| This dissertation reports an in-depth qualitative study of the experiences, paradoxes, and tensions that constrain and enable small family farms (less than 100 acres) in the southeast Ohio Appalachian region. The southeast Ohio farmers have formed an agricultural community that creates a strong local food system and boasts one of the best farmer's markets in the nation. Contrary to national agricultural statistics, which highlight the declining number of farmers, I examine the lives, interactions, and experiences of farming families in an area where the number of farmers is growing. Through extensive research and relying on the theoretical framework of Dewey (1927), I provide an organizational communication analysis of informal organizational and community organizing.;This dissertation analyzes the organizing practices of area farmers shaping the local food economy and explores how these farming families negotiate tensions and paradoxes inherent to family farms, which serve as sites for both agriculture production and family homes. Through studying organizational vocational and anticipatory socialization (Jablin, 1987), processes of organizational identification (Cheney, 1983), and non-traditional organizational structures (Harter & Krone, 2001), I examine the unique local food system made by family farmers' informal organizational structure(s) in southeast Ohio Appalachia and their organizing practices in the name of 'good food.';The findings of this study conclude that farmers in the Appalachian area organize themselves in a very successful manner, yet outside of traditional and alternative understandings of organizational structure and organizational socialization. The results of this study revolve around five main themes: the democratization of farming, the politics of family farming, farming as occupation and identity, the contested meaning of 'good food,' and the role community plays in thinking globally while acting locally.;Results of the analysis highlight tensions created by the presence of the government in the regulation of farming, the inescapable political statements made by farmers due to their growing methods, the socialization of and identity into the farming occupation, the similarities and differences of the Appalachia area compared to the slow food movement, the trials, tribulations, and experiences of farming families in the quest to grow, sell, and consume good food, the farmers' approach to food as a social movement, and the role family farmers play in relation to the neighboring community, town, county, state, and nation.;I argue that this farming community succeeds without a formal or recognizably alternative organizational structure (see Harter & Krone, 2001), and more is left to learn about how these populations informally organize themselves around social and environmental movements. Practical implications for these farming families, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are also discussed. |
