NOTES ON THE STATE OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE: Young Farmers and “The Farm” After the 1980s Farm Crisis by Katje Armentrout A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of American Studies West Lafayette, Indiana May 2019 2 THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL STATEMENT OF COMMITTEE APPROVAL Dr. Sharra Vostral, Chair Department of History Dr. Rayvon Fouché Department of American Studies Dr. Shannon McMullen Department of American Studies Dr. Laura Zanotti Department of Anthropology Approved by: Dr. Rayvon Fouché Head of the Graduate Program 3 Dedicated to the memory of my Gram, a simple, hardworking, God-loving farmer’s wife, whom I still miss (and think of) every day. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As my primary advisor, I owe Dr. Sharra Vostral my sincerest appreciation for the continuous support of my research. From our initial meeting in my first semester at Purdue, I knew that your contributions to my work would be extremely significant in terms of your personal attachment to the geographical location of my study. Over these five years, I have also discovered how you have encouraged me to reconsider some of my personal biases and push me outside of my boundaries, while also averting any of my self-doubt. Your knowledgeable guidance, patience, and generosity has allowed me to work in my own way, while also nudging me to completion. You stimulated me to not only grow as a researcher, but also become more comfortable as an independent thinker. I could not have imagined a friendlier advisor and mentor. Above all, I hope I’ve made an institutional document out of this dissertation. To Dr. Rayvon Fouché: Thank you for believing in me from the beginning and for pushing me to pursue something new. Throughout the writing process, you have provided ample assistance by offering constructive feedback and administered practical direction since the initial conceptualization of this project. Thanks also for asking the tough questions, especially when I was unsure of the answers. Most especially, I’m so very grateful for all the stories you’ve shared about your home in the Upper Peninsula, questions you’ve asked me about growing up in Michigan, and reminding me there is a place for informal exchanges in higher education. Thanks to Dr. Shannon McMullen for the many insightful readings that you provided and pressing me about topics such as sustainability and issues of class, as well as being attentive to the struggles some first-generation academics face. Moreover, your gracious personality and caring demeanor have made me realize there is a place for me (if I want it) in the higher 5 education profession. Additionally, the faculty/student gatherings that you have hosted in your home were welcome retreats at the end of each semester. Also, Dr. Laura Zanotti, thank you for being inclined to participate on a dissertation committee for a student which you had not worked with previously. When I met you while presenting at the American Studies Symposium during the beginning stages of this research, I knew that I wanted to invite you to contribute to this project. Since that time, you have become much more than an additional reader. For your aid in the development of my ideas, pointing me in the direction of various readings, and assisting me in the ethnographic component of this research – I am extremely grateful. Thank you. My express gratitude also goes out to several faculty members in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University (Dr. Susan Curtis, Dr. Bill Mullen, Dr. Monica Trieu, and Dr. Venetria Patton) whom I have worked with in the past few years for showing me what it means to be dedicated, to Dr. Wynne Wright from the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University for her willingness to participate in the oversight of an independent reading course which led me further down the path of this scholarly work, and to Dr. Laura Cochrane from Central Michigan University’s Anthropology Department for your continued support and guidance. I also had a great pleasure in working with Dr. Mike Morrison from Purdue’s History Department. Simply put, I could not have asked for a better supervisor for my first teaching assistantship appointment – may he rest in peace. Also, thanks so much to Brandi Plantenga for all your support, answers to questions, smiles, laughs, tears, shared meals, and friendship. You go above and beyond what a program secretary should – you’re the best! While I have said the same for others in this list, it is literally true that this dissertation could not have been completed without the participation of so many producers/growers and 6 farmers market managers across the state of Michigan. Thank you for opening your offices, homes, barns, farmlands, market booths, orchards, sugarbushes, and busy schedules to a curious researcher. Above all, I thank you for your extreme kindnesses, willingness to teach, help, and answer questions, as well as allowing me to experience your version of “the farm.” In the writings that follow, I hope that I depict a proper representation of your stories. In addition, this dissertation was made partially possible by the support of the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan through the award of the Bordin-Gillette Researcher Travel Fellowship. Thank you to lead archivist, Malgosia for answering my many questions regarding the collections and pointing me in directions that I had not thought of yet. Thanks also to library secretary, Meg for guiding me through the paperwork filing process. Without your assistance, this research would have been entirely impossible. Most importantly, special mentions go out to the friendly faces of the librarian staff in Ann Arbor (Caitlynn, Caroline, Emily, Karen, and Michael) who did all the heavy box lifting. Thanks also to Director Gary Skory at the Midland County Historical Society and tour guides Lisa and Joyce from Preservation Detroit. You were all so informative on each of your locations and your assistance was invaluable in the completion of this project. Special thanks to The Gaarders’ (Renee, Andrew, and Gigi) and The Horrocks’ (Stephen, Melissa, and Harper) – your smiling faces and shining personalities have made me feel at home in Indiana. Most especially, to Renee, your friendship has meant so much to me from that first encounter in the Fall of 2014. All the sushi rolls, candy, and juicy gossip sessions could not be replaced with anyone better. And to Steve, thanks for being an incredible office mate, listening to my sometimes-terrible jokes and always-rambling stories, showing me kindnesses beyond measure, and for your shared devotion to Little Debbie Swiss Rolls – I probably still owe you a 7 few. Likewise, to my many other colleagues near and far: Rachel Bonini, Jaime Hough, Annagul Yaryyeva, Jennifer Sdunzik, Sascha Angermann, Anshul Mishra, Jonathan Freeman, Michelle Lee, Megan Williams, Andrea Adomako, Jonas Ecke, Ivan Jackson, Wes Bishop, Michelle Martindale, Kera Lovell, Joe Morrison, Aria Halliday, Lilly Marsh, Boyd Smith, Christopher Munt, Kadari Taylor-Watson, Keturah Nix, Bethany Scettrini-Van Arsdale, Ryan Schnurr, Esme Barniskis, Ariel Smith, Malik Raymond, and Maria Mears – thank you for your encouragement, reading suggestions, offered feedback, proof reading skills, deadline extension requests, ability to be incredibly and refreshingly funny, innumerable conversations about food, hipsters, television, and music, and for generally, being a collection of people I feel lucky to know. Lastly, I would like to recognize several people in my personal life who have inspired and supported me in their own unique ways. This is also, for you – Mom, Dad, Sarah, Roger, Rose, Aunt Vivian, Rachael and Drew Potter, Kurt Eichinger, Alan Cain, and Gremlin – I love you all more than I can put into words! Most importantly, Jenny, I could not have made it this far in life without you. Thanks for being my personal chef, housekeeper, and chauffer, person to make me laugh the most (even if it is usually at me), phone call away confidante, Google chat, Klondike eating twin, and so much more. There is no better friend than a sister…I am you and you are me. 24/7/365. #OAC4L. 8 PREFACE As early as I can remember, my family always referred to it as “The Farm” – the 153-acre piece of property where my Gram lived in a one-story brick home with a large, red barn nestled into a hillside, a decaying corncrib, a rusty tin-roofed granary, and a thriving vegetable garden with as many raspberries and strawberries a growing girl required. Even though I know there were scattered agricultural relics across the property, such as a 1950 Farmall M series tractor, an out of commission hay-baler, a discarded plow, and coils of fencing, I do not remember a time in my childhood when my immediate family planted or harvested the fields there. In the early 1980s, I’ve been told that the last of the cattle were sold off or slaughtered mainly due to the passing of my grandfather; yet, also in part because of the Farm Crisis – after which my parents could not see their future in agriculture and took up occupations away from the property. However, our family would always live near The Farm to hunt, harvest firewood, and allow some Amish neighbors to till the land and plant crops. Over the years, I became interested in sustainable lifestyle practices and grew to respect farmers for the hard work required of them to survive in rural America and a profession that I realized was steadily shrinking in population. When I graduated high school at the turn of the millennium, I recall an influential teacher continually repeating, “Get out of here! This is a great place to raise a family but leaving is the best thing.