Beyond the Economic: Farmer Practices and Identities in Central Illinois, USA

This study examines the reasons farmers in East-Central Illinois continue to use controversial agricultural practices in the context of extreme criticism. Such practices – conventional plow tillage, application of potent agricultural chemicals, farming up to river banks – are attacked from diverse sources as inattentive to environmental conservation. Our results suggest these practices are important undertakings in the realm of constituting farmer identities that too few have realized. These practices, as meaning-laced endeavors, are revealed as performative acts that reinforce sense of farmer sense of self. We conclude that this reality is important to understand if policy is to effectively engage these farmers and their agricultural practices.