Farmers’ Attitudes Towards Organic and Conventional Agriculture: A Behavioural Perspective - Organic Food and Agriculture: New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences - page 163

respondents admitted using high levels of fossil fuels thereby contributing to global climate
change, which subsequently has an adverse effect on food security. If in the future, however,
an alternative renewable form of energy - not dependent on oil - could be found for
agricultural use, then organic food production would seem appropriate to provide
sustainable farming in the UK. Contrasting significantly, conventional farmers' more
anthropocentric attitudes and behaviours towards producing food using high levels of
pesticides cause a reduction in agricultural biodiversity thereby putting at risk the long-term
sustainability of food security. One method of assuaging food insecurity is to increase the
area of land under cultivation to include 'unproductive' or 'marginal land' such as set-aside
(prior to abolishment in 2008); however, such thinking overlooks the important contribution
set-aside makes to agricultural sustainability. Land available for cultivation is a key limiting
factor for achieving food security as arable land per person shrank 40 per cent from 0.43 ha
in 1962 to 0.26 ha in 1998 (FAO, 2003). In contrast, some researchers claim that organic
agriculture has the potential to produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain
the human population without increasing the agricultural land base (Badgley et al., 2007).
The challenge of ensuring food security for a growing population is to produce sufficient
food in a more sustainable way using resources less exploitatively, while simultaneously
minimising detrimental environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions.
The modified behavioural approach used in this chapter has helped to provide an
awareness, sensitivity and understanding of farmers' behaviour in their geographical world.
However, this was not achieved without problems such as the discrepancies experienced
between respondents' attitudes and their actual farm behaviour. The research provides a
conceptual and empirical contribution to geographical study and knowledge regarding the
environmental perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of farmers in central-southern
England.
6. Acknowledgements
We wish to record our thanks to the twenty five organic and twenty five conventional
farmers who took part in the 'extensive' telephone interviews. We are especially grateful for
the dedication, interest and insights provided by the five geographically linked pairs of
organic and conventional farmers who participated in the on-farm 'qualitative' interviews.
7. References
Anonymous (2011) Climate change a threat to our national security, says Huhne. The Daily
Telegraph 8 th July 2011.
Altieri, M. (1998) Ecological impacts of industrial agriculture and the possibilities for truly
sustainable farming . In: Magdoff, F., Buttel, F. & Foster, J. Hungry for Profit:
Agriculture, Food and Ecology. Monthly Review Press, New York.
Badgley, C., Moghtader, J., Quintero, E., Zakem, E., Jahi Chappell, M., Aviles-Vazquez, K.,
Samulon, A & Perfecto, I. (2007) Organic agriculture and the global food supply.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Vol. 22, pp. 86-108.
Avery, D. (1995) Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastics: The Environmental Triumph of
High-Yield Farming . Hudson Institute, Indianapolis.