Date of Award
3-25-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
First Advisor
Livia K. Stone
Abstract
This study investigates the evolution of the family farm between the 1940s until the 2020s, and how the family farm may continue to evolve in future generations. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the changing reality of agriculture and how farmers think about themselves. In the early days of the United States republic, farms were a means of providing a family or localized community with food and resources. These farms participated in an economic exchange that was an early form of capitalism, characterized by meeting needs but not accruing egregious excess. Today’s agricultural system is marked by the pressures to compete in the marketplace, and a shift in cultural values away from balanced reciprocity to the farmer’s individual entrepreneurial spirit. Farmers interviewed in this study expressed a range of emotions and perceptions regarding these shifting cultural values. Many farmers interviewed expressed a sense of anxiety about the growing pressures of the neoliberal market on farmers, the powerlessness that farmers face in the unpredictable nature of the markets, and the loss of hallmark perceptions of previous forms of agriculture, such as balanced reciprocity.
Recommended Citation
Francis, Riley Marie, "From Eighty Acres and a Mule to Two Thousand Acres and Twenty-Four Row Planters: Anxieties of Growth in the Agriculture Sector from Family Farms" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 1910.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/1910
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2024.20240618063949086269.999968
Page Count
97
Comments
Imported from Francis_ilstu_0092N_12610.pdf