Abstract
Land tenure relations have both social and environmental implications, ranging from potential power issues to land stewardship. Drawing upon survey data of landowners collected in the Great Lakes Basin of the U.S., this study builds upon existing research by examining absentee landlords of agricultural land—a vastly understudied but growing category of landowners. By furthering analysis on gender dynamics in the landlord-tenant relationship, the study findings augment Gilbert and Beckley’s (Rural Sociology, 1993) suggestion that subordinate landlord-dominant tenant relationships may be a pattern and contribute to understanding the nuances that co-ownership potentially plays in these relationships.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Absentee landlords are defined in this paper as those who own agricultural property but do not reside on or operate it. This category includes retired farmers who have moved from the land and lease to others, those who inherit agricultural land, and those who buy agricultural land for recreational or investment purposes. For purposes of our paper, absentee landlords are defined as living out of the county in which their agricultural land resides.
The larger study involved absentee landowners, who may or may not be renting their land. Therefore, we use the term “landowners” for the initial part of the study description.
A descriptive study of the outreach project and analysis on the sample as a whole is provided elsewhere (Petrzelka et al. 2009).
Non-operator landowners of agricultural land comprise 51 percent of landowners in the state of Michigan, 40 percent in Wisconsin, and 44 percent in New York (AELOS 1999).
Including only those living out of county is consistent with Constance et al.’s (1996) delineation of absentee landlords.
This scale was logged to correct for skewed patterns to retain variability in individual responses and maintain comparability with analyses in published research. Slightly more than one-fourth of absentee landlords reported engaging in one or more of the management decisions, while two and a half percent reported involvement in all four activities. None of the respondents indicated a particular activity was a joint decision between landlord and tenant.
Inheritance of land may be interpreted several ways, an event either occurring when the land is passed on to children, or with the death of a spouse. Unfortunately, we did not delineate specific types of inheritance in the survey.
Models were also estimated including dummy variables for each county (available upon request). Results are robust across alternate specifications. To maintain sample sizes, pooled models are presented.
Abbreviations
- AELOS:
-
Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey
- FSA:
-
Farm Service Agency
References
Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey. 1999. Washington, DC: National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
Carolan, M.S. 2005. Barriers to the adoption of sustainable agriculture on rented land: An examination of contesting social fields. Rural Sociology 70: 387–413.
Census of Agriculture. 2007. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/. Accessed 10 September 2010.
Constance, D.H., J.S. Rikoon, and J.C. Ma. 1996. Landlord involvement in environmental decision making on rented Missouri cropland: Pesticide use and water quality issues. Rural Sociology 61: 577–605.
Dillman, D. 2000. Mail and internet surveys: The tailored design method, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley.
Duffy, M. 2008. Farmland ownership and tenure in Iowa 2007. Iowa State University Extension PM 1983 Revised.
Eells, J.C. 2008. The land, it’s everything: Women farmland owners and the institution of agricultural conservation in the U.S. Midwest. PhD dissertation, Department of Agricultural Education, Iowa State University.
Effland, A.B., D.M. Rogers, and V. Grim. 1993. Women as agricultural landowners: What do we know about them? Agricultural History 67: 235–261.
Gilbert, J., and T.M. Beckley. 1993. Ownership and control of farmland: Landlord-tenant relations in Wisconsin. Rural Sociology 58: 569–579.
Gilbert, J., and C.K. Harris. 1984. Changes in type, tenure, and concentration of U.S. farmland owners. Rural Sociology and Development 1: 135–160.
Great Lakes Commission. n.d. Water pollution in the Great Lakes. http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/pollution/water/water2.html. Accessed 12 February 2009.
Harris, M. 1974. Entrepreneurship in agriculture. Agricultural Law Center. Monograph 12. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa.
Harvey, D. 1982. The limits to capital. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Huffman, W.E. and K. Fukunaga. 2008. Sustainable land use: landlord-tenant contracting in the United States of America. NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 55: 379–396.
Mooney, P. 1983. Towards a class analysis of Midwestern agriculture. Rural Sociology 48: 563–584.
Neocosmos, M. 1986. Marx’s third class: Capitalist landed property and capitalist development. Journal of Peasant Studies 13: 5–44.
Petrzelka, P., T. Buman, and J. Ridgely. 2009. Engaging absentee landowners in conservation practice decisions: A descriptive study of an understudied group. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 64: 94A–99A.
Rickson, S.T., R.E. Rickson, and D. Burch. 2006. Women and sustainable agriculture. In Rural gender relations: Issues, case studies, ed. B. Beck, and S. Shortall, 119–135. Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK: CABI Publishing.
Rogers, D.M., and A.M. Vandeman. 1993. Women as farm landlords: does gender affect environmental decision making on leased land? Rural Sociology 58: 560–568.
Sachs, C.E. 1996. Gendered fields: rural women, agriculture and the environment. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Salamon, S. 1992. Prairie patrimony. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Salamon, S. 1993. Culture and agricultural land tenure. Rural Sociology 58: 580–598.
Salamon, S., and A.M. Keim. 1979. Land ownership and women’s power in a Midwestern farming community. Journal of Marriage and Family 39: 109–119.
Shortall, S. 1999. Women and farming: Property and power. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Soule, M.J., A. Tegene, and K.D. Wiebe. 2000. Land tenure and the adoption of conservation practices. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 82: 993–1005.
Trauger, A., C. Sachs, M. Barbercheck, N.E. Kiernan, K. Brasier, and J. Findeis. 2008. Agricultural education: Gender identity and knowledge exchange. Journal of Rural Studies 24: 432–439.
Wells, M.J. 1987. Sharecropping in the United States. In Farm work and fieldwork, ed. M. Chibnik, 211–243. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Wells, B.L. 2003. Women and the land 1(1). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Extension.
Whatmore, S. 1991. Farming women: Gender, work and family enterprise. London: Macmillan Academic and Professional, Ltd.
Acknowledgments
Funding for this project was provided by the Great Lakes Protection Fund. Special thanks to Agren, Inc., Jason Konefal and the reviewers and editor for their comments on previous drafts, and to all the landowners who shared their time and information with us.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Petrzelka, P., Marquart-Pyatt, S. Land tenure in the U.S.: power, gender, and consequences for conservation decision making. Agric Hum Values 28, 549–560 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-011-9307-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-011-9307-0