Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
production, 2 and try to specifically illustrate different patterns of social practices in all three
phases of production from non-organic, through the transition and into organic.
From our perspective, the transition from non-organic to organic practices involves much
more than following an approved set of directions or guidelines. For us, the transition
involves a range of contradictory materialized and reflected worldviews. In this
transformation farmers are challenged to rethink and reorganize their farming practices and
their social networks. In order to capture the dynamics of this process, and to understand its
agro-socio-cultural and political significance, we draw upon social practice theory to
identify and generate new insights into the transformation process.
2. General characteristics of the transformationprocess
The conversion period from non-organic to organic farming practices is generally, and in some
countries, legally, defined as a formalized process that is stipulated to occur over three years,
during which farmers must follow all organic regulations (see Courville 2006; Greene and
Kremen 2003; Greene and Dimitri 2003; United States Department of Agriculture 2002). On all
farms, the transformation to organic involves a complex change in a farm's livelihood practices,
including its internal and external (off-farm) social, ecological and economic relations.
Organic farming itself, and the transformation process on a farm, is discussed as an
innovation process. More than that it is discussed as a step towards a paradigm shift in
farming (e.g. Michelsen 2001, 3; Beus & Dunlop 1990). The rich literature about farmer's
motives to convert to organic and how farmers convert their farms (e.g. Cranfield et al. 2010;
Padel 2001; Fairweather 1999) explains, that this innovation process is not only initiated but
is to be interpreted by general innovation characteristics identified from Rogers (1995), e.g.
“relative advantage (more the better), relative complexity (less the better), compatibility
(more the better), reliability (more the better), observability / trialability (more the better).”
These mainly cognitive-mental arguments are of relevance, however they are different in
organic and do not highlight the concrete practices, from which these reflections arise.
In contrast to other innovations in agriculture in the last decades, organic is not only a part
of a new technique or a change of one practice on the farm, but a complete system change.
Farmers adopt traditional techniques in a new context; conventional techniques are
modified for the organic system; and specific new organic techniques are adopted. Besides
these techniques, farmers follow specific rules and laws, which entail an ethical dimension.
With this innovation they enter into new farm input systems, product markets and social
systems, research needs and collaborations, and educational approaches.
The multi-layered process of transformation explains that the implementation of organic
farming at the farm level does not follow a linear process or an S-curve of diffusion
processes (Rogers 1995; Ryan & Gross 1943) over time. The diffusion of this innovation on a
farm seems much more a back-and-forth process, which is influenced by the farm's internal
and external changes. It follows loops, path dependencies (Latacz-Lohmann et al. 2001), and
surprising developments. It is a contingent process of adoption and adaptation of old,
modified and new practices which have to stand the test of time. This transformation
process is embedded in and shaped by a specific space-time, cultural, social, economic and
an agro-ecological context. The transformation process is formally finished after three years.
2 We are aware that the specific focus on plant production might exclude relevant aspects to fully
interpret the phenomena of transformation.
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