Farm Life in the Asset Economy: Class and Capital in the Beginning Farmers Movement

Keywords: Farmland, financialization, assetization, agrarian change, poltical economy, beginning farmers
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 44

Abstract

A massive transition of land ownership is currently underway in the U.S. as an increasing proportion of farmers near retirement age with no successor in place. The question of who will replace them has come to the fore as policy makers and food justice activists alike contemplate a shift to a more equitable and ecologically sustainable food system. To facilitate this transition, an increase in new farmers is needed to account for more labor- and knowledge-intensive methods of production involved in sustainable agriculture. Fortunately, since the early 2000s there has grown a movement of young farmers intent on filling that role. Some research on this social movement has focused on the barriers to entry and success for new farmers, such as land access, while other work has sought to better understand new farmer motivations. However, most research misses the significance of class as a key driver of agrarian change. My research seeks to evaluate the possibilities for more democratic land access by asking which beginning farmers have access to the means of production and why. Using semi-structured interviews with 20 new farmers in the Hudson Valley region, I consider how social and geographic proximity to financial and symbolic capital underwrites the successful launch of new sustainable farm enterprises. Contextualized within the post-Great Recession economy, I identify shifting schemes of accumulation increasingly driven by assetization of private property, including farmland, to show how class mobility and family wealth inform the possibility for more equitable distribution of farmland in the U.S.