Why I Started Listening
I began with history.
While researching farmer life and federal agricultural policy in the early twentieth century, I kept encountering farmers as categories: producers, voters, recipients of policy, parts of an economic system.
I wanted to know what happened when the farmer stopped being a category and became a person sitting across from me.
So I began traveling through Utah and Texas, speaking with farmers, ranchers, and agricultural workers about the changes they were experiencing firsthand.
What began as a project about farming soon became a larger inquiry into land, water, markets, labor, policy, and the conditions that make agriculture possible.
How I Work
Farmers’ Voices combines oral history, field interviews, field observation, historical research, and comparative analysis.
The interviews are not treated as complete or objective accounts of agriculture. Each participant speaks from a particular position, place, and experience.
Where possible, I read those accounts alongside field observations and other contextual sources, while distinguishing between what a participant experienced, how they interpreted it, and what can be independently established.
The goal is not to find one representative “farmer’s voice.”
It is to understand what becomes visible when different voices are placed beside one another.
About The Sources
Interview material on this site has been edited for length and clarity.
Direct quotations are used only where the wording can be reliably preserved. Uncertain figures, technical claims, names, or details are not silently filled in.
The limits of a source are part of the research.
Farms & Field Sites
Farmers’ Voices was shaped by conversations with farmers, ranchers, and agricultural workers connected to the following farms and organizations.
Special thanks to everyone who shared their time, experiences, and perspectives with this project.
Splendor Valley Farms
176 E Boulderville Road, Oakley, Utah 84055
3 Springs Land & Livestock
580 W Weber Canyon Rd, Oakley, UT 84055
Red Acre Farm
2322 West 4375 North, Cedar City, UT
Yegua Creek Farms
4600 County Road 467, Elgin, Texas
Simple Promise Farms
263 Roemer Rd Elgin, TX 78621
FARMERS’ VOICES
The Farms Are The Field Sites.
The Voices Are The Evidence.
Farmers’ Voices uses oral history and comparative field research to examine how people working in agriculture understand and respond to the ecological, economic, and institutional conditions shaping their work.
Field Interviews · Oral History · Field Observation · Historical Research · Source Criticism · Comparative Analysis