Agriculture Without Farmers? Constructions of and Resistances to Whiteness in Two Midwestern Agricultural Education Classrooms

Abstract

Drawing on two semesters of qualitative observation, interviews, and discourse analysis in the field, I wrestle with the contradictory tension between what is happening and what might be happening in Ag Ed classrooms in the “US” (Gilmore, 2022; Giroux, 1983). Heeding an essential problematic imbalance in white land ownership I explore what is happening in two Midwestern Ag Ed classrooms in the way of the cultural reproduction of and resistance to hegemonic whiteness. I find that Ag Ed classes in the Upper Midwest are preparing students for agricultural careers that are not about growing food. Vocational success leading to earning is prioritized over tangible agricultural experience that results in anything edible. I find contradictions in the term “production Ag” which does not include non-commodified food. I suggest that the removal of food production via the taboo language of “farming” from the Ag Ed classroom is a white technology that functions to legitimize commodity crop agribusiness as “agriculture” while food growing is delegitimized as “alternative” and not profitable. At the same time, I find that Ag Ed classrooms offer unique space for experiential, collaborative, outdoor learning, unlike any other school spaces (Croom, 2008; Hains et al., 2015; Roberts, 2006). Finally, in articulating what could be happening in Ag Ed classrooms, I draw on emancipatory pedagogy (Freire, 1975; Giroux, 1983; Kincheloe, 2008), critical (Indigenous and Black) feminist (Penniman, 2018; Simpson, 2014; Styres, et al, 2013; White, 2018) and agroecological literature (Montenegro de Wit, 2023; Plumwood,2008; Shiva, 1997), to consider how we might do “US” Ag Ed better, to, in Gilmore’s words, produce social justice.