Farmer-led networks for redistributing power in pluralistic advisory systems: two case studies from Ontario, Canada

This article examines whether and how farmer-led networks can contribute to a more democratic approach to agricultural extension by redistributing power within pluralistic advisory systems. Despite a rhetorical commitment to diversity and farmer choice, contemporary advisory systems are frequently dominated by private and commercially embedded advisors whose interests shape what enters the advisory agenda. Drawing on qualitative data from two farmer-led networks in Ontario, Canada—the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO) and the Ontario Soil Network (OSN)— and using Lukes’ multidimensional view of power, we find that these networks challenge extension’s depoliticization by flattening symbolic hierarchies, centering place-based knowledge, and shifting power dynamics toward collective agenda-setting and the normalization of alternative agricultural imaginaries. However, without efforts toward inclusion, farmer-led networks risk reproducing existing power relations among members. We conclude that while farmer-led networks hold significant potential for moving pluralistic advisory systems toward genuine pluralism, their democratizing capacity depends on deliberate organizational design and cannot substitute for structural change that addresses inequalities in land access and the commercialization of the broader agricultural landscape.