SYNOPSIS:

The contemporary landscape for farming contains parallels and divergences with the 1980s farm crisis. Economic perils are translating into harmful mental and physical health consequences, and putting at risk the solvency of farms and agrarian communities. The Rural Sociological Society brings together a panel of scholars to discuss farm crisis, then and now. These scholars place agrarian challenges under a critical lens to discuss the longer, historical trajectory that produces structural faults. In a sense, while we describe a crisis then in the 1980s and now, in the 2020s, we may be in a chronic crisis punctuated by acute episodes where conditions exacerbate.

Moderator: Dr. Mary Hendrickson, University of Missouri
Discussant: Dr. Andy Smolski, North Carolina State University
Panelists: Dr. Florence Becot (Penn State University), Maritza Pierre (The Ohio State University), Dr. Paul Lasley (Iowa State University), Dr. Lorann Stallones (Colorado State University), Dr. Michael D. Schulman (North Carolina State University)