Table_1_Diversified Farming Systems: Impacts and Adaptive Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, Norway and China.DOCX

The COVID-19 pandemic fully exposed the vulnerability of the global agri-food system to shocks and stresses, highlighting the need for transformation and action to make it more resilient and inclusive. This paper offers a unique insight into the global nature of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining impacts and responses in the agri-food sector within three very distinct contexts, namely the United States, Norway, and China. Focusing on small, diversified farms, the study builds on prior research with the same farmers and support organizations from an on-going collaboration. Firstly, we conducted a short review of policy adaptations to understand how governments, the private sector, non-profit organizations, and communities “stepped up” to provide emergency relief, specialized training, and recovery support for farmers, support that was instrumental in preventing more devastating impacts in all three countries. Secondly, drawing from in-depth interviews with farmers (23) and government and non-governmental support organizations (19), we mapped the vulnerability and resiliency of selected farmers to shocks that severely disrupted traditional supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected on both the negative and positive impacts of the pandemic to farmer inputs, including labor, operations, and markets, how these changed from the initial lockdowns in early 2020 and through 2021, and on farmer adaptive responses to these impacts. In some contexts, innovation and adaptive responses counteracted negative impacts. We saw diversifying markets, catering to consumer safety concerns, switching to direct and e-markets, hiring in more labor or relying on family labor, and switching to high demand crops and products as the most prominent adaptive responses. Farmers who lacked access to information and government programs, in large part because of language, technology and institutional barriers, missed out on pandemic related opportunities and suffered the most. As we enter the post-pandemic new normal it is important to take stock of lessons learned, and to continue to support those initiatives and innovations that were pivotal not only for weathering the storm, but for building a more inclusive and resilient agri-food system in the long-run.

COVID-19大流行（COVID-19 pandemic）充分暴露了全球农业食品系统应对冲击与压力的脆弱性，凸显了推动变革、采取行动以提升其韧性与包容性的迫切需求。本研究通过考察美国、挪威以及中国三个截然不同的语境下农业食品领域的受影响情况与应对举措，为理解COVID-19大流行的全球影响提供了独特视角。本研究聚焦小型多元化农场，依托与同一批农户及支持组织的持续合作项目开展，延续了此前的相关研究基础。其一，我们对政策调整进行了简要梳理，以了解各国政府、私营部门、非营利组织及社区如何“挺身而出”，为农户提供紧急救助、专项培训与复苏支持——此类援助在三个国家均有效阻止了更为严重的负面影响。其二，基于对23名农户以及19家政府与非政府支持组织的深度访谈，我们绘制了选定农户在COVID-19大流行期间应对严重冲击传统供应链的冲击时的脆弱性与韧性图谱。研究收集了大流行对农户生产投入（包括劳动力、运营与市场）的正负两方面影响数据，涵盖这些影响从2020年初初始封锁阶段至2021年的变化情况，以及农户针对这些影响采取的适应性应对举措。在部分语境中，创新与适应性应对抵消了负面影响。我们观察到，拓展市场渠道、契合消费者安全诉求、转向直销与电子营销、新增雇工或依赖家庭劳动力、转而种植高需求作物与产品，是最为突出的适应性应对策略。部分农户因语言、技术与制度壁垒难以获取信息与政府项目支持，因此错失了大流行相关的机遇，遭受的损失也最为严重。当我们步入后疫情时代的“新常态”，总结经验教训，并持续支持那些不仅助力渡过难关，更能长期构建更具包容性与韧性的农业食品系统的举措与创新，至关重要。