I grew up in the Army during the Cold War and wanted to know why my Dad was always away at war or why our family was stationed overseas. Both sets of grandparents were rural people and I also wanted to know why their rural lives seemed to be changing so quickly. I found the answers to these questions in Sociology. I became a Rural Sociologist. The great gift of Sociology is that it helps situate people’s lives within larger historical trends – The Sociological Imagination.
Most of my research has focused on the community impacts of the industrialization and globalization of the agrifood system. More recently, I’m working in the area of alternative food systems, especially sustainable and organic agriculture.