Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System? - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 202

needed by their conventional counterparts (and vice versa, of course). However, as
change and crises will continue to challenge agricultural producers in the future, this
knowledge may come into its own. We have also emphasized that all farmers share
a common body of knowledge and the more permeable the boundaries between
the distinctions made between different management systems over and above this
commonality, the better for our future. By adding to diversity, organic practitioners
and their farms add to the resilience of global agriculture.
Finally, we examined the cultural context of “good farming” in which organics
is practiced. The second and third theses are closely related and fit within the first.
If mutual learning is to take place between farmers, their practices have to be seen
as possible or “thinkable”, which will be more likely if organic farmers and their
farms are socially acceptable, at least to some. By comparison within and across
agricultural sectors in the ARGOS program, we showed that organic practices are
most visible and more socially acceptable, and organic orchards can be considered
“good”. In dairying, even though the “increase production at all costs” ethos rules,
there has been some crossover of practices. While there is potential for this to
happen in the sheep/beef sector, it is most difficult for organic sheep/beef farmers to
be seen as good farmers.
Therefore, we conclude that the presence of organic farming does add to
the resilience of the farming sector by providing diversity and making visible
and possible different and more sustainable ways of farming. If organic farming
becomes more socially acceptable then the potential for this contribution can only
increase so that all ways of farming are able to learn from each other to enable the
production of safe food for the world's population in our changing and challenging
times.
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