This paper is the report of a conversation among the authors that centered on their shared interest in alternative methods of inquiry and evaluation in agriculture. The conversation was initiated at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and has evolved through a series of long distance conversations. Though not a verbatim transcript of the conversations, the paper represents a composite of both the face-to-face conversation and the stream of dialogue over the preceding year. Central to the discussion is an exploration of the parallels between the paradigm shift that occurred in evaluation in the early 1980s and the current agricultural paradigm shift being promoted by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. In the course of this conversational paper, the researchers suggest not only that evaluators and researchers cultivate their capacity to hear and tell stories, but also that agricultural programs and their long-term impacts could benefit from different kinds of evaluation efforts. From this perspective, the evaluation or research report is no longer an attempt to mirror reality, but rather it is an evocative story that asks the reader to engage the storyline morally, emotionally, aesthetically, and intellectually, as well as from a social impact perspective. The hope is that the paper will serve as what P. Lather called an incitement to discourse in the disciplines of agriculture and evaluation. (Contains 2 tables and 19 references.) (Author/SLD)