Not necessarily averse as much as wary. Like right now, I'm having trouble making in roads on specific techniques for growing this particular thing I'd like to grow because there are very few companies that have cracked it and spent hundreds of thousands or millions in R&D in order to figure it out, so they are understandably not overly enthusiastic about disclosing the entire setup.
But you'll see protection mindsets at the local level too. Neighbors will lie about which seed they used, how much fertilizer, yield, etc, but not always. Like, someone who does cattle might be more free with their information when talking to a corn/soy farmer. Or take someone like a pepper farmer: a competing greenhouse is more likely to get stonewalled than a hobbyist who's just trying to understand why their fruits are small.
That's all I'm saying, I guess, is it's all in the approach. You'll get more traction from genuine curiosity than "I am building/selling this thing"
But you'll see protection mindsets at the local level too. Neighbors will lie about which seed they used, how much fertilizer, yield, etc, but not always. Like, someone who does cattle might be more free with their information when talking to a corn/soy farmer. Or take someone like a pepper farmer: a competing greenhouse is more likely to get stonewalled than a hobbyist who's just trying to understand why their fruits are small.
That's all I'm saying, I guess, is it's all in the approach. You'll get more traction from genuine curiosity than "I am building/selling this thing"