Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
process at multiple levels of analysis, I used a combination of methods for
this project, including participant-observation fi eldwork, semistructured
interviews, and analysis of historical documents. My choice of these
methods for a study of repair was inspired by Jean Lave's call for a “more
inclusive theory of social order” that sees “objects of analysis [as] points
of cultural-historical conjuncture [that] should be analyzed in those
terms” (1988, 171). Therefore, I see a multimethod approach as essential
for a “thick” ethnographic analysis of the relationship between industrial
farming and agricultural science (Geertz 1973). See the appendix for details
on my data collection methods.
My analysis of Cooperative Extension as an institution of repair draws
on both historical and contemporary examples, but the overall structure
of the cases is largely chronological. Chapters 2 and 3 each cover the
history of Cooperative Extension in the context of the United States,
California, and the Salinas Valley. In chapter 2, I describe the history of
the agrarian ideal in U.S. agriculture and especially how that ideal changed
in the context of industrialization and social change during the nineteenth
century. These shifts created a cultural context in which agriculture could
be seen as a social problem and in need of repair, leading to the establish-
ment of the land-grant university system. In particular, I trace the ideals
and interests of Progressive Era politics, circa 1890-1920, and social move-
ments that called for the use of expert knowledge to address the perceived
defi ciencies of U.S. farming and rural life. Though Cooperative Extension's
mission of service to local farm communities derived from this ethos of
expertise, the practical implementation of farm advising was subject
to divergent interests and a great deal of uncertainty about the best direc-
tion for U.S. agriculture. Using archival materials and oral histories, I trace
the formation of UC Cooperative Extension and describe the growing
pains it faced when confronted with the rise of niche industry farming in
California in the period between the world wars. Chapter 3 continues this
story for the case of farm advising and the produce industry in the Salinas
Valley. Cooperative Extension's “mission ambiguity” was at least partly
resolved for the Salinas Valley farm advisors with the rise of the vegetable
industry—an industry hungry for specifi c technical expertise and armed
with the funds to support its production. At the same time, this specializa-
tion continued to raise questions about the appropriate relationship
between advisors, industrial agriculture, and smaller growers.
