Research Report

    Contents
    Summary
    Chapter One
    Chapter Two
    Chapter Three
    Chapter Four
    Chapter Five
    Chapter Seven
    Chapter Eight
    Chapter Nine
    Chapter Ten
    Appendices
    Foot Notes
     

  

A project facilitated by the Research and Development Group of the Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association

6 Research Review: Social and Economic Dynamics of Organic Agriculture

Overview of Material Covered

This chapter presents the findings of a review of English-language literature on three aspects of the economic and social dynamics of organic agriculture. The research reported here is not research conducted by members of the organic industry themselves, or by research scientists with an interest in organics, rather, it is a collection of work by sociologists, economists and geographers who have observed the development of the organic sector and its social and economic dynamics. This section does not review the most voluminous economic work – analyses of organic market trends.

The three areas in which useful bodies of research have been conducted are:

  • Evaluations and analyses of the socio-economic aspects of the development of the entire organic sector. This usually takes the form of regional, industry-level, country-specific or global reports on the development of organic agriculture.

  • Economic analyses of the economic performance of organic production units. The English-language literature can provide a moderate body of data. It is clear, however, that a large number of European studies exist, but are as yet untranslated.

  • Grower decision-making and conversion. One area of significant sociological analyses is the process by which growers convert to organic production.

 

Recommendations

These three areas – with the exception of market data and analyses – provide the only English-language material that approaches adequacy in providing broad and repeatable analyses of organic farming. Other areas, including labour-use, community outcomes, and public health, have only been the subject of a limited number of studies.

A review of the current state of English-language studies into the social and economic dynamics of organic agriculture would suggest the following:

  • New Zealand is well served with socio-economic evaluations compared to all other countries excepting mainland Europe. These still provide only patchy material, and needs better integration.

  • While some areas – markets, sectoral development, economic performance, conversion/ attitudes – have an adequate body of research, other areas are extremely poorly served.

  • Most of this work is episodic, isolated and idiosyncratic. Different social and economic facets of organic farming are rarely investigated in tandem, and little good research has taken place over time. Integrated whole-farm analyses, of multiple dimensions, over a lengthy time span, is urgently needed to create coherence in the evaluation of organic agriculture. New Zealand has the necessary body of preliminary work to support such an undertaking.

Industry Development/Sociology

General: Literature that evaluates the global-level development of an organic agriculture sector is not common. The most prevalent global-level analyses involve marketing surveys. Most literature tends towards regional or country-specific development. Ritchie et al., (2000) provide one overview of the global organic industry. They conclude that in 2000, organic production involved between 1–5% of the agricultural sectors of Western countries. The sector was growing at an average of between 25–35%pa, and average organic price premiums were around 25%.

Country Specific: There are now many country-specific studies of the emergence and development of organic agriculture:

  • Japan: Amano & Ichiraku (1998)

  • USA: Buck et al., (1997); Goodman (2000); Groh and McFadden (1997); Guthman (1998, 2000); OFRF (1997); Nelson and Coyle (2001)

  • UK: Clunies Ross (1990); Clunies Ross and Cox (1994); Reed (2001)

  • Europe: Foster and Lampkin (2000); Kaltoft (1999); Kristensen (1999); Laajimi (1997); Lampkin et al., (1999); Lohr and Salomonsson (1998); Lynggaard (2001); Michelsen (2001, 2001); Mononen (1999); Offerman and Nieberg (2000, 2000); Padel (2001); Pugliese (2001); Tovey (1997); Zanoli and Gambelli (1999); Zanoli et al., (ND)

  • Canada: Henning et al., (1990); Hill and McRae (1999)

  • Australia: Lawrence and Lyons (1999); Lyons et al., (2000)

  • Mexico: Nigh (1997)

  • Cuba: Rosset (1998).

These regional or country-specific studies heavily favour the EU. As the list below suggests, New Zealand has actually been as intensively studied as almost any other part of the world. The low volume of literature on organic agriculture in the US is surprising. The almost total absence of English-language work on Japan is also surprising. This review, however, clearly emphasises the disparity between First World and Third World literatures. Organic agriculture is a First World phenomenon. While much of the Third World is already engaged in sustainable and organic systems, research has tended to evaluate the direct conflict between organic and intensive agriculture in the First World.

New Zealand Studies

  • NewZealand-General: Campbell (1996, 1997); Campbell and Coombes (1999a. 1999b); Campbell and Fairweather (1998); Campbell and Liepins (2001); Campbell and Fitzgerald (2000); Coombes and Campbell (1998); Liepins et al. (1997); Saunders et al., (1997)

  • Honey Industry: Bourn et al., (1999)

  • Canterbury Region: Campbell (1996)

  • Kiwifruit Industry: Campbell et al., (1997)

  • Nelson Region: Coombes and Campbell (1998)

  • Gisborne Region: Coombes et al., (1998)

  • Wine Industry: Fairweather et al., (1999)

  • Livestock Industry: Richardson (1999)

Analysis of Industry Development: Much of the industry development literature is descriptive. However, there is a significant debate running through some industry development literature that concerns the impact of commercialisation on the organic sector. There are questions raised about whether organic agriculture can occur in capitalist contexts:

  • USA

  • Guthman (1998, 2000), Buck et al. (1997); Goodman (2000)

  • Europe

  • Kristensen (1999) and Kaltoft (1999)

  • Australia

  • Lyons et al (2000)

  • New Zealand

  • Campbell (1996, 1997); Coombes and Campbell (1998); Campbell and Liepins (2001).

All these regions are examined and evaluated to determine the consequences of commercialisation. In all these literatures, commercialisation is seen as providing a major impetus to the rate of growth of the organic sector. However, the cost of commercialisation is usually seen as being a downgrading of some of the original priorities of the sustainable agriculture social movement, pressuring standards in some countries, and increasing concerns about food miles and simple substitution of organic inputs into conventional farming systems.

Economic Performance

On-farm Performance: There is a growing body of work that makes financial performance evaluations; comparing organic and conventional production. The most important are:

  • Offerman and Neiberg (2000a, 2000b); Zanoli and Gambelli (1999) ; Zanoli et al., (N/D); Mononen (1999) ; EAP staff (1997); Fowler et al., 2001a, 2001b); Foster and Lampkin (2000); Reganold et al., (2001).

For New Zealand there have been few performance evaluation undertaken, with Saunders et al., (1997) reviewing the work done to that date. No subsequent work has been undertaken.

Financial Impact in Wider Economies: The greatest amount of work is done in the form of policy studies which seek to evaluate the potential financial impact of organic farming in Europe. This includes wide ranging studies by:

  • Fowler et al., (2001b); Lampkin, (1999); Offermann and Neiberg, (2000a, 2000b)

Thus there is a significant gap in the literature of economic analysis of organic farming. This relates to studies of on-farm economic performance - especially for countries other than Europe. Little data is comparable, and there is little time-series data. Likewise, on-farm data has not touched on the effects of on-farm processing and marketing.

Grower Conversion

The records fall into two groups: those that debate the process of deciding to convert from conventional growing, practices, to organic, and those that concentrate on the financial advantages or otherwise of the conversion.

There are two different analytical approaches to the process of organic conversion.

Goal Analysis: Zanoli, et al., (ND) look at it in terms of goals and influences on their achievement. They see the decision-making process as moving from a perception of the goal through an analysis followed by a decision. They describe a number of factors that impact during this progression.

Decision Tree Analysis: Fairweather, (1999) and Fairweather and Campbell, (1996) use a decision tree analysis to follow the progression from a conventional farming mind set to that of an organic grower. They group factors as, eliminating, constraining or motivating. The factors and groups are reviewed again in Cook et al. (2000).

An amalgamation of the decision-making factors that are discussed by authors in the database follows.

Factors Involved in the Decision to Become an Organic Grower

  • Grower eliminating factors

  • Unaware of the organic system

  • Satisfied with their current intensive, high input system

  • Satisfied with their current low input system

  • Individual is convinced that organic growing is not technically or financially viable

  • Grower Motivating Factors

Personal, background factors

  • Philosophical inclination/concerned about the environment

  • Having a higher level of education

  • Pro-organic parents/other role models

  • Being younger

  • Being female

  • Being a parent

  • Ethnicity

Working experience factors

  • Health; worried about danger of sprays to applicator and/or consumer

  • Cost of inputs in conventional growing

  • Problems with conventional systems

  • Anxiety over soil fertility and organic matter levels

  • Need for, or reward of, price premiums

  • Need for, or reward of, subsidies

  • Constraining factors

  • Unaware of the organic industry

  • Lack of information about organic methods

  • Lower average production

  • Increased exposure to risk (disease, weeds, climatic)

  • No organic way of growing their speciality crop

  • Lack of suitable organic techniques x crops to suit their climate/soil resources

  • High debt level, lack of capital to survive conversion years +/risk

  • Unconvinced peer group (cultural norm)

 

References

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Zanoli, R, Gambelli, D, Naspetti, S (ND). Adopotion of Organic Farm Practices: an empirical analysis of the Italian case. DIBIAGA-Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ancona: Italy. Available at: Zanoli@agrecon.unian.it

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List of Useful Sites

ORGANIC FARMING IN EUROPE: ECONOMICS AND POLICY


www.uni-hohenheim.de/~i410a/ofeurope/


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. Supported by the University of Hohenheim; this site aims to be an independent forum; offering a series of publications containing in-depth and up to date papers on organic farming in Europe to an international audience. The site also aims to be a forum for scientific debate on the subject.

WELSH INSTITUTE OF RURAL STUDIES. UNIVERSITY OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH, UK
Includes: Organic Centre Wales.


www.irs.aber.ac.uk/research/agroecology.shtml


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. The group is established as a leading centre in Europe for organic farming research. Much of its published work has been carried out in collaboration with researchers in rural economics and development, social scientists, soil and animal scientists, and ecologists.

ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS


http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/503305/description#description


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: 11 August 2004. This journal, published by Elsevier Science, is concerned with extending and integrating the study and management of ecology and economics. It aims to be methodologically open as well as transdisciplinary: "This integration is necessary because conceptual and professional isolation have led to economic and environmental policies which are mutually destructive rather than reinforcing in the long term."


EUROPEAN COMMISSION - ORGANIC FARMING


europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/qual/organic/index_en.htm


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: 10 August 2004. This is the address for the European Commission's policy on organic agriculture. It links to a guide to the European Community rules for organic farming.


OFRE: ORGANIC FARMING RESEARCH FOUNDATION


www.ofrf.org/index.html


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Early 2004. "The Organic Farming Research Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded to sponsor research related to organic farming practices, to disseminate research results to organic farmers and to growers interested in adopting organic production systems, to educate the public and decision-makers about organic farming issues." Its objective is "to foster the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming practices". It has links to many related sites, which are organized into themes including research and education, policy and government, organic and sustainable agriculture organizations, international organic sites, and farming in general.


NATIONAL ORGANIC FARMERS SURVEY


www.ofrf.org/publications/survey/index.html


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. In spring 2002, OFRF mailed a 22-page survey to certified organic farmers throughout the U.S, with 1,034 farmers responding, an 18% response rate. OFRF's latest survey results were published in July 2004. The Fourth National Organic Farmers' Survey: Sustaining Organic Farms in a Changing Organic Marketplace, gathered information on a wide variety of topics related to organic markets and marketing


ATTRA: APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FOR RURAL AREAS


http://www.attra.org/


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site updateNot specified. ATTRA - Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas - is a leading information source for farmers and Extension agents thinking about sustainable farming practices.


CENTER FOR INTEGRATED AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS


http://www.cias.wisc.edu/


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) was created in 1989 to build UW sustainable agriculture research programs that respond to the needs of both farmers and citizens. It is a small sustainable agriculture research center at the University of Wisconsin's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and aims for multidisciplinary research into various aspects of food and agriculture issues.


CAFRE: THE CENTRE FOR AGRICULTURE FOOD AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS


les.man.ac.uk/ses/research/cafre/Default.htm


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: June 2004. This is a centre for research in the areas of agricultural, natural resource and environmental economics that operates from the School of Economic Studies, Manchester University, UK.


OPENZ: ORGANIC PRODUCTS EXPORTERS OF NEW ZEALAND INC


http://www.organicsnewzealand.org.nz/


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: 11 August, 2004. OPENZ is a network of businesses, research institutions, consultancies and certifying agencies formed in 1995 with support from the New Zealand Trade Development Board, (Now NZ Trade & Enterprise). OPENZ has been a powerful instrument in the spectacular rise in organic production and exporting from New Zealand. It continues working to sustain the momentum through supporting: growing, processing and marketing; and by lobbying and working with government departments on behalf of the industry. The OPENZ site offers: information, and marketing support sevices.


EAP: ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS


www.eap.mcgill.ca/general/home_frames.htm


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. This is a resource centre for sustainable agriculture, that contains magazine type articles and interesting technical advice. Membership and contact details are provided.


CANBERRA ORGANIC GROWERS SOCIETY INC.


http://www.cogs.asn.au/


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. The Canberra Organic Growers Society Inc. is a non-profit organisation started in 1977 with the aim of providing a forum for organic growers to exchange information, and encourage the general public to adopt organic growing methods. Currently has about 230 members. COGS is run by volunteers. This web site has been provided as a public service.


QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
Trade Opportunities for Organic Food


www.dpi.qld.gov.au/business/1538.html


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: 11 May 2004. This government department site provides information on business, markets and trade in primary industries, and includes documents on organic production, processing and certification. It also provides analyses of markets, demands and opportunities for organic food, including the export markets in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, United Kingdom, France and Germany.


USDA UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE


http://www.usda.gov/


Date accessed: 13 August 2004. Last site update: Not specified. This is the search page for the United States Department of Agriculture, which allows access to USDA information on organic agriculture largely drawn from their Economic Research Service.

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