TY - JOUR
T1 - Race, immigration and the agrarian question
T2 - farmworkers becoming farmers in the United States*
AU - Minkoff-Zern, Laura Anne
N1 - Funding Information:
I am grateful to the Goucher College Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Association of Geographers, and David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University for funding to conduct this research.
Funding Information:
I am grateful to the Goucher College Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Association of Geographers, and David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University for funding to conduct this research. I would like to thank my research assistants at Goucher College, Sea Sloat, Sarah Meade, and my research assistants at Syracuse University, Sara Andrea Quinteros-Fernandez, Rebecca Lustig and Fabiola Ortiz Valdez. I would also like to thank the organizers and participants of the 2013 Conference on Food Sovereignty at Yale University, where the first version of this paper was presented, as well as Lindsey Dillon, Clare Gupta, Ryan Galt, Rick Welsch and Julie Guthman for comments on earlier versions. Most importantly, I would like to thank all participants in this study for their time and willingness to discuss their lives and livelihoods with us.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2018/2/23
Y1 - 2018/2/23
N2 - As White farmers in the United States retire en masse, the racial and ethnic demographics of US farming are shifting to now include a significant number of Latino farm owner-operators. Yet this population of new farmers, contributing specific technical expertise and knowledge, is not represented in current discussions concerning agrarian transitions. This paper draws on interview-based research conducted in the states of California, Maryland, New York, Minnesota and Washington, with first-generation Latino immigrant farmworkers who have transitioned to farm ownership. The majority are practicing small-scale and diverse crop production, with limited synthetic inputs and mostly family labor, as this form of farming allows them to reclaim control over their own labor and livelihoods, while also earning a cash income. The farmers included in this study, and their rationale for farming despite race- and citizenship-based challenges, cannot be understood simply through a lens of class transition. This contribution provides evidence that Latino immigrants’ ascendancy to farm ownership is instead a result of their struggle to redefine their relationship to land and labor in a country where their race and citizenship status have relegated them to the working poor.
AB - As White farmers in the United States retire en masse, the racial and ethnic demographics of US farming are shifting to now include a significant number of Latino farm owner-operators. Yet this population of new farmers, contributing specific technical expertise and knowledge, is not represented in current discussions concerning agrarian transitions. This paper draws on interview-based research conducted in the states of California, Maryland, New York, Minnesota and Washington, with first-generation Latino immigrant farmworkers who have transitioned to farm ownership. The majority are practicing small-scale and diverse crop production, with limited synthetic inputs and mostly family labor, as this form of farming allows them to reclaim control over their own labor and livelihoods, while also earning a cash income. The farmers included in this study, and their rationale for farming despite race- and citizenship-based challenges, cannot be understood simply through a lens of class transition. This contribution provides evidence that Latino immigrants’ ascendancy to farm ownership is instead a result of their struggle to redefine their relationship to land and labor in a country where their race and citizenship status have relegated them to the working poor.
KW - agrarian questions
KW - farm labor
KW - immigrant farmers
KW - race and food
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U2 - 10.1080/03066150.2017.1293661
DO - 10.1080/03066150.2017.1293661
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85014696451
SN - 0306-6150
VL - 45
SP - 389
EP - 408
JO - Journal of Peasant Studies
JF - Journal of Peasant Studies
IS - 2
ER -