, N. Hanley, L. Holloway
{"title":"Animal health and welfare as a public good: what do the public think?","authors":"B. Clark, A. Proctor, A. Boaitey, N. Mahon, N. Hanley, L. Holloway","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10585-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10585-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper presents a novel perspective on an evolving policy area. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has led to the creation of a new Agriculture Act and proposals for significant changes to the way farming subsidies are structured in England. Underpinned by a ‘public money for public goods’ approach, where public goods are those outputs from the farm system which are not rewarded by markets, yet which provide benefits to many members of society. New schemes include the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, where certain aspects of farm animal health and welfare (FAHW) will be subsidised through government support, raising a much-debated issue in the literature regarding the representation of FAHW as a public good. For policy to be responsive to societal demands and accountable to citizens, understanding public attitudes and preferences towards FAHW as a public good, and how the public might prioritise this in relation to a wider suite of environmental public goods from farming, is important. An online survey of 521 members of the UK public was conducted and analysed with descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regression. Findings reveal low awareness of the changing agricultural policy context, but strong support for public money being used to provide public goods, particularly for FAHW. Findings also indicate a need for more effective public communication of farming and FAHW issues from farming stakeholders to ensure public policy in this domain is responsive and accountable to its citizens. Further work is needed to inform future debates and engagement surrounding FAHW, including through which combination of funding mechanisms (public or private) it is provided.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1841 - 1856"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10585-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142811003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of government policies and regulations on the subjective well-being of farmers in two rural mountain areas of Italy","authors":"Sarah H. Whitaker","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10586-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10586-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The sustainable development of rural areas involves guaranteeing the quality of life and well-being of people who live in those areas. Existing studies on farmer health and well-being have revealed high levels of stress and low well-being, with government regulations emerging as a key stressor. This ethnographic study takes smallholder farmers in two rural mountain areas of Italy, one in the central Alps and one in the northwest Apennines, as its focus. It asks how and why the current policy and regulatory context of agriculture affects farmer well-being. Interviews and participant observation were conducted with 104 farmers. Three common scenarios emerged that negatively affect farmer well-being. First, policies and regulations designed for lowland areas do not always make sense when applied in the mountains. Second, when subsidies are put into effect at the local level, the reality of their implementation can veer away from the original goals of the funding program and have unintended effects on farmer well-being, agricultural practices, and the environment. Finally, when regulations are implemented on farms in rural mountain areas, the primacy of a techno-scientific knowledge system over other, local and place-based knowledge systems is exposed. These three scenarios affect well-being by eliciting feelings of stress, frustration, and disillusionment; by reducing farmer control over their work; and by fostering the perception that farming is not valued by society. They also create conditions of inequality and insecurity. The ways in which government policies and regulations play out on mountain farms can erode trust in government institutions, lead to an <i>us</i> versus <i>them</i> mentality, and contribute to the further abandonment of agriculture and rural areas.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1791 - 1809"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10586-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141114686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Farming with a mission: the case of nonprofit farms","authors":"Michelle R. Worosz, E. Melanie DuPuis","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10588-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10588-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Organizations interested in food alterity, security, and justice are often governed as 501(c)(3) nonprofits. As such, they are required to fulfill missions beyond profit maximization. This study focuses on the role of nonprofits in the agrifood system. Looking at nonprofit farms as both farms and as nonprofits, we seek to understand whether nonprofit organizations, as an alternative mode of governance, creates the possibility of an alternative economic practice, set apart from the conventional food system. We constructed a national database of nonprofit farms and the characteristics of the counties in which they are located. Our findings indicate that nonprofit farms tend not to be in the places with the most need of the services provided, which we argue is due to the structure of nonprofit governance, namely that nonprofits, while not profit-maximizing, are dependent on external resources, particularly donations. While they do operate as an alternative economic practice, their nonprofit mode of governance renders them unable to repair the failures of the current food system. Nevertheless, these farms do contribute to their local communities, both in terms of meeting their mission and as members of a broader local food system infrastructure. This is true whether or not these farms specifically state that food system transformation is part of their mission.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1877 - 1894"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10588-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141125394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Whitney Stone, Jamie Loizzo, Alison E. Adams, Sebastian Galindo, Cecilia Suarez, Ricky Telg
{"title":"Resisting coloniality in agriculture: A\u0000 decolonial analysis of Florida’s agricultural migrant workers’\u0000 experiences","authors":"Whitney Stone, Jamie Loizzo, Alison E. Adams, Sebastian Galindo, Cecilia Suarez, Ricky Telg","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10578-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10578-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The U.S. agricultural sector relies heavily on agricultural migrant\u0000 workers, and Florida has a history of (im)migrant labor. However, this system is\u0000 historically rooted in colonization, and its systems of oppression remain.\u0000 Currently, migrant workers operate in various systems of oppression, including\u0000 social, health, and environmental inequities, all of which have been worsened by the\u0000 COVID-19 pandemic. The literature regarding decoloniality, muted group theory, and\u0000 decolonial intersectionality has a strong history of uncovering how multiple\u0000 oppressions overlap for vulnerable and marginalized groups in the US. We draw on\u0000 this literature to ask: 1) how can examining participants’ stories through\u0000 decolonial intersectionality help explore structural and institutional racism and\u0000 the dominance of muting? and 2) how can participants recount how they resist\u0000 oppression and/or unmute in telling their stories? To answer these questions,\u0000 literary portraits were co-created with farmworkers and community liaisons about\u0000 participants’ experiences. The authors used decoloniality, muted group theory, and\u0000 decolonial intersectionality to analyze participants’ creative non-fiction stories.\u0000 Farmworkers recounted through their stories that they were often devalued, had their\u0000 humanity questioned, and negotiated their survival, especially during COVID-19.\u0000 However, they were able to resist the oppressions of coloniality through their\u0000 families, faith, pride, and love. Recommendations include using storytelling\u0000 techniques to align with farmworkers’ wants in research as well as assist in\u0000 communicating about issues regarding health and safety. Non-profit organizations,\u0000 centers of faith, and universities can assist in serving the needs of agricultural\u0000 migrant workers related to childcare, food security, and worksite and home safety\u0000 issues.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1725 - 1740"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140998368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}