Pesticide resistance and community collapse: The vicious cycle of rural disintegration and agricultural expansion

Pesticide resistance has become a major problem in the United States and industrialized agriculture more broadly, impacting yield, profitability, conservation, and more. Solutions to the issue continue to evade farmers, researchers, and manufacturers. Evidence indicates that multiple management strategies are necessary, and Integrated Pest Management has been extensively researched and promoted. However, adoption remains reactive and minimal. A community approach shows promise to overcome these barriers and manage pesticide resistance at a landscape scale. Collaboration among farmers, extension educators, and the broader community of stakeholders has significant potential for addressing pesticide resistance, and collective action is a critical alternative to and partner for technological solutions. However, research from a pest management program in Iowa, which operates in and alongside several communities throughout the state, has found that not all communities respond to collective management approaches in the same way. While some community-based initiatives have thrived, others have failed to flourish despite significant outreach and support. We present findings from community pilot projects with the Iowa Pesticide Resistance Management Program, using social capital and entrepreneurial social infrastructure to interpret why several communities have struggled to coordinate despite efforts from extension educators and other stakeholders to support collective management. Finally, we discuss implications for future management including suggestions for how researchers, extension educators, and the stakeholder community can build capacity to manage collective problems. • Barriers to community-based pesticide resistance management investigated in Iowa. • Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure framing is used to analyze qualitative data. • Communities struggled with low social capital, including weak horizontal networks. • COVID-19 and rural community decline are major factors preventing collaboration.