# Day 1: Starting with a Simple Question

Today, I started thinking seriously about my research topic. I wanted to work on something that combined agriculture—something practical and important—with human behavior and society. Then one idea really stuck with me: what if crowd psychology and misinformation were hurting farmers directly?

It might sound dramatic, but with all the fake news and rumors spreading online these days, especially through platforms like TikTok or Instagram, I wondered: how do farmers deal with the consequences when people believe those lies?

So I started digging. I found a paper titled “Misinformation in U.S. Food and Agriculture: A Policy Analysis of Impacts and Recommended Solutions.” It discussed the policy implications of misinformation in American agriculture, but as I read through it, I realized that it lacked certain things. There weren’t any in-depth interviews with farmers or experimental data showing how misinformation actually changed consumer behavior or market prices. It felt a bit distant from the people who are truly affected.

That’s when I thought—maybe I could go deeper. Maybe I could build something that focuses on actual harm to farmers, not just theoretical discussions.

For the site tree, see the [root Markdown](https://slashpage.com/grace-kim.md).