Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social networks in complex human and natural systems: the case of rotational grazing, weak ties, and eastern US dairy landscapes

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Multifunctional agricultural systems seek to expand upon production-based benefits to enhance family wellbeing and animal health, reduce inputs, and improve environmental services such as biodiversity and water quality. However, in many countries a landscape-level conversion is uneven at best and stalled at worst. This is particularly true across the eastern rural landscape in the United States. We explore the role of social networks as drivers of system transformation within dairy production in the eastern United States, specifically rotational grazing as an alternative management option. We hypothesize the importance of weak ties within farmer social networks as drivers of change. In Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New York, we conducted 53 interviews with confinement, low-intensity, and rotational grazing dairy producers as well as 35 interviews with associated network actors. Though confinement and grazier networks had similar proportions of strong and weak ties, confinement producers had more market-based weak ties, while graziers had more weak-ties to government agencies and other graziers in the region. These agency weak ties supported rotational graziers through information exchange and cost sharing, both crucial to farmers’ transitions from confinement-based production to grazing systems. While weak ties were integral to initial innovation, farmers did not maintain these relationships beyond their transition to grazing. Of equal importance, grazier weak-tie networks did not include environmental organizations, suggesting unrealized potential for more diverse networks based on environmental services. By understanding the drivers, we can identify barriers to expanding weak tie networks and emergent properties in order to create institutions and policies necessary for change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For this article we use the term rotational grazing but this management type is also referred to as management intensive grazing, grazing, and animals are labeled as grass-fed.

References

  • Batie, S.S. 2003. The multifunctional attributes of northeastern agriculture: A research agenda. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 32: 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belletti, G., G. Brunori, A. Marescotti, and A. Rossi. 2003. Multifunctionality and rural development: A multilevel approach. In Multifuncitonal agriculture: A new paradigm for European agriculture and rural development, ed. G. Van Huylenbroeck, and G. Durand, 55–80. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkes, F., J. Colding, and C. Folke (eds.). 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems: Building resilience for complexity and change. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boody, G., B. Vondracek, D.A. Andow, M. Krinke, J. Westra, J. Zimmerman, and P. Welle. 2005. Multifunctional agriculture in the United States. BioScience 55: 27–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brummel, R., K.C. Nelson, and P. Jakes. 2012. Burning through organizational boundaries? Examining inter-organizational communication networks in policy-mandated collaborative bushfire planning groups. Global Environmental Change 22: 516–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burt, R.S. 2000. The network structure of social capital. Research in Organizational Behavior 22: 345–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caron-Flinterman, J.F., D. Roep, and A. Luijer. 2010. Bridging incompatible regimes: How the formation of intermediary regimes drives system innovation. Si Agro Workshop Proceedings 16–18 June, Lelystad, Netherlands, 2010-06-182010-06-18.

  • Che, D., A. Veeck, and G. Veeck. 2005. Sustaining production and strengthening the agritourism product: Linkages among Michigan agritourism destinations. Agriculture and Human Values 22: 225–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, S.L., S.R. Carpenter, S.M. Swinton, D.E. Orenstein, D.L. Childers, T.L. Gragson, N.B. Grimm, J.M. Grove, S.L. Harlan, J.P. Kaye, A.K. Knapp, G.P. Kofinas, J.J. Magnuson, W.H. McDowell, J.M. Melack, L.A. Ogden, G.P. Robertson, M.D. Smith, and A.C. Whitmer. 2011. An integrated conceptual framework for long-term social-ecological research. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9: 351–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dal Fiore, F. 2009. Communities versus networks: The implications on innovation and social change. American Behavioral Scientist 50: 857–866.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folke, C. 2006. Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analysis. Global Environmental Change 16: 253–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franks, J. 2010. Boundary organization for sustainable land management: The example of Dutch environmental co-operatives. Ecological Economics 70(2): 283–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frost, J.N., and R. Lentz. 2003. Rooted in grass: Challenging patterns of knowledge exchange as a means of fostering social change in a southeast Minnesota farm community. Agriculture and Human Values 20: 65–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gantzer, C.J., S.H. Anderson, A.L. Thompson, and J.R. Brown. 1990. Estimating soil erosion after 100 years of cropping on Sanborn Field. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 45: 641–644.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geyer, R. 2003. Beyond the third way: The science of complexity and the politics of choice. British Journal of Politics and International Relations 5: 237–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. 2005. The impact of social structure on economic outcomes. The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19: 33–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. 1983. The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. Sociological Theory 1: 203–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. 1973. The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology 78: 1360–1380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, M.T. 1999. The search-transfer problem: The role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organizational subunits. Administrative Science Quarterly 44: 82–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassanein, N., and J. Kloppenburg Jr. 1995. Where the grass grows again: Knowledge exchange in the sustainable agriculture movement. Rural Sociology 60: 721–740.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ison, R., N. Röling, and D. Watson. 2007. Challenges to science and society in the sustainable management and use of water: Investigating the role of social learning. Environmental Science & Policy 10: 499–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, K.C. 1995. Grazing trend changes feed company opportunities. Feedstuff 17 July.

  • Jordan, N., and K.D. Warner. 2010. Enhancing the multifunctionality of US agriculture. BioScience 60: 60–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kriegel, T., and G. Frank. 2005. A ten-year economic look at Wisconsin dairy systems. Madison, WI: Center for Dairy Profitability.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroma, M.M. 2006. Organic farmer networks: Facilitating learning and innovation for sustainable agriculture. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 28: 5–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamprinopoulou, C., A. Tregear, and M. Ness. 2006. Agrifood SMEs in Greece: The role of collective action. British Food Journal 108: 663–676.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J., T. Dietz, S.R. Carpenter, M. Alberti, C. Folke, E. Moran, A.N. Pell, P. Deadman, T. Kratz, J. Lubchenco, E. Ostrom, Z. Ouyang, W. Provencher, C.L. Redman, S.H. Schneider, and W.W. Taylor. 2007. Complexity of coupled human and natural systems. Science 317(5844): 1513–1516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, J., B.M. Weigel, L.K. Paine, and D.J. Undersander. 2000. Influence of intensive rotational grazing on bank erosion, fish habitat quality, and fish communities in southwestern Wisconsin trout streams. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 55: 271–276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magis, K. 2010. Community resilience: An indicator of social sustainability. Society and Natural Resources 23: 401–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mariola, M.J., K.E. Stiles, and S. Lloyd. 2005. The social implications of management intensive rotational grazing: An annotated bibliography. Madison, Wisconsin: Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  • Matthews, R., and P. Selman. 2006. Landscape as a focus for integrating human and environmental processes. Journal of Agricultural Economics 57: 199–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPherson, J.M., P.A. Popielarz, and S. Drobnic. 1992. Social networks and organizational American. Sociological Review 57: 153–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMichael, P. 2011. Food system sustainability: Questions of environmental governance in the new world (dis)order. Global Environmental Change 21: 804–812.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nott, S.B. 2003. Evolution of dairy grazing in the 1990 s. Staff Paper #2003-07. East Lansing, Michigan: Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University.

  • Olsson, P., C. Folke, V. Galaz, T. Hahn, and L. Schultz. 2007. Enhancing the fit through adaptive co-management: Creating and maintaining bridging functions for matching scales in the Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve. Sweden. Ecology and Society 12(1): 28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortiz-Miranda, D., O.M. Moreno-Perez, and A.M. Moragues-Faus. 2010. Innovative strategies of agricultural cooperatives in the framework of the new rural development paradigms: The case of the Region of Valencia (Spain). Environment and Planning 42: 661–677.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paine, L.K., R.M. Klemme, D.J. Undersander, and M. Welsh. 2000. Wisconsin’s grazing networks: History, structure, and function. Journal of Natural Resources and Life Science Education 29: 60–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paine, L.K., and C.A. Ribic. 2002. Comparison of riparian plant communities under four land management systems in southwestern Wisconsin. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 92: 93–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polasky, S.E., D.Pennington Nelson, and K.A. Johnson. 2011. The impact of land-use change on ecosystem services, biodiversity, and returns to landowners: A case study in the State of Minnesota. Environmental & Resource Economics 48: 219–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes, Alejandro. 1998. Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 24: 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PATS (Program on Agricultural Technology Studies). 2007. Structural change in WI dairy 1987–2007: Divergence in size and system. Fact Sheet No. 25. Madison, WI: College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R.D. 2000. Bowling alone. The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Randall, G.W. 2001. Present day agriculture in southeastern Minnesota—Is it sustainable?. Waseca, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymond, K.L., and B. Vondracek. 2010. Relationships among rotational and conventional grazing systems, stream channels, and macroinvertebrates. Hydorbiologia 669: 105–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selman, P., and M. Knight. 2006. On the nature of virtuous change in cultural landscapes: Exploring sustainability through qualitative models. Landscape Research 31: 295–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sovell, L.A., B. Vondracek, J.A. Nerbonne Frost, and K.G. Mumford. 2000. Impacts of rotational grazing and riparian buffers on physicochemical and biological characteristics of southeastern Minnesota, USA, streams. Journal of Environmental Management 26: 629–641.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steyaert, P., M. Barzman, J.-P. Billaud, H. Brives, B. Hubert, G. Ollivier, and B. Roche. 2007. The role of knowledge and research in facilitating social learning among stakeholders in natural resource management in the French Atlantic coastal wetlands. Environmental Science & Policy 10: 537–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J., and J. Foltz. 2006. Grazing in the dairy state: Pasture use in the Wisconsin dairy industry, 1993–2003. Madison, Wisconsin: Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, G.F. 2004. Is all the world a complex network? Economy and Society 33: 411–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Urry, J. 2004. Small worlds and the new “social physics”. Global Networks 4: 109–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verburg, P.H. 2006. Simulating feedbacks in land use and land cover change model. Landscape Ecology 21: 1171–1183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vondracek, B., K.L. Blann, C.B. Cox, J.F. Nerbonne, K.G. Mumford, B.A. Nerbonne, L.A. Sovell, and J.K.H. Zimmerman. 2005. Land use, spatial scale, and stream systems: Lessons from an agricultural region. Environmental Management 36: 775–791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warner, K.D. 2006. Extending agroecology: Grower participation in partnerships is key to social learning. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 21: 84–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, G.A. 2010. Multifunctional “quality” and rural community resilience. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35: 364–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, G.A. 2007. Multifunctional agriculture: A transition theory perspective. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Winsten, J.R., C.D. Kerchner, A. Richardson, A. Lichau, and J.M. Hyman. 2010. Trends in the Northeast dairy industry: Large-scale modern confinement feeding and management-intensive grazing. Journal of Dairy Science 93: 1759–1769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiskerke, J.S.C., B.B. Bock, M. Stuiver, and H. Renting. 2003. Environmental co-operatives as a new mode of rural governance. Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science 51: 9–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, J.K.H., B. Vondracek, and J.V. Westra. 2003. Agricultural land use effects on sediment loading and fish assemblages in two Minnesota (USA) watersheds. Environmental Management 32: 93–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We recognize the critical support of the National Science Foundation Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (BCS-BE: CNH-0709613) program as well as NIFA through the University of Minnesota. We thank the farm families and community members who shared their experiences with us. We appreciate B. Vondracek and T. Arnold as long term collaborators on this project; A. Slaat for figure preparation; N. Martini for statistical advise; S. Campbell for interviewing assistance; S. Graves, A. Nessel, S. Huerd for logistical support; K. Clower, A. Berland, D. Bonsal, G. Brand, and J. Immich for fieldwork, GIS, intellectual engagement, and team support over the years.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Forest Resources and Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, 115 Green Hall, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Kristen C. Nelson

  2. Environmental Studies, Lafayette College, Quad Drive, Easton, PA, 18042, USA

    Rachel F. Brummel

  3. Department of Agronomy, University of Minnesota, 411 Borlaug Hall, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Nicholas Jordan

  4. Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, 414 Social Sciences, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Steven Manson

Authors
  1. Kristen C. Nelson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rachel F. Brummel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nicholas Jordan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Steven Manson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristen C. Nelson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nelson, K.C., Brummel, R.F., Jordan, N. et al. Social networks in complex human and natural systems: the case of rotational grazing, weak ties, and eastern US dairy landscapes. Agric Hum Values 31, 245–259 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9462-6

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9462-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation