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No farm is an island: constrained choice, landscape thinking, and ecological insect management among Wisconsin farmers

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Abstract

Agriculture has long struggled to reconcile production with biodiversity conservation. Industrial farming practices that erode structural complexity within crop fields and across entire landscapes, as well as widespread pesticide use, have resulted in declining insect abundance and diversity globally. Recognition of socio-environmental consequences have spurred alternative pest management paradigms such as integrated pest management (IPM) and conservation biological control (CBC), which emphasize ecology as the scientific foundation for a sustainable agriculture. However, adoption of these approaches at scales large enough to impact biodiversity has been slow, particularly in industrialized countries. Landscape-scale management is an integral component of ecological agriculture, making pest control and biodiversity conservation collective problems that require coordination among multiple stakeholders. The extent to which farmers recognize and act upon this perspective is not well studied. Through literature synthesis and a case study of Southern Wisconsin, I analyze factors shaping farmer adoption of insect and landscape management practices through the lens of constrained choice. I argue that multiple overlapping institutions (social networks, market forces, science and technology, and political-legal systems) co-produce farmer behaviors and landscape structure, largely to the detriment of ecological pest control and biodiversity. Wisconsin farmers' entomological concerns largely overlook beneficial insect species and eschew landscape thinking. Ultimately, slowing agricultural drivers of insect biodiversity declines will likely require large-scale coordination and political-economic change.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the farmer participants for sharing their perspectives with me, which greatly influenced my thinking. Thanks to Matthew Turner for his political ecology seminar that sparked the initial idea for this project, as well as for his feedback throughout the research process. Finally, I would like to thank Claudio Gratton for comments on an earlier manuscript draft. This work was supported by a grant from the University of Wisconsin Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) to Ben Iuliano.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Doctoral Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Department of Natural Sciences, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Benjamin Iuliano

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  1. Benjamin Iuliano
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Correspondence to Benjamin Iuliano.

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I declare no competing interests related to this work.

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Appendix

Appendix

Interview Guide

Demographic information

  • Tell me about yourself and how you started farming.

  • What do you grow/produce on your farm?

  • How, if at all, has this changed over time?

  • How do you decide what to grow?

Insect perceptions

  • What insects are on your farm?

  • Pests vs. beneficials?

  • How do you manage them?

  • Where do you get your pest management information from?

Landscape thinking

  • How, if at all, do you think different fields affect each other?

  • Does the unfarmed land on your property affect your operation? How?

  • Are some parts of your farm more or less prone to insect outbreaks?

  • Do you consider what or how your neighbors are farming when making management decisions?

Wrap up

  • Is there anything else you wanted to share that I didn’t ask about?

  • Do you have any questions for me?

Coding Tree

  • Insects

    1. o

      Beneficials

    2. o

      Pests

  • Pest management

    1. o

      Rotation

    2. o

      Pesticides

    3. o

      Surveillance

    4. o

      Genetically engineered crops

    5. o

      Habitat management

  • Landscape

    1. o

      Composition

    2. o

      Configuration

  • Farm outputs

    1. o

      Grains

    2. o

      Feed

    3. o

      Dairy

    4. o

      Beef

  • Constraints

    1. o

      Individual

    2. o

      Social

    3. o

      Industry & Markets

    4. o

      Science & Technology

    5. o

      Policy

    6. o

      Ideology

  • Multifunctionality

  • Profitability

  • Soil Health

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Iuliano, B. No farm is an island: constrained choice, landscape thinking, and ecological insect management among Wisconsin farmers. Agric Hum Values (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10571-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10571-6

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