Family farms' resilience under the COVID-19 crisis: Challenges and opportunities with agritourism

Abstract

Family farms play a key role in food production, natural resources stewardship, and economic development in the United States (US). Therefore, family farms' resilience (i.e., their capacity to deal with disturbances or shocks and recover from their negative impacts) is crucial for sustainability goals. The COVID-19 crisis posed several challenges to already strained family farms opening an opportunity to build valuable knowledge on family farm resilience. In this paper, we examine family farms evolving challenges and coping strategies to the COVID-19 crisis through a qualitative longitudinal approach in North Carolina, US. The results indicate family farms perceive change and uncertainty as constants, employ a combination of strategies to ensure diversification and flexibility, and rely on extensive networks to access information and make decisions. By sustaining their operations during the COVID-19 crisis, family farms benefited their communities by expanding consumers' food options and offering recreational services. Yet, to deal with uncertainty, farmers had to embrace risks, sometimes at the expense of personal resilience. Thus, policies to support family farms in times of crisis must be implemented to continue to obtain the benefits they offer to society and promote sustainable livelihoods.