Methodology:In order to learn about the agricultural practices taking place around Northfield, I decided to go straight to the people who work directly with the land and animals--the farmers themselves. Through inquiring about agricultural expertise to various St. Olaf faculty members, I found my way to Gene Bakko, a biology professor and curator of our college's natural lands. Gene, a resident of the rural Northfield area for more than two decades, possessed a wealth of knowledge about fellow local land-owners. After questioning me for a few moments about my intentions, Gene seemed to find me a worthwhile candidate for contacting his farming friends. He gave me the contact info of several part-time area farmers. One of the farmers, Dave, also worked at the local John Deere dealer in town. Dave's work at John Deere introduced him to a wide variety of farmers in the area. Through his extensive web of business and social relations, Dave offered me helpful contact information for a variety of individuals in the area whom he knew to hold a variety of perspectives on agriculture. In addition to farmers, Dave offered contact information for people involved in other aspects of local agricultural commerce and services Through email and telephone calls, I scheduled interviews with several area farmers and several non-farming individuals who worked directly with agricultural by means of providing services to farmers After each interview, I asked the interviewee if he or she could suggest any other individuals I might speak with. I would then contact the suggested individuals and attempt to arrange an interview with them. I also selected several candidates to interview based on information regarding influential government agencies or services that surfaced during the interviews. Interviews varied in length from 30 minutes to as long as 3.5 hours. I used no recording devices during the interviews in order to allow interview subjects to feel as comfortable as possible about their responses to my questions. I took limited notes as reminders of important quotes or pieces of information. Limiting the time I spent taking notes allowed me to maintain a normal pace of conversation with interview subjects. In addition, most of the interviews involved moving around the farm to see different facilities. Taking extensive notes is not conducive to free movement. I compensated for the limited notes taken during the interview, by using neumonic memory strategies of association and writing extensively about the interview from memory as soon as I returned to my home computer. Each interview intrigued me and expanded my knowledge. I woulld have liked to report specifically on each one, but many of the subjects felt uncomfortable allowing direct quotes or identifying information from their interviews to be used in this project. Consequently, the analysis of the project focuses on assessing common themes I encountered through multiple interviews. However, I also include specific information concerning understanding of certain agricultural practices that are often misperceived by the non-agricultural public. I conducted interviews with eleven individuals.
Eight of the individuals were farmers. The other three individuals worked
in direct contact with farmers. This small sample size does not allow
me to draw general conclusion about American farmers in general. However,
through our interviews, I gained a clear understanding of this group's
motivations, opinions and knowledge that will be useful in assessing the
relationship between agricultural and non-agricultural populations.
I recognize that the farmers I spoke with around Northfield may not represent
Minnesota farmers overall and they certainly cannot represent the opinions
of farmers nationwide. Minnesota has a much larger population of small
farmers than the western states. However, because I focus on farmer
perspectives in this project, the views of people in Minnesota concerning
agricultural issues and misunderstanding between farmers and urban citizens
may reflect common issues dealt with by rural populations across America.
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