Fairness Perceptions and Expectations in Agriculture : Lessons from the Case of Dicamba

A sustainable and equitable food and agricultural system cannot exist unless market participants perceive they are participating in a fair marketplace. Because claims of unfairness are made when expectations are violated, assessing claims of unfairness require that we understand how, where and why people create expectations. In this paper, we examine how farmers’ expectations are shaped by focusing specifically on the issue of dicamba use in agricultural areas. Its use is controversial, thus making the case of dicamba ideal for exploring the expectations farmers have about fair treatment and for linking these expectations to unfairness claims. We conducted interviews with a diverse array of Missouri farmers in 2019-2020 using a snowball sampling technique. We report the findings of how their expectations for fair treatment are and how they are shaped, using the case of dicamba as a point of focus. We then use our framework to link unfairness claims to expectations farmers believe have been violated and to assess the reasonableness of their expectations. Our work could lead to fairness considerations being incorporated into competition or contract policy