Who Framed Climate Change? Identifying the How and Why of Iowa Corn Farmers’ Framing of Climate Change

Abstract

AbstractAgricultural production systems both contribute to and are threatened by climate change. Farmers could reduce agriculture's contributions and vulnerability to climate change by adopting mitigation and adaption practices. A growing number of studies have begun to examine developed countries farmers’ beliefs related to climate change and how they affect farmers’ support for adopting these practices. To build on this work, this analysis uses qualitative data from 53 Iowa corn farmers to offer a nuanced depiction of the farmers’ perception of non‐anthropogenic climate change. Goffman's concept of framing, with contributions from more recent social movement scholarship, is used to reveal how farmers are constructing climate change as largely a result of inevitable ‘natural cycles’, the effect this has on their support for mitigation and adaptation and to explore why this particular framing resonates with them.