Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:27:07.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The role of local agriculture in the new natural resource economy (NNRE) for rural economic development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2017

Susan Lurie
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics, Oregon State University (at the time of the work), OR, USA Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management, Community Service Center, University of Oregon (current), OR, USA
Christy Anderson Brekken*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Christy Anderson Brekken, E-mail: christy.anderson.brekken@oregonstate.edu

Abstract

Rural communities have faced significant socio-economic challenges for the past several decades due to structural shifts and changing social expectations regarding the management, production of, and markets for natural resources, including production agriculture. The New Natural Resource Economy (NNRE) is an economic development approach to the use of natural resources, including agriculture, in ways that can build healthy environments and healthy, resilient local economies (Hibbard and Lurie, 2013). A major attribute of the NNRE is its focus on very small businesses, the predominant business type in rural settings. Emerging trends, such as regional food networks (RFNs) that connect food producers to consumers within a state or local region, may provide opportunities for rural communities to diversify and expand local businesses around the use of natural resources, thereby helping to restore greater capacity for self-direction and adding to local community vitality. Thus, we address whether RFNs in rural Oregon counties display characteristics of an NNRE development strategy through the relationships between agricultural producers and consumers that support very small agricultural enterprises. Based on analysis of Oregon producer survey data from 2016 in the more rural resource-dependent Oregon counties, we find that the RFN producer survey respondents are indeed very small businesses engaged in small-scale, multifunctional agriculture. They are motivated by economic, social, and environmental concerns as they contribute to the economic activity in their communities. We also surveyed Oregon consumers, finding that although consumer survey respondents in the same region are not primarily driven to buy local based on environmental considerations, they are nonetheless interested in supporting agriculture and local businesses. The demand for local products can create a virtuous cycle contributing to the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the community. Given appropriate policy and program support, there is fertile ground to create new opportunities to generate farm income and acquire food within the NNRE healthy environment-healthy economy paradigm for rural economic development.

Type
Research Paper
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, DC and Salois, MJ (2010) Local versus organic: a turn in consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 25, 331341.Google Scholar
Besser, TL and Jarnagin, SK (2010) Corporate social responsibility: small businesses and small towns. History of Corporate Responsibility Project, Working Paper No. 5. Center for Ethical Business Cultures. 1–26.Google Scholar
Bernard, HR (2011) Research Methods in Anthropology. Blue Ridge Summit, US: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Brekken, CA, Parks, M and Lundgren, M (2017) Oregon producer and consumer engagement in regional food networks: Motivations and future opportunities. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2017.074.008.Google Scholar
Brooks, C (2013) Visualizing America's small businesses. Business News Daily. October 15, 2013.Google Scholar
Burns, C and Kuhns, R (2016) The changing organization and well-being of midsize U.S. farms, 1992-2014. USDA ERS Report Number 219.Google Scholar
Buttel, F (2006) Sustaining the unsustainable: agro-food systems and environment in the modern world. In Cloke, P., Marsden, T and Mooney, P (eds). Handbook of Rural Studies. London: Sage, pp. 213229.Google Scholar
Campbell, H (2009) Breaking new ground in food regime theory: corporate environmentalism, ecological feedbacks and the ‘food from somewhere’ regime? Agriculture and Human Values 26, 309319.Google Scholar
Carr, JH and Anacker, KB (2013) Microbusinesses in the United States: Characteristics and Sector Participation. Arlington, VA: Association for Enterprise Opportunity.Google Scholar
Clancy, K and Ruhf, K (2010) Is local enough? Some arguments for regional food systems. Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm and Resource Issues 25(1). http://www.choicesmagazine.org/magazine/article.php?article=114.Google Scholar
Cox, R, Kneafsey, M, Venn, LHolloway, L, Dowler, E and Tuomainen, H (2008) Constructing sustainability through reconnection: The case of ‘alternative’ food networks. In Robinson, GM (ed.). Sustainable Rural Systems: Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Communities. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, pp. 6781.Google Scholar
Crowe, JA (2006) Community economic development strategies in rural Washington: toward a synthesis of natural and social capital. Rural Sociology 71, 573596.Google Scholar
Dahlberg, KA (2008) The prospects and limits of antitrust and competitive-market strategies. In Lyson, TA, Stevenson, GW and Welsh, R (eds). Food and the Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agricultural of the Middle. Cambridge: The MIT Press, pp. 227251.Google Scholar
Eachus, P (2014) Community resilience: Is it greater than the sum of the parts of individual resilience? Procedia Economics and Finance 18, 345351.Google Scholar
Edgcomb, EL and Klein, JA (2005) Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the United States. Washington, DC: FIELD, a program of the Aspen Institute.Google Scholar
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (2011) Microenterprise development: a primer. FDIC Quarterly 5, 3342.Google Scholar
Foley, J, Ramankutty, N, Brauman, K, Cassidy, E, Gerber, J, Johnston, M, Mueller, N, O'Connell, C, Ray, D, West, P, Balzer, C, Bennett, E, Carpenter, S, Hill, J, Monfreda, C, Polasky, S, Rockström, J, Sheehan, J, Siebert, S, Tilman, D and Zaks, D (2011) Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature 478, 337342.Google Scholar
Francis, C, Lieblein, G, Steinsholt, H, Breland, TA, Helenius, J, Sriskandarajah, N and Salomonsson, L (2005) Food systems and environment: building positive rural-urban linkages. Human Ecology Review 12, 6071.Google Scholar
Freudenburg, WR (1992) Addictive economies: extractive industries and vulnerable localities in a changing world economy. Rural Sociology 57, 305332.Google Scholar
Hart, AK, McMichael, P, Milder, JC and Scherr, SJ (2016) Multi-functional landscapes from the grassroots? The role of rural producer movements. Agriculture and Human Values 33, 305322.Google Scholar
Hassan, R, Scholes, R and Ash, N (eds) Millennium Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Current State and Trends, vol. 1. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Hibbard, M and Lurie, S (2013) The new natural resource economy: environment and economy in transitional rural communities. Society and Natural Resources 26, 827844.Google Scholar
Hinrichs, C and Eshleman, J (2014) Agrifood Movements: Diversity, Aims and Limits. In Bailey, C, Jensen, L and Ransom, E (eds) Rural America in AGlobalizing World: Problems and Prospects for the 2010s. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, pp. 138155.Google Scholar
Holmes, J (2006) Impulses toward a multifunctional transition in rural Australia. Journal of Rural Studies 22, 142160.Google Scholar
Hoppe, R (2014) Structure and finances of U.S. farms: Family farm report, 2014 Edition. USDA ERS Report Number 132.Google Scholar
Huang, J, Tichit, M, Poulot, M, Darly, S, Li, S, Petit, C and Aubry, C (2015) Comparative review of multifunctionality and ecosystem services in sustainable agriculture. Journal of Environmental Management 149, 138147.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine (2015) A Framework for Assessing the Effects of the Food System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Jablonski, BBR (2014) Rural wealth creation: evaluating the impact of farmers’ markets using a rural wealth creation approach. In Pender, JL, Weber, BA, Johnson, TG and Fannin, JM (eds). Rural Wealth Creation. New York: Routledge, pp. 218231.Google Scholar
Krannich, RS, Gentry, B, Luloff, BAE and Robertson, PG (2014) Resource dependency in rural America: continuities and change. In Bailey, C, Jensen, L and Ransom, E (eds). Rural America in A Globalizing World: Problems and Prospects for the 2010s. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, pp. 1635.Google Scholar
Liang, K and Dunn, P (2014) Examining entrepreneurial characteristics, motivations, barriers, and outcomes for small versus large multifunctional farm enterprises in New England. Journal of Business & Entrepreneurialship 26, 6593.Google Scholar
Lobao, L (2014) Economic change, structural forces and rural America: shifting fortunes across communities. In Bailey, C, Jensen, L and Ransom, E (eds). Rural America in A Globalizing World: Problems and Prospects for the 2010s. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, pp. 543555.Google Scholar
Low, S, Adalja, A, Beaulieu, E, Key, N, Martinez, S, Melton, A, Perez, A, Ralston, K, Stewart, H, Suttles, S, Vogel, S and Jablonski, BBR (2015) Trends in US local and regional food systems: a report to congress. AP-068, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.Google Scholar
Lyons, TS (2015) Entrepreneurship and community development: what matters and why? Community Development 46, 456460.Google Scholar
Lyson, T (2004) Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community. Medford: Tufts University Press.Google Scholar
Magis, K (2010) Community resilience: an indicator of social stability. Society and Natural Resources 23, 401416.Google Scholar
Marsden, T, Banks, T and Bristow, F (2000) Food supply chain approaches: exploring their role in rural development. Sociologia Ruralis 40(4), 424438.Google Scholar
McGranahan, DA and Beale, CL (2002) Understanding rural loss. Rural America 17, 211.Google Scholar
McMichael, PD (2000) The power of food. Agriculture and Human Values 17, 2133.Google Scholar
Muske, G, Woods, M, Swinney, J and Khoo, C (2007) Small businesses and the community: their role and importance within a state's economy. Journal of Extension 45, 1.Google Scholar
Onozaka, Y, Nurse, G and Thilmany McFadden, D (2010) Local food consumers: how motivations and perceptions translate to buying behavior. Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm and Resource Issues 25(1). http://www.choicesmagazine.org/magazine/article.php?article=109.Google Scholar
Oregon Employment Department 27 June (2017) Per Capita Personal Income Higher in Portland Area and Columbia Gorge. Available at: https://oregonemployment.blogspot.com/2017/06/per-capita-personal-income-higher-in.html (Accessed 27 June 2017).Google Scholar
Oregon Food Bank (2014) Sustaining rural communities: A report on grocery stores in rural Oregon. Available at http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Sustaining-Rural-Communities_web.pdf (Accessed 9 March 2016).Google Scholar
Ring, JK, Peredo, AM and Chrisman, JJ (2010) Business networks and economic development in rural communities in the United States. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34, 171195.Google Scholar
Smith, K, Lawrence, G, MacMahon, A, Muller, J and Brady, M (2016) The resilience of long and short food chains: A case study of flooding in Queensland, Australia. Agriculture and Human Values 33, 4560.Google Scholar
Stedman, RC, Parkins, JR and Beckley, TM (2004) Resource dependence and community well-being in rural Canada. Rural Sociology 69, 213234.Google Scholar
Stedman, RC, Patriquin, MN and Parkins, JR (2012) Dependence, diversity, and the well-being of rural community: building on the Freudenburg Legacy. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2, 2838.Google Scholar
Steiner, A and Atterton, J (2015) Exploring the contribution of rural enterprises to local resilience. Journal of Rural Studies 40, 3045.Google Scholar
Steiner, A and Cleary, J (2014) What are the features of resilient businesses? Exploring the perception of rural entrepreneurs. The Journal of Rural and Community Development. 9, 120.Google Scholar
Stephens, HM and Partridge, MD (2011) Do entrepreneurs enhance economic growth in lagging regions? Growth and Change 42, 431465.Google Scholar
Strange, M (1989) Family Farming: A New Economic vision. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) (2012) Census of Agriculture, Oregon Highlights. Available at https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Oregon/Publications/Current_News_Release/2012_Oregon_Census_Factsheet.pdf (Accessed 26 June 2017).Google Scholar
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) (2015) Local foods marketing practices survey, Oregon statistics. Available at: https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/results/F56FD130-F71A-3904-9490-E7610683DFE0 (Accessed 26 June 2017).Google Scholar
Vermeulen, SJ, Campbell, BM and Ingram, JSI (2012) Climate change and food systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 37, 195222.Google Scholar
Welsh, R (1997) The industrial reorganization of U.S. agriculture: An overview and background report. Policy Studies Report No. 6. Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture.Google Scholar
Welsh, R and Lyson, T (2001) Anti-corporate farming laws, the Goldschmidt hypothesis, and rural community welfare. Paper presented at the Rural Sociological Society, Albuquerque, NM.Google Scholar
Wendel, T (2017) Eastern Oregon has a high percentage of small businesses. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, First Quarter 2016 for Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and Wallowa Counties. State of Oregon Employment Department. Available at https://www.qualityinfo.org/-/eastern-oregon-s-top-occupations-not-expected-to-change-much-by-2024 (Accessed 26 June 2017).Google Scholar
Wilson, GA (2008) From ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ multifunctionality: conceptualising farm-level multifunctional transitional pathways. Journal of Rural Studies 24, 367383.Google Scholar
Wilson, GA (2010) Multifunctional ‘‘quality’’ and rural community resilience. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35, 364381.Google Scholar