A Comparison of Motivations, Levels of Optimism, and Perspectives of Community of Small-scale Alternative Farmers

Kayla Goldberg will present her honors presentation on Thursday (4/21) from  2:00 PM in 370 Kottman Hall. Her presentation is A Comparison of Motivations, Levels of Optimism, and Perspectives of Community of Small-scale Alternative Farmers
Faculty Advisor:  Elena Irwin

Description of research: This honors research project uses data from a larger USDA funded project under Dr. Jeff Sharp and Dr. Jill Clark at The Ohio State University. Farmers were categorized as organic, local-direct, local-intermediated, and conventional (non-organic and non-local). After categorization, farmer responses to specific survey questions were analyzed using ordinal regression and factor analysis methods in SPSS. The research analyzes survey responses related to three main categories: personal motivations for farming, levels of optimism for future farm growth, and farmer perspectives of community.