Agricultural Involvement: An Analysis of the Oklahoma House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee Members
Abstract
Agricultural representation in legislators is decreasing. Because of this, many policy decisions are made from a consumer's standpoint verses a producer's. The purpose of this two-manuscript, interpretive study was to determine the informational sources of Oklahoma House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee members in relation to making decisions about agricultural issues. The goal was to determine how they obtain information and determine credible sources and to conduct an agriculture-specific demographic analysis of the committee. The research questions included the following for the first manuscript: What are the agriculture-specific demographics of the study's participants? What agricultural organizations have the participants been involved in? What is the agricultural background and involvement of the participants? What is the agricultural background of the participants' family members? What are the participants' thoughts about becoming a member of the committee? The research questions for the second manuscript included the following: Where do participants obtain agricultural information? What or who do the participants consider credible sources for agricultural information? How often do the participants seek agricultural information? The Two-Step Flow Theory was used to analyze how information is transferred. A semi-structured, one-on-one interview was the method of data collection to allow for specific topics to be discussed but with interviewee freedom for continued elaboration and more detailed conversation. The results showed that Oklahoma House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee members are multi-generational agriculturalists but did not grow up on farms. They prefer to obtain information face-to-face from people above all other sources.
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- OSU Theses [15752]