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Environmental beliefs and farm practices of New Zealand farmers Contrasting pathways to sustainability

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  • John Fairweather
  • Hugh Campbell

Abstract

Sustainable farming, and waysto achieve it, are important issues foragricultural policy. New Zealand provides aninteresting case for examining sustainableagriculture options because gene technologieshave not been commercially released and thereis a small but rapidly expanding organicsector. There is no strong governmentsubsidization of agriculture, so while policiesseem to favor both options to some degree,neither has been directly supported. Resultsfrom a survey of 656 farmers are used to revealthe intentions, environmental values, andfarming practices for organic, conventional,and GE intending farmers. The results show thatorganic and conventional farmers are relativelysimilar but contrast to GE intending farmers,especially with respect to perceivedconsequences of each technology. While 75%of farmers have not yet made a commitmentto either technology, one fifth were GEintending and one quarter may become organic.Organic farmers have different attitudes tonature, matched in part by conventionalfarmers. In terms of policy for sustainableagriculture, the results suggest that organicand conventional farmers are incrementallymoving towards agroecological sustainabilitywhile GE intending farmers are committed tointensive production methods of which GEproducts are potentially important. GEintending farmers reject incrementalism infavor of a revolutionary technological fix forsustainability concerns in agriculture.Overall, the results show that there areclearly two different paradigms ofsustainability among farmers. Policies that areseeking to achieve sustainable agriculture needto address the tensions that span the differentparadigms. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003

Suggested Citation

  • John Fairweather & Hugh Campbell, 2003. "Environmental beliefs and farm practices of New Zealand farmers Contrasting pathways to sustainability," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(3), pages 287-300, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:20:y:2003:i:3:p:287-300
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1026148613240
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    Cited by:

    1. Emma Jane Dillon & Thia Hennessy & Peter Howley & John Cullinan & Kevin Heanue & Anthony Cawley, 2018. "Routine inertia and reactionary response in animal health best practice," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(1), pages 207-221, March.
    2. John Fairweather & Lesley Hunt, 2011. "Can farmers map their farm system? Causal mapping and the sustainability of sheep/beef farms in New Zealand," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(1), pages 55-66, February.
    3. Mariem Baccar & Ahmed Bouaziz & Patrick Dugué & Mohamed Gafsi & Pierre-Yves Le Gal, 2020. "Sustainability Viewed from Farmers’ Perspectives in a Resource-Constrained Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-15, October.
    4. Ezatollah Karami & Afsaneh Mansoorabadi, 2008. "Sustainable agricultural attitudes and behaviors: a gender analysis of Iranian farmers," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 10(6), pages 883-898, December.
    5. Marike Isaak & Wolfgang Lentz, 2020. "Consumer Preferences for Sustainability in Food and Non-Food Horticulture Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Douglas H. Constance, 2023. "The doctors of agrifood studies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 31-43, March.
    7. Adam Reimer & Aaron Thompson & Linda Prokopy, 2012. "The multi-dimensional nature of environmental attitudes among farmers in Indiana: implications for conservation adoption," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 29-40, March.
    8. José Luis Aleixandre & José Luis Aleixandre-Tudó & Máxima Bolaños-Pizarro & Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent, 2015. "Mapping the scientific research in organic farming: a bibliometric review," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 295-309, October.
    9. Sarah Velten & Julia Leventon & Nicolas Jager & Jens Newig, 2015. "What Is Sustainable Agriculture? A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-33, June.

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