Cross-Disciplinary Research in the REACCH Project: A Longitudinal Survey of Wheat Growers

Kathleen Painter
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology

Tuesday, March 3, 2015
12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Whitewater Room, UI Commons

Abstract

What motivates farmers to apply research findings to their farming practices? How do they take in new information? How are they coping with climate change? A long-term study led by agricultural economist Kathleen Painter tracks individual farmers’ attitudes and practices as they grow wheat and other crops while working to protect the environment and the sustainability of their operations.
Working with Painter, Hilary Davis, a recent MS graduate, conducted interviews with 47 wheat growers. The interviews are now in their fourth and final year. This study is part of the USDA-funded Regional Approaches to Climate Change in Pacific Northwest Agriculture (REACCH-PNA) project. REACCH-PNA brings together researchers from agronomy, hydrology, entomology, climatology, sociology, economics and education to study climate change in this region.

Biography

Kathleen Painter is an agricultural economist at the University of Idaho, where she creates crop and livestock budgets for the state of Idaho as well as providing economic analyses as a member of multidisciplinary state and regional research projects. She also teaches farm management and enterprise budget development at the University of Idaho. Her current research projects include analyzing organic dryland wheat production for the Inland Pacific Northwest, as well as the longitudinal survey described above. She holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Washington State University.