Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System? - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 194

three agricultural sectors we can demonstrate that in the kiwifruit sector, organic
management is one of many models of good orcharding whereas in the other sectors
organic practices challenge the precepts of good farming.

10.7 The Good Farming Model

A recent trend in social analysis has included a more culturally-oriented perspective
(Holloway 2002 ) focused on “language, meaning, representation, identity and
difference” (Burton 2004b , p. 361), using qualitative research to study farmers as
legitimate actors and seeking to more fully understand why farmers do what they do.
One strand of this approach focuses on the concept of the “good” farmer and raises
the question of what it means to farm well. According to Burton ( 2004a , p. 195) the
“production- oriented roles came to symbolize, both to farmers and the country, the
notion of good farming practice that enabled farmers to claim a high social position
as caretakers of the nation's food supply”. This status is now being contested by
concerns about the environmental impact of intensive, production-oriented farming
(Silvasti 2003 ; Setten 2004 ). Similarly, in New Zealand farmer identities are being
challenged in a society placing an increasing emphasis on a knowledge economy,
not on the production of agricultural commodities (Jay 2007 ;Rosin 2008 ; Hunt
2009b ). The link between the “good farm”, the “good farmer” and their community
context is described by Burton ( 2004a ):
[ ] for many farmers it [the landscape] represents a picture of good farming practice,

displayed in a manner that enables the farmer to obtain social status and recognition within
the community as a “good farmer” and to judge the credentials of others. The farm is not
simply an object, it is consubstantial with the farmer and, importantly, it is the very part
of the farmer that is used to express his/her and his/her family's identities, both to other
members of the farming community and to the world in general (p. 207).

:::

Good farming cannot be practiced in isolation. Farmers live in a social context in
whichtheystrive 15 to be seen as good farmers and practice in ways that reinforce
and maintain their identities in particular ways (Silvasti 2003 ;Burton 2004a ; Setten
2004 ; Stock 2007 ; Hunt 2010 ). Hence the good farmer approach is one way of
explaining why farmers do or do not change their practices. In this respect, the
significance of experimentation as an attribute of resilience can be perceived as
social as well as scientific. It may be more about “understanding the “rules of the
game” of farming and how these rules change” (Darnhofer et al. 2010a , p. 549)
as well as watching for feedback loops through monitoring on-farm processes.
Experimentation may also be a community or collegial activity - as farmers meet in
discussion groups or on the side of the road, or when someone or something outside
of farming sparks their curiosity.

15 We use the term farmer in the generic sense to include all types of primary producers, such as