Lai, Jennifer C. and Matthew Houser
Michigan State University
Presented at the All Scientist Meeting and Investigators Field Tour (2017-10-06 to 2017-10-07 )
To meet the challenges climate change presents to Midwestern agriculture, adaptation and mitigation practices must be widely adopted by farmers. However, recent literature suggests farmers’ current disbelief in the anthropogenic nature of climate change, along with their low concern about climate change’s impact on agriculture, reduces the likelihood that these practices will be adopted. Given these social-psychological barriers, how can we encourage farmers to reconsider their attitudes and beliefs about climate change in order to facilitate the implementation of key agricultural adaptation and mitigation practices? Insights may be derived from a more nuanced examination of farmers’ climate change beliefs and attitudes, as well as how the use of and trust in different agricultural information sources impacts farmers’ views on climate change. Preliminary results from a 2017 survey of row-crop farmers across four Midwestern states suggest that outreach communication about climate change may be more effective at encouraging adoption of adaptation and mitigation practices if it discusses climate change in terms of its biophysical expressions and avoids the term “climate change” entirely. Extension education appears to be a venue through which farmers’ climate change attitudes can be influenced, but Extension must adopt novel strategies—like partnering with private sector agricultural advisors—if its efforts are to reach a wider farmer-audience.
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