Show lamb handling for UA Sheep Production course

Author: Sydney Golding | Major: International and Global Studies | Semester: Spring 2022

My name is Sydney E. Golding, and I am an honors International and Global Studies: Peace, Security, and Human Rights student with a minor in Sustainability. During the Spring of 2022, I completed research for my senior honors thesis project. My department and mentor, Dr. Jared Phillips, are within the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Finding and my switch to the INST program first year was utterly happenstance—a flyer on a table outside the honors college reception. As a professor and my advisor, Dr. Phillips helped me channel a whirlwind of ideas into creating this exploratory passion project. His lessons are challenging in precisely the right way, and I am walking away from this campus a better, more discerning human because of them. After graduation, I will be spending a year in Madrid, Spain, teaching English before attending the University of Sussex for a dual master’s program in Strategic Innovation Management and Sustainable Development.

This project grew from an initial interest in food insecurity. My sustainability focus transitioned from environmental to social throughout college, and I knew I wanted to investigate the social aspects of food production and its producers. It was important to me to center on a sector of animal agriculture because I believe that the pinning of these industries against sustainability and environmentalism has serious negative implications for the success of policy initiatives and our futures. The sheep industry was selected based on its multi-functionality and embeddedness within many traditional and indigenous cultures. In addition to being a professor, Dr. Phillips operates a small sheep farm at home. His insights and guidance during this process were essential for the completion of this study.

A primary objective of this project was the prioritization and amplification of farmers’ voices in academic research. By designing a guided yet open-ended survey, participants were able to assert agency in the direction of further discussion and representation of their experience. The very nature of qualitative data collection is time and labor-intensive. Delays in survey distribution and responses limited the sample size and constricted data processing capabilities and statistical representation. Most UK and US producers were at the height of lambing season when the survey was completed and distributed, which understandably inhibited survey participation. In conjunction with the reliance on informal communication channels, significant limitations were posed on access to farmers. Advanced preparation and fewer constraints on the research timeframe would allow subsequent investigations to address these issues. The greatest challenge for this research was the complex nature of the questions and bystander understanding of the material due to its subjectivity and pronounced interpretation differences. Defining critical assessment terms (i.e., well-being, equity, justice, quality of life, etc.) for an equitable understanding between researchers and participants is essential for more comprehensive and replicable investigations, as well as more expansive demographic data collection, to better explicate assessment representation. Further studies would also benefit from a more robust, experienced research team with greater access to funding and regional sheep associations to aid in connecting with farmers.

Limited and asymmetrical sample sizes between the UK and US did not allow for a generalized understanding of agricultural social system complexities; however, the exploration of farmers’ perceptions of systematic influences proved valuable insight into their social health as sheep farmers. I enrolled in the UA Sheep Production course to address the potential limitation posed by my lack of knowledge and experience with sheep farming. I felt it necessary to comprehend what goes into raising sheep before interpreting the social health of others and making claims about the industry. My experience with that class, and the connections I have made with farmers during this process, established a more profound personal respect and interest in the well-being of farmers.