Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System? - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 198

Table 10.1 Number of farms/orchards

Sector No. organic farms/orchards Total no. farms/orchards

30-90 a 29,241 b

Sheep/beef (0.1-0.3 %)

80 c 11,400 b Dairy (0.7 %)

Kiwifruit d 160-190 (5.2-6.2 %) 3,077

Source:
a It was estimated in 2012 that there were 170 organic livestock properties over 50 ha (which
would include dairy). Estimated by looking at BioGro and AsureQuality figures (pers. comm. Jon
Manhire, 18/04/11)
b 2007 Meat and Wool New Zealand ( 2010 )
c 2010, Business New Zealand ( 2010 )
d 2010/11 pers. comm., via Jayson Benge from person in ZESPRI Group Limited ( 2010 )

Table 10.2 Area in production (sown pasture/crop) in 2007

Area in organic certification (ha) a Total area (1000 ha) b Sector

Horticulture and cropping/
cropping and other c

5,045 (0.2 %) 2,517

(Kiwifruit as subset of above) d

505 (4.0 %) 13

Livestock e

52,070 (0.4 %) 12,173

Mixed and other c 6,768 -

Source:
a Cooper et al. ( 2010 )
b Meat and Wool New Zealand ( 2010 , pp. 19, 20)
c Cooper et al. ( 2010 ) use “horticulture and cropping” and “mixed and other” as separate categories
Meat and Wool New Zealand ( 2010 ) use “cropping” and “other”. It is hard to know whether “other”
includes horticulture or not. It does include non-commercial small holdings so may well be inflated
in value for our purposes
d ZESPRI Group Limited ( 2010 , p. 26)
e Cooper et al. ( 2010 ) use “livestock farming”. Meat and Wool New Zealand ( 2010 ) use dairying,
sheep and beef farming, deer farming, pig farming, mixed livestock farming and poultry

in a given area which means that it is more likely to come across an organic orchard
in a kiwifruit growing area than it is to come across an organic farm in dairy or
sheep/beef farming areas. Though there are more organic kiwifruit orchards than
is apparent in the orchard area statistic, this will be because on average they are
probably smaller enterprises (ZESPRI Group Limited 2010 ). It may be that the
greater visibility of organics in the kiwifruit sector helps contribute to their social
acceptability.

10.9 Discussion

Dedieu et al. ( 2009 , p. 108) make clear in their introduction to a special issue of
Outlook on Agriculture titled “Innovations in farm system approaches”, farmers
“[