Climate Change Perceptions of NY State Farmers: The Role of Risk Perceptions and Adaptive Capacity

Abstract

Climate change is expected to severely impact agricultural practices in many important food-producing regions, including the Northeast United States. Changing climate conditions, such as increases in the amount of rainfall, will require farmers to adapt. Yet, little is known with regard to farmers' perceptions and understandings about climate change, especially in the industrialized country context. This paper aims at overcoming this research limitation, as well as determining the existing contextual, cognitive, and psychological barriers that can prevent adoption of sustainable practices of farmers in New York State. The study is framed within the adaptive capacity and risk perception literature, and is based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with farmers in 21 farms in two counties in Central New York. The results reveal diverging views about the long-term consequences of climate change. Results also reveal that past experience remains as the most important source of information that influences beliefs and perceptions about climate change, confirming previous research.

Farmers’ Intention to Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture in the Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve (Vietnam): A Combination of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Protection Motivation Theory (PMT)

“…Agriculture, a main economic sector in the tropics, is most vulnerable to climate change [1][2][3]. Climate change affects water resources, soils, pests and diseases, leading to significant changes in crop and livestock production; therefore, climate risk and adaptive ability to agriculture are perceived obvious by farmers [4][5][6][7][8]. Farmers' perceptions of climate risk are influenced by biophysical, socio-economic, political and psychological factors [9][10][11][12].…”

Sustainability and Disaster Planning: What Are the Connections?

“…Rural jurisdictions struggle with a range of sustainability issues (Morrison, Lane, and Hibbard ), and rural communities across the United States are less likely to adopt sustainability policies than more urban places (Homsy and Warner ). While a majority of farmers believe the climate is changing, they consider the changes to be part of a natural cycle and remain skeptical of humans as the cause (Takahashi et al ; Yung et al ). Rural planners also face local leaders who question the effectiveness of local action and who lack peer communities from which to learn about greenhouse gas reduction strategies (Carter and Culp ).…”

“…Passage of disaster planning measures may only become politically feasible following an incident (Næss et al ), and many disaster plans remain unimplemented (Lyles, Berke, and Smith ). In rural areas, personal experience with weather extremes, such as drought, wildfires, changes in length of growing season, and flooding, are important drivers of perceptions, but may not shift opinions enough to cause action on topics such as climate change (Chatrchyan et al ; Millar, Boon, and King ; Takahashi et al ), especially when the rural discourse emphasizes a balance between economy and environment as well as questioning the impact of local action (Kessler, Parkins, and Huddart Kennedy ). Most communities that do take climate adaptation action only adopt policies that have an immediate benefit in other ways (Abunnasr, Hamin, and Brabec ).…”

U.S. Inland Pacific Northwest Wheat Farmers’ Perceived Risks: Motivating Intentions to Adapt to Climate Change?

“…Further, Coles and Scott found that rather than taking purposeful actions in response to climate change, "farmers and ranchers continue to rely on past experiences and short-range forecasts, hedging each year instead of taking significant risks" [42] (p. 307). However, Takahashi et al [12] found that the majority of farmers in New York are already taking adaptive responses in light of experienced climate changes but that most felt that their actions were limited due to broader concerns about economic risks and the unpredictability of changing market conditions. This implies that there is regional as well as temporal variation in risk perception among U.S. farmers.…”

“…Resilient social-ecological systems are responsive to shocks (e.g., drought) yet do not necessitate system-scale transformation, which may require fundamental shifts in cropping systems and management approaches; however, Folke et al argue that when transformation is inevitable, "resilient systems contain the components needed for renewal and reorganization" [10] (p. 7). Climate risks however, are not driven by climatic factors alone but are also influenced by the actions that humans take, at multiple human institutional scales, to moderate risks and exploit potential benefits [11,12]. Therefore, climate change will require that farmers in the region respond to these risks and production uncertainties in both short-and long-term time frames [4].…”