Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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to investigate how their agricultural perspectives influenced their actual
farming practices (Beus and Dunlap 1994). There was a clear link between
farmers' worldview (as measured by the ACAP scale) and their farming
methods. Farmers with integrated views of conservation, environmental
protection, and productivity were more likely to adopt organic agriculture.
A study of organic and conventional farmers in Michigan involved inter-
viewing twenty-five farmers (McCann et al. 1997). This research showed that
organic farmers use more sustainable methods (e.g., green manure, cover
crops, hedgerows, crop rotation) and have greater concern for their farm's
long-term sustainability, even if this means short-term risk. They were also
more aware of ecological problems in agriculture. In fact, the organic farm-
ers believed that “improving soil quality” was the main measure of success
in farming, ranking this above “profitability of farm.”
A study comparing organic and conventional growers in Massachusetts
attempted to understand these growers within a rapidly urbanizing coun-
tryside (Lockeretz 1995). Thirteen fruit and vegetable growers from each
farm type were interviewed, and it was found that organic farms tended to
be smaller, contributed less to family income, and the growers were relatively
new to farming. The organic farmers were strongly committed to organic
methods and did not consider their operational problems to be overwhelm-
ing, unlike the so-called treadmill that weakens most conventional farmers.
Thus organic farms could play an important role in an urbanized landscape.
These highly motivated, nontraditional growers from various backgrounds
may be more accepted in populated areas, especially because they do not
spray agrichemicals.
A comparative study of Canadian organic and conventional farmers was
based on personal interviews with 118 organic and 85 conventional farm-
ers located in British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan (Egri 1999).
In terms of sociodemographic variations, organic farmers tended to have
fewer years of farming experience, higher education levels, higher numbers
of women operators, somewhat smaller farms, and less hired labor. Organic
farmers had high levels of environmental concern and held positive percep-
tions of the economic and production benefits of organic farming. Major
differences were seen in organic farmers' information sources, with less
than half using any governmental information sources, whereas conven-
tional farmers commonly use government information. Organic farmers
ranked other organic farmers as their most relevant, understandable, and
trustworthy sources of information.
A mail survey of 156 organic and 204 conventional farmers in Australia
was used to investigate work satisfaction and variations in sustainability
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