Abstract
The words we use define who we are and how we think about the world around us. Our language as we discuss problems of agricultural nonpoint source water pollution conveys our images and meanings of being a good farmer and socially acceptable farming practices. Re-languaging the conservation message and increased efforts to give consistent messages are important strategies in developing a culture of conservation and changing social norms about the value and urgency of protecting vulnerable land and water resources.
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NRCS technical specialist, 04040308.
For the purposes of this paper, we will use the term “re-language,” since it occurred organically during a listening session. The use of “language” or “re-language” is better identified as “discourse,” the institutionalized way of thinking that is realized or made real through language. “Discourse” defines socially acceptable speech. Discourse is not limited to words but include all of the signs utilized by a society to communicate and direct our way of seeing issues and giving meaning to our actions and ourselves.
Bakhtin, M. M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Discourse occurs whenever two or more people are gathered together around a given idea or social issue such as farming or agriculture.
Bakhtin, M. M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Voloshinov, V. N., Matejka, L., and Titunik I. R. 1986. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Myerhoff, B. G. 1992. “Life History among the Elderly: Performance, Visibility, and Remembering.” P. 232 in Remembered Lives: The Work of Ritual, Storytelling, and Growing Older edited by M. Kaminsky. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Basso, E. 1990. “Introduction: Discourse as an Integrating Concept in Anthropology and Folklore Research.” Pp. 3-10 in Native Latin American Cultures Through Their Discourse edited by Ellen Basso. Bloomington, IN: Folklore Institute, Indiana University. Goffman, E. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Irvine, J. T. 1996. “Shadow Conversations: The Indeterminacy of Participant Roles.” Pp. 131–159 in Natural Histories of Discourse edited by M. Silverstein and G. Urban. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Graham, L. R. 2000. “The One Who Created the Sea: Tellings, Meanings and Inter-Textuality in the Translation of Xavante Narrative.” Pp. 252–271 in Translating Native American Verbal Art: Ethnopoetics and Ethnography of Speaking edited by K. Sammons and J. Sherzer. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Mannheim, Bruce, and Dennis Tedlock. 1995. “Introduction.” P. 7 in The Dialogic Emergence of Culture edited by D. Tedlock and B. Mannheim. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Drewal, Margaret Thumpson. 1992. Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Farmer, Keokuk County listening session, keo020108.
This group consisted of Iowa State University Extension agricultural professionals (such as field agronomists and program specialists), NRCS District Conservationists, watershed coordinators, teachers, county naturalists, and local Soil and Water Conservation District commissioners.
This study was funded through the Iowa Learning Farms program. Heartland Regional Water Coordination Initiative paid for the transcription of the listening sessions.
This was an area lawyer who was attending the meeting with his farmer father. Fay020808.
It can be argued that this ambiguity does not rest with the part of the industry that promotes new products such as higher yielding seed, new chemical applications, or the latest in equipment.
NRCS technical specialist, 0210908.
IDNR field specialist, 03021609.
Aldo Leopold in “The Land Ethic,” a chapter of A Sand County Almanac, writes: “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.” Leopold felt it was generally agreed that more conservation education was needed; however, quantity and content were up for debate. Almost 60 years later, we would have to agree with him; Leopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. New York: Oxford University Press; Leopold, L. B. (ed). 1993. Round River; From the Journals of Aldo Leopold (Pp. 156–157). New York: Oxford University Press.
NRCS technical specialists, 02010908.
Two farmers, Fay020208.
IDNR field specialist, 05022009.
In particular, it seems that IDNR, IDALS, NRCS, and ISU Extension need to work harder at listening to each other. Limited research and program dollars often place these groups in competition vying for power, credit, and dollars, with each group thinking they have the “best” solution for the state.
For instance, Toyota has a commercial where they claim their cars are “green” and show an image of a car made of leaves and branches gently decomposing into the earth, eliminating their ecological footprint. This message is false and dangerous, implying that buying a Toyota is all one needs to do to “save the planet.”
We were aided in this section on ILF from members of our communications team: Jerry DeWitt, Paul Lasley, Carol Brown, John Lundvall, Jamie Benning, Xiaobo Zhou, and Jean McGuire.
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Appendix: Listening Session Prompts
Appendix: Listening Session Prompts
The Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) Program, in conjunction with Iowa State University Extension (ISUE), focuses on conservation management systems and water quality. To develop education and outreach to improve our soil and water quality, we need to get a better understanding of current practices and the real issues facing conservation. You will help us by sharing your experiences and opinions about conservation practices in your area. On [date], we will be at your area meeting to discuss these questions. Your participation is voluntary and the information you provide will be summarized by soil region so that your individual opinions are not disclosed.
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1.
What tillage and related soil conservation management changes have you seen on the land during (given period?): Positive? Negative?
Do you think, in general, we are moving toward increased or decreased implementation of soil conservation practices?
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2.
Why do you think these changes have occurred?
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3.
What are the top three factors you think farmers base their land management decisions upon?
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4.
If you had a “conservation wish list,” what changes or enhancements to existing policy would you like to see implemented in your district, area, across Iowa, and why?
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5.
Can we prioritize those wishes? Who do we need to engage and how? How should the ILF team move forward in our campaign to build a “Culture of Conservation?”
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6.
Is there an effective way to “target” buffer strip and/or wetland reserve cost-share payments or land set-aside payments to maximize water quality enhancement?
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7.
What do you think are the characteristics of landowners and watershed residents’ conservation ethic that would get us to better water quality and soil protection? That is, what does a preferred conservation ethic look like and what are the subsequent actions that occur because of it? Give an example of a farmer in your district that you think has a conservation ethic you’d like to see replicated. What does he/she do?
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8.
What kinds of things do you do in your work to foster a conservation ethic in landowners/farm managers you work with? What kinds of tools or strategies would help you do this more effectively?
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Comito, J., Helmers, M. (2011). The Language of Conservation. In: Wright Morton, L., Brown, S. (eds) Pathways for Getting to Better Water Quality: The Citizen Effect. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7282-8_6
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