ABSTRACT
Agriculture in New York State (NYS) is impacted by the growing frequency of extreme weather events and shifting seasonality attributed to climate change. This chapter draws from qualitative fieldwork in Central NYS, asking: how are agricultural actors thinking about and implementing adaptation in this region? First, I situate climate adaptation, within a genealogy of the “adaptation” concept, to characterize agricultural adaptation. Then, I offer a brief history of the agricultural landscape of the Finger Lakes. Drawing from my fieldwork I describe different imaginaries of climate adaptation, offering a tripartite typology of adaptation—adjustment, everyday, and transformative—across different agricultural actors. Ultimately, I elucidate the potential political limitations of agricultural adaptation on one hand, such as depoliticization of climate change in service to a particular agrarian status quo, and also its possibilities, such as a systemic farm-based approach to climate change.
