Despite assumptions that agriculture will automatically decline in the face of growth and development pressures at the Rural Urban Interface (RUI), official statistics suggest that agriculture as a whole remains strong in many RUI counties. While RUI scholars acknowledge internal household dynamics can significantly influence farm persistence and adaptation, few studies have sought to empirically document the role of succession, lifecycle, and household goals and values on farm structure at the RUI. Further, understanding the degree to which household dynamics are associated with the adaptation and implementation of alternative food and agricultural enterprises (AFAEs) remains an additional gap in the literature.
For this dissertation, three research objectives were tested to assess how household goals and values, succession, life cycle effects, farm structure, and land use policy affect the persistence and reproduction of the farm at the RUI. A quantitative and qualitative analysis The first two questions examine how household dynamics, values and farm structure variables are associated with Commercial (AFAE and Non-AFAE) and Rural Residential farm persistence through a quantitative analysis of land owners in eight case study counties across the United States. The results indicate lifecycle effects, availability of an heir, ability to afford retirement, education, substantive and instrumental values and to a more moderate degree farm type do influence farm persistence and adaptation strategies.
The third research question is a qualitative analysis examining the influence household factors and farm structure have on different farm types (First-generation AFAEs; Multi-generation AFAEs; Commodity, and Mixed type farms) at the RUI. In the absence of an heir farms fell into a state of decline, in the presence of an heir families engaged in four distinct types of adaptation strategies. The interviews brought forward the different types of AFAE farmers on the landscape demonstrating that while farmers across the RUI landscape are adapting and implementing AFAE strategies their reasons for doing so are embedded in widely varying motivations. The heterogeneity of household goals and values and motivations for land use identified in this research contributes to the resilience and persistence of agriculture at the RUI.