From context to claim: understanding fairness perceptions in the agrifood system

Introduction Structural changes in the U.S. agrifood system that have exacerbated real and perceived power asymmetries in agricultural markets have intensified farmers’ concerns about fairness. Understanding how farmers perceive and evaluate fairness is essential for addressing these concerns and designing more equitable systems. This paper evaluates a framework for assessing fairness claims by examining the root basis of expectations—such as promises, rights, norms, or past patterns—and asks whether a systematic and intersubjectively assessable approach to evaluating fairness can inform agrifood governance and foster fairer conditions across the food chain. Methods Using a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, we first conducted in-depth interviews with farmers to identify how they conceptualized fairness and unfairness, the situations they perceived as unfair, and the reasoning they attributed to such judgments, including whether their narratives contained identifiable root bases of expectations. We then developed a structured survey instrument, grounded in these qualitative insights, and administered it to a broader sample of farmers to assess agreement on the likely root basis of expectations in various fairness-related scenarios. Results Interview data showed that farmers’ accounts of fairness and unfairness frequently contain identifiable root bases of expectations. Survey findings indicate that farmers can infer and often agree on the underlying basis of others’ expectations, especially when unfairness is perceived and when expectations are grounded in clear past patterns, explicit commitments, or widely shared norms. Discussion These findings provide validation that fairness claims can be systematically and intersubjectively assessed by examining the evidentiary basis of expectations, without requiring consensus on a single ethical definition of fairness. This suggests that conceptions of fairness, operationalized through expectations and their root bases, may be useful in addressing power asymmetries in agrifood marketplaces and in informing new governance mechanisms aimed at sustaining farmer participation and fostering more equitable agrifood systems.