Farmers’ Attitudes Towards Organic and Conventional Agriculture: A Behavioural Perspective - Organic Food and Agriculture: New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences - page 155

energy security…' (Anon, 2011). Climatic change is characterised by a rapid increase in
global temperature and is changing at an unprecedented rate (Pulido & Berthold, 2006). The
evidence for such rapid recent climate change is now compelling (IPCC, 2007). A number of
conventional farmers perceived that changes in weather patterns are part of the normal
course of events. In contrast, some organic respondents said that global warming was
primarily caused by burning fossil fuels but, as shown earlier, organic farmers admit to
using large amounts of fossil fuels, thereby contributing to climate change. Interestingly,
only one respondent (OF1) specifically referred to agriculture affecting climate change
although, as discussed in Section 1, agriculture is the UK's sector most affecting climate
change. In common, all respondents said that they may have to grow a different variety of
crops if the climate gets warmer and some referred to the expansion of growing maize in the
UK as evidence of global warming taking place.
This section has demonstrated significant differences, but also similarities in the perception
and cognition of members of the two survey populations in relation to environmental
aspects of the five closely related food security themes. It proved difficult to discuss any of
the five food security themes in isolation as there are strong and quite complex connections
among many of these issues. Examination of the environmental behaviour of the same two
groups of farmers carries forward the analysis in the following section.
4.2 Farmers' environmental behaviour
To gain a greater understanding of farmers' perceptions, attitudes and values, this section
examines the respondents' environmental behaviour in the countryside. Again, these
relatively simple data are supported by qualitative data in the form of farmers' quotations.
An important part of this analysis is concerned with the way in which organic and
conventional farmers make sense of environmental issues through the processes of
perception and cognition.
Analysis proceeds in two stages: first, respondents' membership of agri-environmental
schemes, including their participation in conservation work and membership of
environmental organisations; and second, their 'readership' of agri-environmental journals
and magazines and how they believe farmers should behave in the countryside. A number
of key differences emerged between the two survey groups.
Seventeen (68%) organic and thirteen (52%) conventional farmers participate in agri-
environmental schemes; the remainder of respondents do not belong to any schemes. Two
key points emerged from the analysis: first, considerably more organic than conventional
farmers are members of an agri-environmental scheme; and second, three times more
organic than conventional farmers belong to more than one scheme. Organic farmers' high
membership of agri-environmental schemes supports the finding shown in Figure 2 - that
organic respondents perceive organic agriculture to be an environmentally sustainable
means of food production, although such methods are unlikely to mitigate problems of food
insecurity. Over half of the organic farmers were in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme,
contrasting significantly with just over one tenth of conventional farmers. Until the launch
of Environmental Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship was the government's principal
scheme. Farmers entered 10-year agreements to manage their land in an environmentally
friendly way in return for annual payments (DEFRA, 2002). There were equal numbers of
both types of farmer involved with the set-aside scheme. The European Union (EU)
introduced set-aside of arable land in 1988 as part of a package of measures designed to