Home
Multifunctional agriculture produces both goods (like food and fiber) and ecological services (like clean water). This kind of agriculture is attracting considerable interest because it addresses social and ecological challenges to sustainability.
The MFA project examines why farmers choose multifunctional agriculture. We are particularly interested in the role of social networks and environmental perception.
We talk to farmers in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New York and assessing the biophysical effects of farming. We use a range of approaches, including digital mapping and remote sensing, biophysical research on terrestrial and aquatic systems at farm and landscape scales; social science interviews and structural equation modeling for farmer and network actors; and integrated modeling.
Education and outreach for a variety of audiences include working with grazing organizations to share the empirical results in a wide range of settings including conferences and strategic planning sessions.
Better understanding of dynamics of multifunctionality is important to society in several ways. This research proposes a new model of feedback among social and ecological systems that could be applied not just to agriculture but also to many different kinds of productive systems that involve humans and the environment. In terms of practical outcomes, this project will help lower barriers to the expansion of grazing, which offers considerable potential for rural economic revitalization in many US regions, while also helping make the increasingly important US ‘bioeconomy’ more sustainable. The proposed research will help identify both opportunities and barriers affecting development of a sustainable bioeconomy based on multifunctional agriculture. Finally, the project helps a variety of different people learn about multifunctional agriculture in particular and human-environment interactions more broadly.
About
In agriculture, ‘multifunctionality’ refers to production of a range of goods (agricultural commodities) and ecological services (e.g., conservation of biodiversity and water quality). Multifunctional agriculture is attracting considerable interest because it meets a range of social and ecological challenges to sustainability.
This project is testing a new model in which multifunctional agriculture is understood as a coupled human-environment system driven by ecosocial feedback, weak-tie social networks and multiple biophysical benefits. In this model, critical ecosocial feedback is mediated by ‘weak ties’ social networks, or those that bridge between groups. Weak tie networks allow the shared perception of biophysical signals as well as communication, resource exchange, and collective action by individuals and groups. Through weak-ties social networks, multifunctional agroecosystems that generate ecological benefits receive resources that increase their spatial extent, better signal these benefits, and increase the size and resource base of social networks. The project will test the hypothesis that this ecosocial feedback is strong enough to overcome systemic barriers to extensive adoption of an important emerging form of multifunctional agriculture, rotational grazing (RG).
Work is occuring in three states (NY, WI, MN) that differ markedly in development of RG. The project examines individual and group behavior and social-network development , assesses its biophysical effects, and uses these findings to create an agent-based model of RG dynamics. Methods include digital mapping and remote sensing of social and ecological phenomena; biophysical research on terrestrial and aquatic systems at farm and landscape scales; social science interviews and structural equation modeling for farmer and network actors; and integrated modeling.
Better understanding of dynamics of multifunctionality is important to society in several ways. In terms of theoretical advances, this research proposes a new model of feedback among social and ecological systems that could be applied not just to agriculture but also to many different kinds of productive systems that involve humans and the environment. In terms of practical outcomes, this project will help lower barriers to the expansion of grazing, which offers considerable potential for rural economic revitalization in many US regions, while also helping make the increasingly important US ‘bioeconomy’ more sustainable. The proposed research will help identify both opportunities and barriers affecting development of a sustainable bioeconomy based on multifunctional agriculture. Finally, the project helps a variety of different people learn about multifunctional agriculture in particular and human-environment interactions more broadly.
Supported by: National Science Foundation (09/01/2007-08/31/2010). BE/CNH: Understanding the Importance of Weak-Tie Networks in Complex Human-Environment Systems: Ecosocial Feedback in Multifunctional Agriculture (0709613). PI: N. Jordan, S. M. Manson and K. Nelson. ($924,273).
People
Senior Personnel
Nick Jordan: agroecology, biophysical effects of grazing and project synthesis; 10 years research experience addressing sustainable development of agriculture in Midwest USA.
Kristen C. Nelson: human behavior in managed environmental systems, risk assessment and multi-stakeholder deliberation; social networks and community participation, 20 years research experience in sustainable development - U. S. and Latin America.
Steven M. Manson: Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, computer modeling; 7 years research experience modeling social-ecological systems
Bruce Vondracek: aquatic biodiversity; 20 years research experience addressing stream ecology and biodiversity.
Student Researchers
Adam Berland (Geography, now at Ball State University)
Genevieve Brand (Water Resources)
Rachel Brummel (Forest Resources, now at Luther College)
Sondra Campbell (Water Resources)
Dudley Bonsal (Geography, now at James Madison University)
Katie Clower (Forest Resources, now at Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)
Melissa Colletti (Forest Resources, now at MCW Environmental )
Chris Crawford (Geography, now at NASA)
Sonya Ewert (Forest Resources, now at Carlson School of Management)
Sarah Graves (Agronomy, now at Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Stephanie Grayzek
Jennifer Immich (Anthropology, now at GIS Analyst at City of Boulder)
Andrea Klausen (Forest Resources)
Kara Raymond (Forest Resources)
Brandon Wiarda (Forest Resources)
Andrea Woodside (Forest Resources, now at Goldman Sachs)
Products
Papers
Manson, S. M., Jordan, N. R., Nelson, K. C., & Brummel, R. F. (2016). Modeling the effect of social networks on adoption of multifunctional agriculture. Environmental Modelling & Software, 75, 388-401.
Brand, G., Vondracek, B., & Jordan, N. R. (2014). Influence of grazing and land use on stream-channel characteristics among small dairy farms in the Eastern United States. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 1-13.
Brummel, R. F., & Nelson, K. C. (2014). Does multifunctionality matter to US farmers? Farmer motivations and conceptions of multifunctionality in dairy systems. Journal of Environmental Management, 146, 451-462.
Jordan, N., & Warner, K. D. (2010). Enhancing the multifunctionality of US agriculture. BioScience, 60(1), 60-66.
Jordan, N. R., Clower, K. M., Manson, S. M., Bonsal, D. B., & Immich, J. L. (2015). Land use and land cover in critical source areas on small dairy farms in the eastern United States. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 70(4), 257-266.
Manson, S. M., Jordan, N. R., Nelson, K. C., & Brummel, R. F. (2016). Modeling the effect of social networks on adoption of multifunctional agriculture. Environmental Modelling & Software, 75, 388-401.
Nelson, K. C., R. F. Brummel, N. Jordan, and S. M. Manson (2014). Social networks in complex human and natural systems: The case of rotational grazing, weak ties, and U.S. eastern dairy landscapes. Agriculture and Human Values, 31 (2): 245-259.
Raymond, K.L. Vondracek, B. (2011). Relationships among rotational and conventional grazing systems, stream channels, and macroinvertebrates. Hydorbiologia, 669, 105-117.
Presentations
Raymond, K. L. and B. Vondracek. (2011). Grazing systems, stream channels, and macroinvertebrates. 4th Annual Driftless Stream Restoration Symposium, 15-16 March, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Nelson, K.C. and R. Brummel. (2011). Social Networks as Differential Drivers in Conventional and Multifunctional Agricultural Grazing Systems. ISSRM Meeting, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nelson, K.C. (2010). Does carbon matter? - Smallholder farmers negotiating shifting institutions. Global Warming, Smallholder Agriculture and Environmental Justice: Making Critical Connections Symposium. Ecological Society of America, Pittsburgh, PA.
Jordan, N., S. M. Manson, K. Nelson, B. Vondracek, T. Arnold, R. Brummel, K. Clower, A. Berland, D. Bonsal, G. Brand, S. Graves (2010). Rotational Grazing: Development of a System of Productive-Conservation Agriculture. Crop and Soil Science Seminar Series, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
Jordan, N., S. M. Manson, K. Nelson, B. Vondracek, T. Arnold, R. Brummel, K. Clower, A. Berland, D. Bonsal, G. Brand, S. Graves (2010). Rotational Grazing: Development of a System of Productive-Conservation Agriculture. Conservation Biology Seminar, University of Minnesota.
Jordan, N., S. M. Manson, K. Nelson, B. Vondracek, T. Arnold, R. Brummel, K. Clower, A. Berland, D. Bonsal, G. Brand, S. Graves (2010). Can Rotational-Grazing Dairy Farms Really Balance Production and Conservation? Agroecology Graduate Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Manson, S. M., S. Sun, K. Nelson, and N. Jordan (2010). Linking landscape pattern and process via sociospatial networks. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington, District of Columbia.
Jordan, N., K. Nelson, S. M. Manson, R. Brummel, and K. Clower (2010). Developing an eco-social dynamic model for grazing-based dairy production in the United States. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington, District of Columbia.
Manson, S. M., K. Nelson, N. Jordan, B. Vondracek, K. Clower, R. Brummel, A. Berland, D. Bonsal, G. Brand (2010). Developing a Model of Ecosocial Feedback for Multifunctional Agriculture as a Pathway to Land-Change Sustainability. Global Land Project Open Science Meeting, Tempe, Arizona.
Clower, K., T. Arnold, and N. Jordan (2010). The effects of rotational grazing on relative abundance of grassland songbirds. Wilson Ornithological Society Meeting, Hobart & William Smith College, Geneva NewYork.
Clower, K., T. Arnold, and N. Jordan (2010). The effects of rotational grazing on relative abundance of grassland songbirds. Conservation Biology Program, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota.