ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the changing context for agricultural research and its implications for institutional change, and explores certain epistemological considerations and the role of agricultural research in a democratic society. The development of a research unit on organic farming within US Agency for International Development represents a significant change in policy. Large percentages of all age cohorts of agricultural scientists come from farm backgrounds. In addition to scientific or paradigmatic criteria for problem choice, administrative directives, political commitments, and personal avocations are among the other factors that play a role. Scientists overwhelmingly emphasize the creation of disciplinary knowledge and the increase of agricultural productivity as the most important goals for agricultural research. In short, agricultural research and the land-grant/US Department of Agriculture system can be a force for the maintenance and improvement of democracy by encouraging greater participation in research decision making both within the scientific community and with the various publics it serves.
