Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
left to right along the x axis the production system becomes more conventional, and moving
along the y axis from top to bottom environmental sensitivity of the production system
decreases.
.8
e nvironme nt
.6
sustainable
c ommunity deve lopme n
.4
.2
food qua lity
0.0
orga nic
food sa fe ty
-.2
-.4
wellness
-.6
conve ntiona l
-.8
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
Conventional Production Sys tem
Figure 4.
Perceptual mapping of consumers attitudes toward food production systems
6.3. Conclusion
Consumers accord the highest preference score to organic production, followed by sustainable
and conventional production systems respectively. Moreover, in according higher priority to
food safety and wellness, consumers appear to be more concerned with criteria that are more
tangible in terms of the consequence for consumers' personal and immediate well-being. Since
our findings indicate that consumers don't associate organic food production with benefits for
environmental and community development, there is a need to design education programs
that will convince consumers that there are socioeconomic and environmental benefits to be
derived from organic production. However, education programs without community institu‐
tional support are not likely to succeed. Community members must be engaged as co-creators
of initiatives that are intended to change attitudes and create awareness. We recall that
proactive and reflective community members live in the same information rich environment
as their leaders and those of us considered to be experts. Proactive and reflective citizens tend
to assign less significance to leaders and experts, they insist on participating in the decision
making process, they want to co-create programs that have implications for their livelihood.
As a result, a truly sustainable food system (organic) must become embodied, and an intimate
part of the lived experience of people and communities. After all, it is action that creates
destiny. So if a sustainable food system is to become a part of our future, it has to become a
way of life, and a pattern of living that is acted out as part of the everyday life story of
communities [4].
