Resilience in Agriculture: Small-and Medium-Sized Farms in Northwest Washington State

摘要

The research reported here uses resilience thinking in examining farmer responses to disturbance scenarios in the North Puget Sound region of Washington State. Through farmer resilience workshops based on plausible disturbance scenarios of climate change, seasonal flooding, energy price spikes, and rapid urbanization, farmers identified further threats to farm systems, possible thresholds of undesirable change in farm systems, and adaptive strategies useful in addressing the examined threats. It is clear that adaptive strategies become more complex at scales beyond the farm level. Further, individual commitment to a rural, farm lifestyle was an important component of whether a farm operation would thrive within larger nested systems. At the same time, farmers in the study recognized the need to re-frame agricultural policy in the United States away from emphasis on the stabilization ofprices, and more towards farmer autonomy within agreed-upon guidelines.