How’s the Soil? Environmental Risk from Wheat Field to Vineyard

• In Event: 207 - Regular Session. Rural Sociology: New Directions in the Study of Agriculture and Food Systems

Abstract

The impacts of environmental risks like global climate change are far reaching and observable at the local level, yet research shows that even individuals with close and frequent interactions with their natural surroundings may underestimate or downplay such risks. This trend may be particularly pronounced in agricultural regions undergoing significant transformation, and research is needed to understand why farmers and other rural residents are more likely than their urban counterparts to deny the existence and anthropocentric origins of global climate change. To fill this gap, we ask how farmers in a rural Western county respond to environmental risks, including the risks from global climate change. Drawing on in-depth interviews with grape and wheat farmers in Washington State’s Walla Walla Valley, we explore how different types of farmers conceive of and respond to a variety of environmental risks, including the risks of global climate change. We present five sets of findings, related to the unintended consequences of farming practices; social and environmental relationships; economic and environmental relationships; the health of the soil and the health of the plant; and perspectives on climate change. This research has the potential to contribute to the literature on localized, rural, and stakeholder responses to climate change and other environmental risks.

Authors

• Alissa Cordner, Whitman College

• Alberto Santos-Davidson, Whitman College