Final report for GNC22-349
Project Information
Explanation of problem & solution pursued
Social identities like race, class, gender, and sexuality shape the ways that farmers are able to engage in agricultural networks, resources, and communities. The "family farm," for example, is organized around a heterosexual marriage, where romantic partners become business partners. While scholars have thoroughly documented how race and class structure access to and outcomes in sustainable agriculture, we still have much to learn about the specific ways that narratives which posit heterosexuality and cisgender identities as "normal" continue to uphold hegemonic power dynamics within alternative agriculture. Sustainable agriculture serves as a key entry point for queer farmers, as it is often perceived as more welcoming and accessible to diverse sexualities and gender identities. However, sustainable agriculture research has tended to under-prioritize issues of social equity—especially related to gender identity and sexuality—and in turn, these systems have continued to reproduce inequality.
Recently, a limited (but growing) body of scholarly literature has emerged on queer farmers' identities, practices, and values. To date, there are three quantitative studies on queer farmers (Dentzman et al. 2021; Hoffelmeyer, Wypler, & Leslie 2023; Cuthbertson et al. 2024), and only the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture has begun to collect information on gender identity and sexuality. A few recent qualitative studies on queer farmers have illustrated the ecological values, experiences of heterosexism and transphobia, resistance strategies, and farming practices that are particular to this group of marginalized farmers (e.g., Leslie 2017; Wypler 2019; Hoffelmeyer 2021). While these studies form the foundation of acknowledging and describing the intersection between queer identities and sustainable agriculture, there remains a need to understand how queer farmers enter into sustainable agriculture, navigate difficult social and political environments, and shape the formation of alternative relational practices within these environments.
This project aims to build on previous work and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of queer farmers' experiences by expanding this work into the Midwest region. Different regions carry their own agricultural priorities and demographic characteristics, and this project will provide important insight into queer farmers' experiences and dynamics that are particular to the Midwest. The primary region in which existing work has been conducted is the Northeast United States, which has been a supportive environment for both sustainable agriculture and LGBTQ+ movements. However, the Midwest lies at the center of the Corn Belt, and this region has historically been dominated by industrial agriculture systems and conservative ideologies, which result in climates that are not necessarily amenable to sustainable agriculture systems or queer populations, respectively. Through studying the experiences of queer Midwest farmers, we can better understand how to effectively support these farmers in the face of inhospitable social and political conditions.
Research approach
This project employed three methodological approaches: semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation, and participant collaboration.
Interviews: For this project, I interviewed people who identify as queer and as sustainable farmers and who lived or worked in one of five Midwest states (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin). By sampling participants from these five states, I was able to understand how regional dynamics impact queer sustainable farmers' work and to compare between agricultural and political climates within the Midwest. I began collecting interview data in June 2022, and I completed seventy-three interviews total. Interview questions focused on farming background and practices, identity, relationships, and resources.
Ethnographic observations: In addition to selecting cases at the individual farmer level, I was also interested in selecting cases at the organizational level (i.e., farms) to understand how the processes illustrated in interviews function for farmers experientially within the context of an organization. I selected two farm sites that were queer-owned and operated production farms: one in Michigan and one in Illinois. My ethnographic approach combined participant observation and informal or semi-structured interviews, providing an opportunity to both document directly observable behavior and experiences that cannot be observed. While visiting the farms, I helped out with daily tasks—such as weeding, harvesting, or pruning—taking mental notes of events and jotting down snippets of dialogue as I was able. In addition to observations, I conducted informal field interviews with individuals, which allowed me to ask questions as they arose organically in conversation.
Participant collaboration: Finally, as a way to share these findings with queer farmers and other audiences, I also led a small editorial team of queer folks who were both farmers and artists based in the Midwest to produce a collaborative publication. Together, this team of farmer-artists has engaged with more than 300 people in this work: 90 queer farmers applied to work on the editorial team, 30 queer farmer-artists submitted work for the publication, more than 200 people have bought a copy of the book, 20 folks gathered for an event to celebrate the book’s release—and this doesn’t include the many people that the book’s publisher, Combos Press, has engaged at book fairs and other events. This piece of the project quickly became one example of the kind of support and resources that queer farmers had been looking for in their work: something that highlighted both the joys and difficulties of navigating agriculture as a queer person, that celebrated the lives of queer farmers, and that provided experiences and stories that resonated with queer farmers.
Research conclusions
Findings from this project show that queer farmers employ a set of values and practices informed by their identities as both queer people and growers, despite facing barriers to participating in agriculture. Findings show that queer farmers often struggle to find safe, supportive work or learning opportunities as a result of how other farmers, customers, and community members perceive their gender or sexuality, and even though many queer farmers having family connections to farming, they struggle to secure access to land because their family’s agricultural or social values don’t align with theirs. As a result, many queer farmers in the midwest turn to building alternative networks and relationships to meet their needs and gain agricultural experience. These informal resources are a source of support and learning for queer farmers, but they also emerged as a result of lacking formal resources that provide training, capital, land access, or other essential supports for farming. These findings suggest sustainable agriculture organizations should understand the particular circumstances of queer farmers and create opportunities that explicitly support queer farmers.
This project had three main objectives, outlined below. Data collection and analysis are complete. Outreach and dissemination of information are ongoing.
- Provide knowledge on the barriers that queer farmers face in establishing economically viable farms, including barriers related to income and profit, production, and resource networks.
- Analyze how queer farmers negotiate identities as both queer people and farmers, taking into consideration quality of life, resilience strategies, and ethics and values.
- Develop recommendations for supporting queer farmers through the development of programming and resources tailored to their needs.
Research
For this study, I employed three methodological approaches: semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation, and participant collaboration.
Interview methods
Over the course of this project, I conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews and farm tours with queer farmers in five Midwest states: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. I began collecting interview data in June 2022 and completed seventy-three interviews by the end of the project. I limited my sampling to five Midwest states (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin) for a few reasons. Importantly, while the Northeast United States has been a supportive environment for both sustainable agriculture and LGBTQ+ movements, the Midwest lies at the center of the Corn Belt, and this region has historically been dominated by industrial agriculture systems and conservative ideologies, which result in climates that are not necessarily amenable to sustainable agriculture systems or queer populations, respectively. These states also offer differing agricultural and political contexts within the Midwest, allowing me to understand the heterogeneity within a single geographic region (Small and Calarco 2022). By sampling participants from these five states, I was able to not only understand how regional dynamics impact queer sustainable farmers' work, but also able to compare between agricultural and political climates within the Midwest.
A semi-structured interview approach allowed for development of specific objectives and topics within the interview protocol while also allowing flexibility to explore ideas that participants brought up spontaneously. This approach also provided a safer interviewing experience because participants could skip questions that were sensitive or uncomfortable and allowed them to bring up specific concerns or ideas that may not be reflected in the standard protocol. In addition to the flexibility of a semi-structured interview approach, I also employed strategies of relational interviewing to build working relationships with interviewees; these strategies included active listening, understanding the interviewee’s lexicon, learning from mistakes made in the interview, and treating interviewees with dignity and respect (Fujii 2017).
Interview questions in the protocol focused on farming background and practices, identity, relationships, and resources. The interview protocol also included a set of follow-up questions or probes for each main question, providing options for rephrasing the question if the farmer's initial answer is vague or if the question's original wording was unclear to the farmer. Follow-up questions also emerged organically within conversation to clarify a participant’s use of particular words or phrases or to describe a particular experience in more depth (Small and Calarco 2022).
I developed the interview protocol in tandem with the Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition and with queer farmers in my existing networks in Indiana and Michigan. This collaboration created the opportunity to craft a questionnaire that meets my research objectives and queer farmers' needs. Before launching into the full interview project, I piloted questions with a small group of queer farmers within my network to assess the quality and comprehensiveness of the interview protocol. Feedback from pilot participants further refined the questions and process, creating a more robust and effective data collection process and building a core group of farmer collaborators.
To recruit participants, I first sent brief informative fliers to the email listservs of regional farmer groups and identity-specific farmer groups, including the Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition, the North-Central USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) region, and the Queer Farmer Network (QFN). I included brief information about who I am (i.e., a queer sociologist and farmer conducting research for my dissertation), what the project is about, how long interviews are expected to last, and the incentive for participating in the project (i.e., a $40 VISA gift card). People from these listservs reached out to me with questions or to set up a time for an interview. I continued this recruitment method in successive waves until I reached my target number of interviews.
Interviews were audio recorded and were conducted in person and virtually. I also audio recorded farm tours and jotted down fieldnotes either during the tour or immediately after the tour was completed. After an interview was completed, I typed up my fieldnotes and uploaded them into a folder on a password-protected computer. I removed any identifying information from the interview audio recordings and uploaded these recordings to an external transcription service to be transcribed.
An overview of interviewee demographics is outlined below:
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- Geography: Interviewee locations included Ohio (19), Indiana (10), Michigan (14), Illinois (17), and Wisconsin (13).
- Mode: About half of interviews were completed over Zoom (36), and the remaining interviews were conducted in person (37).
- Production: Types of farming that interviewees engaged in:
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- 60 interviewees grew vegetables
- 10 interviewees grew livestock
- 5 interviewees grew flowers
- 4 interviewees grew fruit or nuts
- 5 interviewees grew herbs
- Age: The average age of interviewees (at the time of the interview) was 30, and ages of interviewees ranged from 20 to 64 years old.
- 41 interviewees were between the ages of 20 and 29
- 27 interviewees were between the ages of 30 and 39
- 5 interviewees were 40 years or older
- Gender: Interviewees were able to self-describe their gender identity. Because of this, interviewees could use multiple descriptors for their gender (and the numbers below add up to more than 73). Based on these descriptors, a breakdown of interviewee gender identity is as follows:
- 14 interviewees described their gender as transgender
- 16 interviewees described their gender as nonbinary or genderfluid
- 20 interviewees described their gender as woman
- 4 interviewees described their gender as man
- 11 interviewees described their gender as queer
- 5 interviewees described their gender with no labels
- 7 interviewees described their gender as gender nonconforming, gender confused, or genderless
- Sexuality: Interviewees were also able to self-describe their sexuality. Because of this, interviewees could use multiple descriptors for their sexuality (and the numbers below add up to more than 73). Based on these descriptors, a breakdown of interviewee gender identity is as follows:
- 13 interviewees described their sexuality as bisexual
- 11 interviewees described their sexuality as pansexual
- 36 interviewees described their sexuality as queer
- 9 interviewees described their sexuality as lesbian
- 6 interviewees described their sexuality as gay
- 7 interviewees described their sexuality with no labels
Ethnographic methods
In addition to selecting cases at the individual farmer level, I was also interested in selecting cases at the organizational level (i.e., farms) to understand how the processes illustrated in interviews function for farmers experientially within the context of an organization. I selected two fieldsites for ethnographic participant observation: one farm in rural Illinois and one farm about 30 minutes outside a major city in Michigan. To access these research sites, I first made contact with the farm through their owner or other main point of contact via email. I offered to volunteer on the farm during my time, helping out with daily tasks like harvesting, weeding, and pruning. Once I secured permission to observe, I sat down with the farm’s leadership and staff to explain the project, recruit their participation in interviews and observations, and answer any outstanding questions. I spent two full work days with each farm, enjoying meals, work, and informal conversations with farm staff. During my observations, I conducted informal interviews with farm staff while participating in daily farm tasks. Descriptions of each farm are below:
- Illinois farm: This farm is run by a group of queer friends and farmers in rural Illinois. The farm primarily grows vegetables for sale at local and regional markets and participates in university research projects around sustainable agriculture. They run an apprenticeship program for about 5-8 apprentices in the spring, summer, and fall.
- Michigan farm: This farm is run by a couple located about half an hour outside of a major metropolitan area in Michigan. They employ two part-time employees, and they grow vegetables for a CSA program and local markets.
Participant collaboration
The final method employed for this project was participant collaboration on a publication about queer farmers’ experiences aimed toward a general audience. In January 2024, I partnered with a colleague who is also a farmer and academic to plan the project, and in February 2024, I recruited three queer farmer-artists based in the Midwest to help design and create the publication. Together, our team of five synthesized some high-level findings from the project, engaged another 23 queer farmer-artists to provide artwork and writing for the publication, and designed a 92-page, full-color book to share. The book was published in collaboration with Combos Press, an independent, queer-owned book press based in the Hudson Valley in New York. In addition to sharing findings through this publication, we also planned an event in February 2025 to welcome queer farmers and other members of the public to engage with the book and provide a space for learning and reflection. This component of the project created an accessible way for more queer farmers to share their stories through multiple kinds of media and for others to read about these farmers’ particular experiences.
As queer farmers have been growing in both numbers and visibility across the United States, more attention has been directed toward the specific challenges that these farmers face in their agricultural careers. Queer farmers are often drawn specifically to sustainable agricultural careers because of their values and the safety that this environment offers in comparison to more conventional agricultural spaces, making it especially important to account for their particular experiences as we create more socially sustainable spaces in sustainable agriculture. Based on seventy-three interviews and two site visits I conducted with queer farmers in the Midwest, I find that these farmers often face difficulty entering and remaining in sustainable agriculture careers because of unequal access to resources and experiences of hostility. However, despite the barriers that these farmers identified, many of them go to great lengths to continue growing food in a way that connects them to their communities, to the land, and to a more sustainable future.
Of the barriers to entering and continuing farming that interviewees named, the ones mentioned most often were lack of land access and capital, negotiating visibility of their queerness, and finding supportive networks to access educational and social resources. Land access and capital are two of the most necessary resources to beginning an agricultural operation, which gives a farmer the flexibility of cultivating a work environment that meets their particular needs. However, many queer farmers don’t have access to the capital to buy land and are less likely to have access to land through relatives because of strained familial relationships. Even when queer farmers do secure land access, it is often tenuous—short-term lease agreements, increasing rents, negotiating relationships with landlords who might not be supportive of queer folks, and the difficulty of scaling up labor to meet demand all pose risks to retaining land access. As Evan, a queer woman farmer in Michigan told me in her interview, “We're in our third year, but it's hard all around. We love the work, but we don't have enough money to hire enough people to actually do the work. The fact that we have to keep setting up infrastructure every year because we've been moving every year, it's just taking such a toll. Right now, it's hard to say, but if we don't find land by the end of this year, which is silly to say out loud, but truly what we're going for, I don't know if we're going to farm next year.” The instability of land access and capital adds stress for queer farmers, who are often juggling multiple other stressors in their work as a result of their gender and sexuality.
More specifically, queer farmers—and transgender and nonbinary growers in particular—shared encounters where they didn’t feel safe around their bosses, coworkers, customers, potential employers, or other people they interacted with in their work. An Indigenous, two-spirit person and lead farmer at an urban farm in Indiana told me about a recent professional development training they attended:
“The facilitator asked us to share our name and pronouns, and I said my pronouns are she/they. Then they continued down and the next person made a comment like, ‘My pronouns are, I'm just normal.’ The trainer was like, ‘Can you expand on that? What does that mean?’ They were kind of like, ‘Well, I don't understand why these young people are making us talk about this. I'm a girl. Look at me,’ and was getting very defensive. I would've never spoken up if it wasn't this kind of training, but this is a person that I work very close with that I think doesn't even realize that I’m not a cis[gender] person. I'm one of these people that they're crapping on right now, and they don't even realize.”
Em’s experience in this training illustrates how difficult it can be for trans and nonbinary farmers to encounter cisgender people who are hostile toward practices like sharing one’s name and pronouns, practices that are intended to cultivate inclusivity and respect for everyone (not just trans and nonbinary individuals). Additionally, comments such as, “I’m a girl. Look at me,” reinforce the assumption that someone’s appearance neatly corresponds to their gender identity, and the assertion that “these young people” are the reason for sharing pronouns in introductions erases a long history of queer and transgender people that came well before this generation.
While respect and understanding of transgender and nonbinary identities is a central component of feeling safe and welcomed in agricultural spaces, another primary way these farmers have to negotiate their safety is through decisions about how visibly queer—or simply how visibly different from people’s expectations of who a farmer is—they can be. Queer farmers often go to great lengths to control their appearance so they can mitigate unwanted comments about or behavior toward their gender or sexuality. During my interview with Robin, a nonbinary bi-gender farmer in Ohio, tells me about the vastly different experiences they have when interacting with cisgender, heterosexual farmers in their area than their wife does. “It is a lot easier for her to engage with the straight world, period,” Robin explains. “In the straight world, it is amazing, especially when we're together, how much people don't see me and just look right past me. Especially as a short person, they look right over me and only make eye contact with her. Even when I speak to them, or they ask a question about me and I answer, they will continue to not acknowledge me in any way.” Encountering visible discomfort from non-queer people presents additional obstacles for trans and nonbinary farmers as they engage in their work.
This experience of deciding how safe it is to be visibly trans or nonbinary begins even before queer farmers are interacting with coworkers, bosses, and customers. As Miles, a queer and trans farmer in Ohio, tells me during our virtual interview, the process of searching for farm jobs is complicated by wondering how potential employers are going to react to applicants who are visibly gender non-conforming. “Finding a job where I was going to be paid enough to live was difficult,” Miles explains, “but also trying to figure out whether people will be open to me working for them because I am gender-nonconforming, and I don't know whether somebody's going to actually be quite conservative.” In a field where fairly compensated and stable jobs are already difficult to come by, trans and nonbinary farmers are also forced to consider how their gender identity might narrow available positions because of an employer’s acceptance of trans and nonbinary identities.
However, in spite of these barriers, queer farmers talked about the immense joy and satisfaction this work brings them and their desire to grow food, feed their communities, and participate in mitigating climate change however they are able. Queer farmers described a desire to cultivate relationships with other farmers who understood their particular circumstances. As Ian, a gay, queer man, described in our interview, “Knowing that [other queer farmers are] out there, and not feeling isolated is a big thing. Especially in farming—it already, by its very nature, feels isolating. You're out in the field, if not five days a week, more, and it's just, it's long, taxing, work, and knowing that there is a community specifically supporting you, as a queer farmer, it definitely helps to know that it’s out there.” The ability to see other people like them allowed queer farmers to feel supported and inspired to continue growing and creating more sustainable food systems. The collaborative publication project was one opportunity to provide visible examples of queer farmers in the Midwest, creating a sense of support and community among other queer farmers. One queer farmer, who grows vegetables and eggs in Illinois, described the impact of the publication on their work, saying, “It’s been fantastic to feel connected to a thriving network of queer farmers and land stewards. Playing in the Dirt has enriched my own thinking about the connections between my queer body and the land it tends to.” These kinds of opportunities to create support and camaraderie among queer farmers should be prioritized if the sustainable agriculture movement hopes to maintain a diversity of farmers in the future.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
To date, I have written two public-facing pieces based on this project's work. One is published on the Contexts Blog, an online venue hosted by the public sociology magazine Contexts, and focuses on findings related to embodiment and identity. Another piece is published in the Northeast Organic Farming Association's publication The Natural Farmer and focuses on specific experiences and practices around inclusion of transgender and nonbinary farmers in agriculture.
I have also presented findings from this work at workshops hosted through the University of Notre Dame's Sociology department and at two conferences in 2024: the Queer Food Conference in Boston, MA, and at the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society's annual meeting in Syracuse, NY. In addition, I have shared my work with a pre-college program class through Notre Dame, and I have been invited to give talks in spring and summer 2025 about this work.
Finally, I organized a team to produce a collaborative, public-facing publication in partnership with an editorial team composed of queer farmer-artists based in the Midwest. The goal of the publication was to present some specific findings from the project in an accessible and engaging way, while also highlighting artistic work from queer farmer-artists that also engage these themes. I have received an immense amount of support for this project, with more than ninety queer farmer-artists applying for four editorial positions, dozens of messages from queer farmers across the country expressing support and gratitude for this project, and more than 300 copies sold.
Project Outcomes
The farmers who provided interviews for this project highlighted several creative and innovative examples of expanding notions of sustainability. These narratives illustrate strategies that can or currently do cultivate environments of safety, respect, and belonging for queer farmers, allowing these farmers to engage in agricultural work without having to hide their identity and suffer from poor social/emotional outcomes. Queer farmers in this study also highlighted strategies to make entry into farming more accessible for people who might otherwise be marginalized in agricultural spaces, including building alternative resource networks, creating robust community networks, and centering practices that celebrate queer joy and other shared emotions.
Farmers interviewed for this project expressed interest in how other queer farmers are navigating agricultural systems in the midwest, and through public writing and collaborative projects, I have been able to share these findings back with queer farmers as the project has progressed. This project has also resulted in wide-reaching written pieces, including articles for public audiences in publications based in the northeast US, midwest US, and nationally. This work has led to the creation of additional projects moving forward, including partnering with the Queer Farmer Network, establishing funds for queer midwest farmers, and collaborating on designing workshops and educational opportunities related to queer food and agriculture.
This project in particular has been pivotal in helping expand understandings of sustainable agriculture extending beyond simply environmental notions of sustainability. Many of the barriers and obstacles that queer farmers identified centered on their physical and emotional wellbeing; finding safe, secure, and adequately paying employment; and accessing land to grow on. These experiences have encouraged me to focus primarily on the social sustainability aspects of agriculture, emphasizing the importance of building robust relational networks to help shift practices and cultures within sustainable agriculture.
“Playing in the Dirt has given me the energy to keep playing in the dirt! It continues to help me feel less alone in an industry and world that marginalizes queer people and queer ways of being. it helps me imagine wildly and authentically the world I want to live in and help build.” — A queer meat farmer based in Iowa
“It’s been fantastic to feel connected to a thriving network of queer farmers and land stewards. Playing in the Dirt has enriched my own thinking about the connections between my queer body and the land it tends to.” — A queer vegetable and egg farmer based in Illinois.
“Taylor’s work is empowering, inclusive, and impactful. I'm endlessly inspired by their creative projects and activism. As a queer farmer, it's important to see other queer farmers challenging the stereotype and providing representation.” — A queer dairy goat farmer based in Michigan
“Becoming connected to Taylor has resulted in an ever-expanding network of connections that has offered opportunities to share my perspective, opportunities to learn from other like-minded people, & examples of generative collaborative work that are inspiring in our increasingly hostile & hierarchical society. I appreciate the sense of warmth & groundedness with which Taylor approaches projects & events. It is a joy to collaborate with them & to witness the constellation of excellent queer community they have cultivated through their various projects.” — A queer vegetable, flower, and fruit farmer based in Michigan