Sustaining Certification: The Formation of Agrarian Identities, Knowledge, and Value in British Columbia's Pemberton Valley

Abstract

Through a focused ethnographic study of Pemberton, British Columbia, this thesis explores how farmers negotiate agency, value, knowledge, and identity within structures of certification and regulation. Based on three months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the summer of 2025 amongst two distinct communities of farmers—small, direct-market organic farms and larger, generational seed potato growers—this research demonstrates how networks of growers, inspectors, scientists, and consumers rely on trust and informal exchanges to sustain agrarian knowledge and value.