Register

Are we measuring conservation success all wrong? Often, farmer adoption of practices like cover cropping is treated as a simple ‘yes’or ‘no’ check box—but this binary view misses the dynamic reality of farm management. In this session, we’ll move beyond the binary to explore the lived reality of how farmers adopt cover crops. Drawing from interviews with 86farmers across the U.S., we will unpack how producers navigate complex trade-offs and discuss how this understanding can help professionals designmore flexible, effective programs that support durable, whole-farm conservation.

Speaker: Dr. Lauren Hunt
Lauren Hunt is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University and a Gund Institute for Environment Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Vermont. As an interdisciplinary social scientist, she investigates agricultural decision-making and behavior in the context of environmental change and conservation. Her scholarship examines producers’ adaptation strategies, perceptions of environmental risk, and the efficacy of programs and policies across ranching, dairy, and row crop systems.

Presented by the National Wildlife Federation