Agricultural extension in the southeastern United States and Colombia

This preliminary fieldwork will allow me to assess site feasibility in Georgia, North Carolina, and Colombia for an ethnography of agricultural intermediaries and will shape my future dissertation project and course of studies. The research seeks to expand understandings of extension, an agricultural development model characterized by top-down dissemination of university-based research. Studying how extension employees navigate between their bureaucratic organizations and the farmers they serve -- noting who is considered an expert, how knowledge and technology are produced, and who is involved in the process (and under what circumstances) -- has potential implications for a more just food system.