The Roots of First-Generation Farmers: The Role of Inspiration in Starting an Organic Farm

This research aimed to determine salient factors affecting the decision to become a beginning organic farmer. New and beginning organic farmers have unique characteristics, showcasing their dedication to environmental justice and social justice at the expense of their own businesses. This research aimed to determine why people with no background in agriculture would start a farm when it is a high-risk and low-return business. With multigenerational farmers aging out of agriculture, we investigated the new generation and shifting demographics of people entering farming that will replace retiring farmers and feed our future. This research employed a multiple-case case study design. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 first-generation farmers who operate organic farms in Arkansas, Florida, or Georgia. We analyzed interview transcripts using the qualitative analysis approach of coding. Our results reveal two primary reasons why people with little practical knowledge start farms. First, they are inspired by those around them who succeed, and second, they are encouraged by influential characters in the field who assure them they can do something they love and be profitable. This research showed that first-generation farmers find inspiration and develop values rooted in food justice. Our findings have implications for developing and implementing current and future programmatic activities that aim to enhance beginning farmer training and workforce development. We identified sources of inspiration that will help researchers and service providers target newer and beginning farmers to support a vibrant food system, including burgeoning market opportunities, developing strong communities around food, and building grassroots solutions

Effect of Cultural Practices on Neopamera bilobata in Relation to Fruit Injury and Marketable Yields in Organic Strawberries

The strawberry seed bug, Neopamera bilobata (Say), is an emerging pest of organic and conventional strawberries in Florida. There is limited information on this Rhyparochromidae species. Thus, the type of injury caused is not clearly documented and management recommendations are lacking. In this study, we evaluated the effect of strawberry cultivars, cover crops, and the presence of runners on N. bilobata populations and yield. We also investigated the effect of select cultivars and the presence of runners on N. bilobata injury levels. In addition, we used fruit bagging experiments to investigate the effects of N. bilobata population and life stage (nymph vs. adult) on strawberry fruits. There was no effect of cover crop or cultivar on N. bilobata populations. In the 2017–2018 season, strawberry plots with runners contained higher N. bilobata populations compared with plots without runners, and adult infestation was significantly higher than nymphal infestation. In the 2018–2019 season, the trend was reversed with higher numbers of N. bilobata collected in plots with runners removed. In the 2019–2020 season, there was no significant difference in N. bilobata populations in plots with and without runners. In both 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, nymphal infestation was higher than adult infestation. Less injury was recorded in “Florida Brilliance” compared with the other cultivars tested. In the 2019–2020 season, less injury was recorded from plots without runners while the difference was not significant in 2017–2018 or 2018–2019. Releasing five and ten adult N. bilobata on ripe (red) fruit produced a similar level of injury while no injury to unripe (green) fruit was observed. Both adults and nymphs cause injury to ripe fruit. These findings can help contribute to the development of an integrated pest management program for strawberry N. bilobata

Cultivating trust in technology-mediated sustainable agricultural research

We formed the Precision Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) team to conduct interdisciplinary research and technology development to improve adoption and practice of knowledge-intensive sustainable agricultural practices such as cover cropping. In this paper, we share our approach to cultivating trust among diverse stakeholders (researchers, farmers, extensionists, agricultural and information specialists, private and public entities) vested in agricultural data collection, management, and use. Our trust framework describes how we aim to be trusted with data (through preserving privacy and increasing stakeholder agency) and trusted in the process (through practicing transparency and accountability). It is operationalized through a series of social and technical infrastructures. Our project governance, stakeholder engagement tools and activities, and technology development methods aim to promote transparency and accountability in our process. We use a maturity model to govern data acquisition to ensure that only robust, privacy-preserving technologies are deployed on our partner farms and describe evolving mechanisms for handling data with varying sensitivity. Finally, we share preliminary work aimed at anticipating data use, and identify challenges on the horizon for cultivating trust in agricultural technologies and data-driven agriculture.This article is published as Raturi, Ankita, Jennifer J. Thompson, Victoria Ackroyd, Carlene A. Chase, Brian W. Davis, Robert Myers, Aurelie Poncet et al. "Cultivating trust in technology‐mediated sustainable agricultural research." Agronomy Journal (2021). doi:10.1002/agj2.20974. Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted