Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION
MISSOULA,MT 59812
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Farmers are on the front lines of climate change impacts like drought and wildfire (Adams et al.2021). Climate change threatens farmer livelihoods and health, especially mental health (Adamset al. 2021). Climate change impacts on economic security and farmer decision-making mayexacerbate farmland access challenges and land insecurity, consistently cited by farmers as theirgreatest challenge (Akoff et al. 2022). Limited farmland access, insecure tenure, and a rapidlyaging farmer population pose significant threats to US food security, rural economicdevelopment, and the ability of farmland to foster biodiversity and sequester carbon (Petersen-Rockney et al. 2021). The current distribution of farmland ownership in the US - in which whitepeople own 98% of farmland and 87% of farmers are male - drives rural economic inequities aslandowners benefit from capital accumulation and generations of wealth building (Horst andMarion 2019; Shoemaker 2021). The growing financialization of farmland threatens toexacerbate these trends by concentrating farmland in the hands of absentee owners and corporateactors (Fairbairn 2020; Ashwood et al 2022). Existing research shows that sociallydisadvantaged farmers (Indigenous, women, veteran, beginning, and farmers of color) are morelikely to farm on marginal land with insecure tenure, making them especially vulnerable toclimate impacts (Petersen-Rockney et al. 2021). Growing and raising diversified food crops, andoften experiencing engagement barriers with formal agricultural advisory institutions, sociallydisadvantaged farmers are often unable to access risk-buffering technologies (e.g. capital-intensive irrigation systems) or supports (e.g. crop insurance) (Liverman 2015; Minkoff-Zern2019). The impacts of climate change remain an understudied catalyst for farmland transition,potentially exacerbating insecurity, while also presenting potential opportunities for moreequitable distribution and sustainable use of farmland. Given existing inequalities and growingclimate change impacts, the question of farmland transition--how agricultural land, as well asthe knowledge, skills, and labor essential to working it, will be transferred to the nextgeneration--is urgent for the future of American agriculture.Our long-term goal is to improve farmland transition and support secure land tenure thatfacilitates the adoption of climate adaptation and mitigation practices that bolster resilientcommunity economic development for the next generation of American farmers. To support thisgoal, this Conference Planning Grant will establish connections and collaborations around theways that climate change is impacting farmland transition, including access and tenure, forfarmers and ranchers in the Intermountain West, beginning in Montana. This project has thespecific objectives to 1) Understand the needs and foster relationships with rural communitiesand key stakeholders in the Intermountain West 2) Convene leading experts and assess existingknowledge on the relationships between farmland transition and climate change in order todevelop a Collaborative-Large-scale Comprehensive Initiative 3) Build institutional capacity atthe University of Montana.Our work focuses on the Intermountain West, a region long characterized by the importance offarming and ranching. Montana is an ideal place to begin identifying research needs, andeducation and extension opportunities, at the intersection of climate change and farmlandtransition. A predominantly rural state where more than 6.5% of the population is Indigenous and12% of the population lives in poverty, agriculture remains an important economic and culturallivelihood (US Census 2022). With 58.1 million acres in farms and ranches, Montana rankssecond in the nation, behind only Texas, in agricultural land area (USDA NASS 2022). Yetrecent years have seen growing economic disparity, especially for the state's large Indigenousand natural resource dependent communities (Serchen et al. 2022; CAIRHE 2023). Today, thetwin crises of climate change and land insecurity are unfolding against the backdrop of oldenvironmental injustices - from superfund sites to Indigenous land dispossession. New climatefutures are being actively contested in the law and on the land, as demonstrated by the recentHeld vs. Montana case, which highlights the ways in which climate change is already impactingrural land relations (Forbes 2023). Montana has become home to two divergent trends that makeit an ideal place for community-engaged research on farmland and climate change: an increase ininvestment farmland purchases by non-operator landlords (Haggerty et al. 2022), and a robustfood sovereignty movement supported by a rich landscape of Indigenous and food justiceorganizations (MIFSI 2023). The proposed research will address a critical gap by examining howclimate change, including physical and policy impacts, are shifting farmland access and tenuredynamics.This planning grant will lead to an integrated Collaborative-Large-scale ComprehensiveInitiative (to be submitted in 2025) that will investigate the land-climate nexus across theIntermountain West. In doing so, this project directly addresses NIFA research need areas byadvancing the body of knowledge within food and agriculture sciences through interdisciplinaryinquiry into the climate-land nexus and by applying this new knowledge to address communityand economic development issues in Montana and surrounding states through outreach andextension with local governments, community, and non-profit organizations. Throughoutplanning and implementation stages, we will also address education need areas throughcollaborative interaction with other academic institutions, professional development for facultymembers, and experimental learning, including graduate research assistantships and curriculardevelopment at the land-climate nexus that can prepare undergraduate and graduate students forcareers in agricultural sciences. Specifically, this grant will fund three in-person and two virtuallistening sessions with farmers, ranchers, tribal communities, and potential community partnersaround the state, a research and professional development experience for one graduate student,and a scholarly conference with academic experts on land and climate change from across theUS. Together, these Planning Activities will help build capacity at the University of Montana, anon-Land Grant college of agriculture, in an underfunded EPSCoR state with large studentpopulations from Indigenous and agricultural communities.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
The objectives of this Planning Conference Grant are to: 1) Understand the needs and fosterrelationships with rural communities and key stakeholders in the Intermountain West 2) Conveneleading experts and assess existing knowledge on the relationships between farmland transitionand climate change in order to develop a Collaborative-Large-scale Comprehensive Initiative 3)Build institutional capacity at the University of Montana, a non-Land Grant college ofagriculture.To support these interrelated objectives, we will:- Facilitate community relationship building and stakeholder engagement, across andbetween multi-disciplinary scholars and farmer and rancher stakeholders.- Identify scholarly and institutional knowledge gaps and community-based researchneeds at the farmland-climate change nexus.- Assess student experiential learning and faculty development needs at the University ofMontana to build capacity for the next generation of food and agricultural scientists toaddress applied farmland-climate challenges and leverage opportunities.- Train one graduate student in research design and planning through a graduateassistantship.- Increase scholar, farmer, and other stakeholder involvement, capacity, and leadershipthrough centralized sharing of knowledge, methodology, and trusted relationshipnetworks.- Build community-engaged reciprocal research partnerships and processes to conductresearch, implement extension activities, and meet student learning and curricular needson farmland and climate change in the Intermountain West.?- Develop a Collaborative-Large-scale Comprehensive Initiative for submission to USDA-NIFA-NLGCA in 2025.Broad objectives of the larger collaborative initiative will include:- Assisting local governments and community and non-profit organizations in bettermeeting farmers' land transition needs in a changing climate.- Increasing equity of farmland transition, access, and tenure, especially for sociallydisadvantaged farmers and ranchers.- Supporting farmers' ability to implement long-term carbon sequestration practices andadaptations that are only possible when land tenure is secure.- Engaging intergenerational farmers and ranchers in succession planning that keeps landin farming and plans for climate change impacts.- Developing leadership and professional skills among scholars, students, and communitymembers that enables them to successfully engage at the land-climate nexus.- Building relationships and research support systems across the Intermountain West tohelp address real world farmland-climate change problems and leverage opportunities asthey evolve in a climate and funding insecure future.
Project Methods
Multi-disciplinary, community-engaged approaches are necessary to understand how farmers andranchers are negotiating farmland access, and associated natural resource management and ruraldevelopment, in a time of rapid climate change. Through historically grounded political ecologyanalyses, we will query relations of land and livelihood, and how those are changing foragricultural individuals and communities most impacted by climate change in Montana. Byexamining climate change vulnerabilities and resilience strategies through land transitions inMontana's agricultural and tribal communities, this project will increase capacity for region-wideimplementation of research, extension, and education outcomes across the Intermountain West.Specifically, we will first hold a series of listening sessions in different parts of the state (threein-person and two virtual) for farmers and ranchers of diverse backgrounds and farm sizes andstructures. To recruit participants, we will leverage our personal and mentor networks to accesskey stakeholders, including through existing relations with state and county governmentagencies, rural credit unions, Montana State University extension, tribal climate changeprograms, non-profit organizations, and agritourism operators. Dr. Laurie Yung at the Universityof Montana, Dr. Selena Ahmed, Global Director of the Periodic Table of Food Initiative at theAmerican Heart Association, Dr. Melissa Weddell, Director of the Montana Institute for Tourism& Recreation Research, and Dr. Kyle Bocinsky, Director of Climate Extension for the MontanaClimate Office have all agreed to mentor this project. Listening sessions will include a briefintroduction to the PIs and the project and open-ended discussion questions about challenges andstrategies related to climate change and farmland access. These will last approximately two hoursand we will provide a working lunch for attendees. These sessions will help identify key researchneeds regarding how climate change is impacting farmland transition, access, and tenure. Wewill also seek to understand farmers' trusted information sources and support needs.Second, we will host a conference with multi-disciplinary scholars (with an emphasis on scholarsfrom social science, law, and policy fields) and organizational experts (such as agriculturaladvisors and tribal food sovereignty representatives). We will recruit participants throughexisting personal and mentor networks, as well as key individuals and organizations identifiedthrough listening sessions. We will hold the two-day conference at the University of Montana'sFlathead Biological Station, which offers meeting space for the 30 expected attendees. Ouragenda will include short presentations from invited participants, as well as facilitated groupsessions to identify problems and develop project objectives, research questions, methodologies,and evaluation strategies.With informed consent, meetings will be audio recorded and then transcribed and coded usingDedoose software for inductive themes so that we can accurately include stakeholder needs andideas in research development. Recordings and notes from these conversations will also serve aspreliminary data to help develop an interview guide, photovoice prompts, and other researchinstruments as co-determined by community partners for research implementation in theCollaborative-Large-scale Comprehensive Initiative process.