DENOMINACIÓN Y DESIGNACIÓN

Even with these aspects that may enhance the ability to adapt, the larger systems that Verde Valley growers are a part of are certainly the most restrictive to their adaptive capacity. As described by Stuart et al. (2012), structural barriers associated with political and economic conditions at the national level often may be the largest constraints to any individual adaptation. This relates to several of the barriers identified throughout Chapter 5. One of the most prevalent and important limits that my research participants face is that the U.S. food system, as it relates to policies, subsidies, and markets, is structured to help the large-scale, industrial agricultural operations rather than small, alternative farms.

While this was expressed in many different ways, one of the most significant ones related to the lack of organizational support that growers felt would be accessible to them. While many growers knew about organizations that exist to potentially help agriculture, very few felt that they would receive the support or aid that they needed, often citing that the programs were only intended for larger farms. As one exception, through both my literature review and the responses of two growers, I learned about the important work that the Nature Conservancy is doing in the Verde Valley to try to increase water efficiency through automated head-gates on ditches, drip irrigation, and crop conversion. However, no other growers mentioned this organization as a resource. Generally, growers’ views on the subject were that there either were no organizations that they knew of or none that would effectively and affordably help them.

Additional insight into this barrier involves the themes of trust and distrust that emerged from the interviews. Overall, growers in the Verde Valley expressed that they rely on and trust themselves the most when considering how they could adapt to changes. This aligned with Fleming et al.’s (2015) description of the overall social culture of farmers as autonomous

individuals, where they generally have norms related to independence and stoicism. Many of the growers also extend their trust to the various social networks that they have with others involved in agriculture in their region, from neighboring growers to farmers’ markets. However, when considering other interactions with larger levels in their state and country, I observed an overall distrust of the government and lack of faith in governmental organizations from the interviews. For the most part, this is probably a result of the structures and policies of the U.S. food system that encourage large, industrial farms instead of smaller ones like those in the community of the Verde Valley (Hauter, 2012). However, it is also important to note that both the general

have developed a general sense of distrust, which could further limit their engagement with organizations even if they did offer aid and support. As Eriksen and Selboe (2012) note, the limited beneficial interactions between local and larger scales of agricultural systems has resulted in a lack of trust and subsequent loss of adaptive capacity, as “societal processes that undermine critical forms of collaboration may pose limits to adaptation” (p. 166). More collaborative processes that cross different levels of agricultural SES and value the perspectives of all stakeholders could help increase the trust, and therefore adaptive capacity, of the individual growers; however, this will certainly require structural transformation to the U.S. food system and its policies of encouraging industrial agricultural over smaller, alternative forms (Wright et al., 2014).

Development and urbanization in the Verde Valley and Arizona in general also present significant threats to the adaptive capacity of agriculture in my study system. The growers have very little control over the land prices, water use, and cultural changes that are associated with the residential transition. Indeed, this is a significant pressure that, if it continues unfettered, will leave very few agricultural operations in the Verde Valley to actually adapt to climate change in the first place. This would also lower the resilience of the overall social-ecological system of the area by eliminating local food sources, open spaces, and other beneficial aspects that agriculture provides. The growth of cities throughout the state could also affect the water security of the Verde Valley, as new groundwater regulations or policies might be developed. Although those with water rights on the Verde River may have a more stable and secure water source, even they could be threatened as residential development continues.

Overall, these structural barriers relate to the ways that resilience can play out as a negative property that limits the true adaptive capacity of individuals and structures in

agricultural SES. The lack of organizational support and trust through cross-scale social networks exists because of the pathologically resilient structures that the U.S. Farm Bill, and food system at large, have maintained throughout history. In encouraging fewer and larger industrial farms to succeed through subsidies and supports, national policies effectively resist diversity and adaptations that smaller operations can bring to the table (Berardi et al., 2011). As a whole, the U.S. agricultural system can be characterized as a trapped resilient system “that persists over time in spite being subjected to a wide range of shocks or perturbations. It is a very resilient system that is maintained by considerable amounts of money… with rules and

procedures that are no longer fitting or appropriate” (Gunderson & Light, 2006, p. 129). As Maréchal et al. (2008) note, the same negatively resilient push for unlimited growth in agricultural systems corresponds to the idea of progress that dominant Western paradigms maintain. This economic “progress” drives the development and urbanization that is steadily pushing agricultural land out of production, perpetuating a pathologically resilient system that ignores environmental and social sustainability.