Coping with Crisis: COVID-19’s Impact on Metro-Atlanta Alternative Farmers 公开
Beling, Elizabeth (Spring 2021)
Published
Abstract
In 2020, COVID-19 disrupted all spheres of human activity— including the food system. This paper discusses how alternative farmers in the Metro-Atlanta area were impacted by and forced to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, these farmers demonstrated resilience in the face of this disruption because of farmers’ ability to pivot markets, an influx in consumer demand, and an existing network of support systems made up of individuals and organizations in the Atlanta area. These findings suggest that there is resilience built into the Metro-Atlanta alternative food system that may be unique compared to the conventional food system. However, these findings also demonstrate major weak points in the resilience of these alternative farmers which may suggest that there are long-term concerns for alternative farmers’ ability to recover from future crises.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Research Questions 4
Literature Review 4
Trends Towards Industrial Agriculture and Challenges Within Agriculture 4
The Emergence and Characteristics of Alternative Food Systems 8
Table 1. Alternative Food Institutions (AFIs) 10
Table 2. Alternative Food Philosophies 13
Alternative Farming 16
Methods 17
Sampling 19
Results 20
Resilience Among Alternative Farmer 21
Ability of Alternative Farmers to Pivot Markets 23
Characteristics of Alternative Farmers that Permitted Shifts 26
Consumer Demand 28
Supports: Organizational, Farmer Support, Governmental 32
Support Between Farmers 32
Organizational Support 33
Gaps in Organizational Support 36
Governmental Support 37
Weak Points 38
Insecurity within the Alternative Food System 39
Pandemic Highlighting Uncertainty for the Future and Broader Food Systems Concerns 42
Discussion and Conclusion 44
References 47
Appendices: 58
Appendix A: Initial Contact Email 58
Appendix B: Interview Protocol and Informed Consent Discussion 59
Appendix C: Interview Questions for Farmers 63
Appendix D: Interview questions for organizational leaders 65
Appendix E: Participant Information 66
Table 3. Farm Characteristics 66
Table 4. Organizational Characteristics 70
Table 5. Farmer Sales Changes 71
Table 6. Demographic Characteristics (Race) 77
Table 7. Demographic Characteristics (Gender) 77
Appendix F: Codebook 79
Appendix G: Thematic Quotes 83
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