An Analysis of Levels of Optimism, Self-Efficacy, and Types of Motivations of Farmers in Alternative Agriculture: Understanding Small and Medium-Scale Organic and Local Farmers at the Rural-Urban Interface

Abstract

This research focuses on comparing farmers at the rural-urban interface involved in various types of alternative agriculture, such as organic crop production, and various types of marketing such as local-direct sales, and local-intermediated sales. The internal factors that are analyzed are farmer levels of optimism in regards to their farms, self-efficacy related to making positive changes in their communities, feelings of belongingness in their communities, and motivations or goals related to farming. The research looks first at differences and similarities across alternative types: organic, local, both organic and local (dual-motivated), and neither. The second analysis looks at comparisons across farmers in local sales channels: local-direct, local-intermediated, and no local sales. The data that was used for this study comes from the USDA grant funded research project, Small and Medium Scale Farm Growth, Reproduction and Persistence at the Rural-Urban Interface: Balancing Family, Goals, Opportunities and Risk.