Bridging Agrarianism: The Potential of Value-Added Craft Cider Production to Support Rural Livelihoods in the Pacific Northwest*

Abstract

Against the decades-long trend of aging farmers and farmland consolidation in the United States and Canada, value-added farm production has been pitched as a lifeline to provide viable rural livelihoods for younger generations. How do producers perceive the possibilities and limitations of value-added craft production in supporting agrarian livelihoods? More broadly, how are contemporary structural constraints and cultural shifts shaping new agrarian strategies? This article draws on in-depth interviews and ethnographic data with urban and farm-based cidermakers in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington State, and Oregon). I find that while craft cider has helped buffer some producers against the volatility of selling raw fruit to large commodity markets, the benefits of this niche market do not widely support continued primary production or farm succession. I underscore the emergence of a livelihood strategy I refer to as “bridging agrarianism” among young cidermakers who wish to maintain a connection to agriculture but are shifting away from full-time farming due to lifestyle preferences and economic constraints. Bridging agrarianism is manifest in modest forms of on-site production that carry great symbolic weight. This study provides insight into how current generations of agriculturalists are developing new strategic responses to the political-economic challenges of farming.