Michaela Hoffelmeyer

I am an Assistant Professor of Public Engagement in Agriculture. I recently joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of the Dairy Innovation HUB-funded faculty. As part of this position, I will be conducting dairy-related research on topics such as robotics, labor, market concentration, and alternative farm models in the years to come. I earned my Ph.D. at Penn State University in Rural Sociology with a dual-title in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

My work seeks to understand how various groups access agricultural resources and how structural inequalities influence food production and environmental sustainability. Over the past several years, I have worked with rural and urban women farmers, queer/LGBTQ+ farmers, midscale farms undergoing succession and transfer, and meat processing workers.

I use semi-structured interviews, surveys, and ethnographic immersion to understand farmers’ and laborers’ everyday experiences in agrifood production. I then apply feminist, queer, and labor theories to learn from these daily practices to inform agricultural programming and policy on how to make shifts to support viability, well-being, and sustainability. Most recently, I have worked alongside meat processing workers and managers involved in small-scale production to understand how scale can contribute to laborers’ safety and resiliency in the agrifood system.

I enjoy working with community-based agriculture organizations and welcome collaborations from community members looking to address issues surrounding food, farming, and the environment in their community.