Chapter 19: Cultivating Socially Just Leaders For Agriculture

It is essential for justice and equity to be visibly enacted within in the industry responsible for feeding and clothing the growing global population. Pivotal to that visibility are with the leaders responsible for enacting it. The world is more diverse than ever before, and our challenges are increasingly complex. Impactful leaders acquire the skills needed to meet such challenges directly. Transformative leadership builds those skills by questioning the systems around our lives and work. Through this framework, and, in those questions, find ways to refashion systems toward equity.

Agriculture, as conceptualized in colleges of agriculture in the United States, typically refers to conventional, Eurocentric, and nationalistic views and norms (Martin & Wesolowski, 2018; Murphy, 2007; Persaud et al., 2008; Rouse et al., 2013). Conventional agriculture prioritizes efficiency, scientific breakthrough, and economic vitality (Conway, 2012; Martin, 2016; Murphy, 2007). The conventional paradigm for agriculture dominates both course work and faculty expectations (Martin & Wesolowski, (2018) Further, many students in colleges of agriculture have Eurocentric and nationalist perspectives of agriculture which are typified by beliefs that the western way of life, economy, and culture are superior, casting those of European descent as superior to those of other ancestries; the dominance of Christianity among European immigrants contributed to the superiority of North American agriculture development; and that North American and European conventional agriculture is superior to other regions’ (Persaud et al., 2008; Rouse et al., 2013). These views are embedded in the American psyche, and faculty perpetuate them throughout colleges of agriculture (Persaud et al., 2008; Rouse et al., 2013).