Sustaining the family farm at the rural urban interface---a comparison of the farm reproduction processes among commodity and alternative food and agricultural enterprises

The public debate over the future of agriculture in Rural Urban Interface (RUI) communities has been characterized by a sense of fatalism. Despite assumptions that agriculture will automatically decline in the face of growth and development pressures, official statistics suggest that agriculture as a whole remains a strong (and in some cases a growing) industry in many RUI counties. While RUI scholars acknowledge internal household dynamics can significantly influence farm persistence and adaptation strategies, few studies have sought to empirically document the role of succession, lifecycle, and household goals and values on farm structure at the RUI. Further, in recent years entrepreneurial agriculture with an emphasis on direct marketing and value adding has been promoted as a strategy for preserving agriculture, especially at the RUI. However, understanding the degree to which household dynamics are associated with the adaptation and implementation of alternative food and agricultural enterprises (AFAEs) remains an additional gap in the literature.;For this dissertation, three research objectives were tested to assess how household goals and values, succession, life cycle effects, farm structure, and land use policy affect the reproduction of the farming enterprise and ultimately the successful persistence of farming at the RUI. The first two questions are examined through a quantitative analysis of land owners in eight case study counties across the United States. The first question asks how household dynamics, household values and farm structure variables are associated with Commercial farm persistence at the RUI. The second research question compares the influence of household dynamics, values and farm structure among the Commercial (AFAE and Non-AFAE) and Rural Residential farmers. Comparison of means testing and a multinomial logistic regression model found lifecycle effects, availability of an heir, ability to afford retirement, education, substantive and instrumental values and to a more moderate degree farm type do influence farm persistence and adaptation strategies.;The third research question is a qualitative analysis examining the influence household factors and farm structure have on different farm types (First-generation AFAEs; Multi-generation AFAEs; Commodity, and Mixed type farms) at the RUI. When no heir could be identified farms either fell into a state of decline and disinvestment or opted to put their land into some form of preservation. When an heir could be identified, families engaged in four distinct types of adaptation strategies: the expanders; the intensifiers; the stackers; and the entrepreneurial stackers. The interviews also brought forward the different types of AFAE farmers on the landscape. First-generation AFAE, Multi-generation AFAE and Mixed type farms demonstrate that while farmers across the RUI landscape appear to be adapting and implementing AFAE strategies their reasons for doing so are embedded in widely varying motivations.;Taken together the results of this study demonstrate the complex interplay between internal household dynamics, farm structure and land use policy that influences the persistence of farms on the RUI landscape. The heterogeneity of household goals and values and motivations for land use identified in this research contributes to the resilience and persistence of agriculture at the RUI.