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I’m writing a book about farming and farm policy in the 1970s and 1980s, and I’d like to hear from anyone who was close to it:
- Farmers and their families, whatever you grew or raised
- People who lived in a farming community without farming themselves: merchants, truckers, teachers, mechanics, bank and extension staff, anyone who was around town in those years
- People who grew up on a farm and did not go into farming
- People in rural communities where farming was not the main industry: timber, mining, manufacturing, tourism, services
- People who worked on farm policy or in farm organizations: Congress or the Department of Agriculture, state agencies, cooperatives and commodity groups, agricultural lenders, and the reporters who covered those years
Any crop or kind of operation: corn, wheat, cotton, rice, soybeans, tobacco, peanuts, sugar, dairy, cattle, or something else. If you were close to any of this and don’t see yourself on the list, get in touch anyway.
Signing up doesn’t commit you to anything. It tells me you’re open to hearing from me, and we can work out from there whether a conversation makes sense.
What’s involved
How long. One conversation, about 60 to 90 minutes.
Where. In person, by video call (Zoom), or over the phone, whichever suits you. I travel for these where I can.
A thank-you. A $25 honorarium for your time.
Recording. Due to the number of interviews I am planning to conduct, I will ask to audio record our interview for reliability and accuracy in later stages of the project. Quotation protocol (by name, by pseudonym, or other options) will be discussed first when we speak.
Voluntary throughout. You can skip any question, and you can stop at any point.