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Perspectives on Regional and Enterprise Marginality: Dairying in Michigan's North Country 1
Author(s) -
Schwarzweller Harry K.,
Davidson Andrew P.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1997.tb00649.x
Subject(s) - restructuring , barn , dairy industry , agriculture , rural area , peninsula , scale (ratio) , agricultural economics , economic growth , economics , business , geography , political science , finance , chemistry , food science , cartography , archaeology , law
Dairy farmers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, an economically marginal rural region, are encumbered by contextual constraints that are not similarly faced by their downstate counterparts. However, this does not mean that they are any less ambitious or less efficient in dealing with the resources available to them. Indeed, dairying and similar small‐scale economic enterprises in this and other marginal contexts may be quite competitive and sustainable if appropriate sociopolitical supports are instituted and, in the case of dairying, if marketing orders and regulatory policies are formulated and implemented in light of their impact upon the economic growth and viability of the wider region. To explore this issue, we consider the situations, basic characteristics, and restructuring trends over time of dairy farms in three upstate localities as compared with that of a downstate dairy farming community.