Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems
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Barriers to adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: Change agent perspectives Abstract Conventional agriculture systems of production often lead to environmental degradation, economic problems and even social conflict. The efficacy of agriculture systems conducive to the economic, environmental and social sustainability of farming operations has been demonstrated, yet the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is not widespread. This qualitative study is based on a web-based survey instrument designed to elicit the barriers to adoption of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) perceived by a positional and network sample of 269 change agents working with farmers in the US South. The analysis examines the general proposition that reluctance to change to SAP is an overused rationale of change agents that tends to mask real barriers that we endeavor to elicit in the survey. It was found that despite having support from technical assistance providers, farmers are rarely adopting SAP. Change agents often are not well prepared to attend to farmers' needs regarding SAP, particularly the needs of specific farming situations. Thus, farmers often struggle to obtain accurate information about the benefits of SAP. Government support programs often fail to encourage adoption due to lack of funding, inappropriate design and ineffective targeting of incentives. Reluctance to change is frequently mentioned by change agents, but more as a way of blaming farmers for nonadoption than explaining the often tangible reasons for their behaviors. Social barriers, land tenure, infrastructure and incompatibility are other significant impediments to adoption. Strategies such as improved management of the existing information, careful design of economic support programs and extension efforts addressed to change agents themselves could help overcome some of the barriers identified by change agents.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 24 Số 1 - Trang 60-71 - 2009
Apple grower pollination practices and perceptions of alternative pollinators in New York and Pennsylvania Abstract Pollinator declines coupled with increasing demand for insect pollinated crops have the potential to cause future pollinator shortages for our most nutritious and valuable crops. Ensuring adequate crop pollination may necessitate a shift in pollination management, from one that primarily relies on the managed European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) to one that integrates alternative pollinators. While a growing body of scientific evidence supports significant contributions made by naturally occurring, native bees for crop pollination, translating research to practice requires buy-in from growers. The intention of agricultural extension is to address grower needs and concerns; however, few studies have assessed grower knowledge, perceptions and attitudes about native pollinators. Here we present findings from questionnaire-based surveys of over 600 apple growers in New York State and Pennsylvania, coupled with ecological data from bee surveys. This hybrid sociological and biological survey allows us to compare grower knowledge and perceptions to an actual pollinator census. While up to 93% of respondents highly valued importance of native bees, 20% growersdid not know how much native bees actually contribute to their orchard pollination. Despite the uncertainty, a majority of growers were open to relying on native bees (up to 60% in NY and 67% in PA) and to making low-cost changes to their farm's management that would benefit native pollinators (up to 68 in NY and 85% in PA). Growers consistently underestimated bee diversity, but their estimates corresponded to major bee groups identifiable by lay persons, indicating accurate local knowledge about native bees. Grower reliance on honeybees increased with farm size; because native bee abundance did not measurably decrease with farm size, renting honeybees may be motivated by risk avoidance rather than grower perception of lower native bee activity. Demonstrated effectiveness of native pollinators and clear guidelines for their management were the most important factors influencing grower decision to actively manage orchards for native bees. Our results highlight a pressing need for an active and research-based extension program to support diversification of pollination strategies in the region.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 35 Số 1 - Trang 1-14 - 2020
Grower perceptions of native pollinators and pollination strategies in the lowbush blueberry industry Abstract Pollinator declines and dependence on insect pollination, particularly in fruit and vegetable crops, creates a pressing need to understand growers' interactions with pollinators and factors affecting pollination strategies. At present, many growers are dependent on commercial honey bees (Apis mellifera ), but diversified strategies may be necessary to secure adequate crop pollination in the future. As of yet, little social science research exists on pollination practices. This article presents the results of a survey of lowbush blueberry growers in Maine. The survey was part of a five-year pollination security study focusing on four fruit and vegetables crops in the Northeast US. The survey assesses grower perceptions of native pollinators' effectiveness and their perceptions of native pollinators' contribution to fruit set. Results indicate a widespread perception among growers of native pollinators' importance. While native pollinators are not effective enough to replace rented honey bees for three-quarters of the industry, they are broadly seen as an important form of insurance in poor weather when honey bees' effectiveness is reduced. The main obstacle to greater utilization of native pollinators found in this study was uncertainty over native pollinators' contribution to yield and the associated difficulty monitoring native pollinators' population size. Scientists and extension experts must work to reduce these obstacles before more widespread use of native pollinators will occur.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 30 Số 2 - Trang 124-131 - 2015
Organic agriculture and the global food supply Abstract The principal objections to the proposition that organic agriculture can contribute significantly to the global food supply are low yields and insufficient quantities of organically acceptable fertilizers. We evaluated the universality of both claims. For the first claim, we compared yields of organic versus conventional or low-intensive food production for a global dataset of 293 examples and estimated the average yield ratio (organic:non-organic) of different food categories for the developed and the developing world. For most food categories, the average yield ratio was slightly <1.0 for studies in the developed world and >1.0 for studies in the developing world. With the average yield ratios, we modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. Model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a globalper capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base. We also evaluated the amount of nitrogen potentially available from fixation by leguminous cover crops used as fertilizer. Data from temperate and tropical agroecosystems suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen to replace the amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use. These results indicate that organic agriculture has the potential to contribute quite substantially to the global food supply, while reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture. Evaluation and review of this paper have raised important issues about crop rotations under organic versus conventional agriculture and the reliability of grey-literature sources. An ongoing dialogue on these subjects can be found in the Forum editorial of this issue.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 22 Số 2 - Trang 86-108 - 2007
Designing innovative productive cropping systems with quantified and ambitious environmental goals Abstract Agriculture must face a number of very pressing environmental issues. We used the prototyping method to design three innovative cropping systems, each satisfying three ambitious goals simultaneously: (1) overcoming a major environmental constraint, which represents a major break regarding objectives to be reached in current cropping systems (differing between systems: a ban on all pesticides but with chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizer permitted; reducing fossil energy consumption by 50%; or decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50%), (2) meeting a wide range of environmental criteria and (3) maximizing yields, given the major constraint and environmental targets. A fourth cropping system was designed, in which the environmental and yield targets were achieved with no major constraint (the productive high environmental performance cropping system (PHEP) system). The performances of these innovative cropping systems were compared to a conventional system in the Ile-de-France region. We used a three-step prototyping method: (1) new cropping systems were designed on the basis of scientific and expert knowledge, (2) these system prototypes were assessed with tools and a model (ex ante assessment) adjusted to the set of constraints and targets, with optimization by an iterative process until the criteria were satisfied and (3) evaluation in a long-term field experiment (ex post assessment), which is currently underway. We describe only the first two steps here, together with the results of the prototypes assessment with tools and a model. The pesticide, energy and GHG constraints were fulfilled. All these innovative systems satisfied environmental criteria in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus management, pesticide use, energy consumption and crop diversity. For the pesticide-free system, the soil organic matter indicator was lower than expected due to frequent plowing (every 2 years) and yields were 20–50% lower than for the PHEP system, depending on the crop considered. We focus our discussions on the design methodology and the availability of scientific knowledge and tools for projects of this type.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 30 Số 6 - Trang 487-502 - 2015
Effect of self-reported attitudes toward organic foods in consumer preferences and willingness to pay Abstract Although consumers' interest in organic products has increased in recent years, the total demand for these products is still small in most countries. This mismatch between the positive perception of these products and their limited final demand is the so-called intention-behavior gap. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to evaluate the effect of self-reported attitudes toward organic foods in the willingness to pay (WTP) for these products. Second, we analyze the effects of these self-reported attitudes in the final purchasing decision when consumers are asked to evaluate several food attributes simultaneously. The results show that self-reported attitudes toward organic products are useful predictors of higher WTP and can be arranged in different categories (range 15.2–20.1%). However, when a conjoint analysis of different food attributes was conducted, the segment of pro-organic consumers reported that the origin of the product was more important for them than the production system. This opens a new debate about the advisability of promoting the joint use of both labels (organic and origin labels) to engage pro-organic consumers.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 37 Số 4 - Trang 360-368 - 2022
Testing a complete-diet model for estimating the land resource requirements of food consumption and agricultural carrying capacity: The New York State example Abstract Agriculture faces a multitude of challenges in the 21st century, and new tools are needed to help determine how it should respond. Among these challenges is a need to reconcile how human food consumption patterns should change to both improve human nutrition and reduce agriculture's environmental footprint. A complete-diet framework is needed for better understanding how diet influences demand for a fundamental agricultural resource, land. We tested such a model, measuring the impact of fat and meat consumption on the land requirements of food production in New York State (NYS). Analysis was confined to this geographic area to simplify the modeling procedure and to examine the state's ability to reduce environmental impact by supplying food locally. Per capita land resource requirements were calculated with a spreadsheet model for 42 diets ranging from 0 to 381 g d−1 (0 to 12 oz d−1 ) of meat and eggs and 20 to 45% total calories from fat. Many of these diets meet national dietary recommendations. The potential human carrying capacity of the NYS land base was then derived, based on recent estimates of available agricultural land. A nearly fivefold difference (0.18–0.86 ha) in per capita land requirements was observed across the diets. Increasing meat in the diet increased per capita land requirements, while increasing total dietary fat increased the land requirements of low meat diets but reduced the land needed for high meat diets. Higher meat diets used a larger share of the available cropland suited only to pasture and perennial crops. Thus, only a threefold difference was observed for the potential number of people fed from the NYS land base (2.0–6.2 million). In addition, some high-fat vegetarian diets supported fewer people than lower fat diets containing 63–127 g d−1 of meat (approximately one- to two-thirds of the national average per capita consumption in the US). These results support the assertion that diet should be considered in its entirety when assessing environmental impact. To more completely understand how diet influences land requirements and potential carrying capacity, this model should be applied across a larger geographic area that encompasses a wider variety of climates and soil resources. To better understand the ability of a local region to supply more of its own food, the model should be moved into a geospatial framework.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 22 Số 2 - Trang 145-153 - 2007
Comparison of consumer perceptions and preference toward organic versus conventionally produced foods: A review and update of the literature Abstract Growing interest in organic agriculture has prompted numerous studies that compare various aspects of organic and conventionally produced foods. This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of empirical studies comparing organic products and conventionally grown alternatives. The emphasis is on key organic consumer demand and marketing issues, including: (1) the implications of an economic definition of organically grown food for consumer demand; (2) attributes that shoppers consider most when comparing organic with conventionally grown products; (3) level and characteristics of consumer knowledge and awareness about organic food; (4) assessment methods and characteristics of organic consumer attitudes and preferences; (5) size of price premium and characteristics of consumers’ willingness-to-pay for organic products; and (6) profile of organic consumers. Overall, although there is some knowledge and awareness about organic products, consumers are not consistent in their interpretation of what is organic. Secondly, while consumers typically understand the broad issues about organic foods, many tend not to understand the complexities and niceties of organic farming practices and organic food quality attributes. Uncertainty regarding the true attributes of organic, and skepticism about organic labels, part of which stems from reported cases of (inadvertent) mislabeling, and product misrepresentation, and partly because of nonuniform organic standards and certification procedures, may hold some consumers back from purchasing organic. Thirdly, concern for human health and safety, which is a key factor that influences consumer preference for organic food, is consistent with observed deterioration in human health over time and, therefore, motivates consumers to buy organic food as insurance and/or investment in health. Fourthly, the proportion of consumers who are willing to pay a price premium for organic food decreases with premium level. On the other hand, premiums tend to increase with (combinations of) preferred attributes. In addition, demand tends to depend more on the price differential with respect to conventionally grown products, than on actual price. In contrast to sensitivity of demand to changes in price, income elasticity of demand for organic foods is generally small. Finally, it is important for policy analysts and researchers to note that organic fresh fruits and vegetables currently dominate the organic consumer's food basket. Furthermore, it is not clear whether frequent buyers consider particular organic products (e.g., organic meat) as normal goods, or if consumers consider such products as luxury goods.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 20 Số 4 - Trang 193-205 - 2005
Organic apple production in Washington State: An input–output analysis This paper provides an input–output (I/O)-based economic impact analysis for organic apple production in Washington State. The intent is to compare the economic ‘ripple’ effect of organic production with conventional production. The analysis is presented in two scenarios: first we compare the economic impact of organic versus conventional apple production for a final demand increase of US$1 million as measured in sales. In the second analysis, the economic impacts of organic and conventional apple production are compared in terms of a given unit of land (405 ha of production). Both state-wide output (sales) and employment (jobs) impacts are estimated under each scenario. Results are presented in terms of direct, indirect, and induced economic impact. Organic apple production was more labor intensive than conventional production. While the organic apple sector used less intermediate inputs per unit of output than conventional production, it also produced higher returns to labor and capital. As a result, the indirect economic effect was lower for the organic sector than the conventional sector, but the induced economic effect was higher for organic. Given the organic price premium, the economic impact (direct, indirect and induced) was larger for organic apple production than conventional apple production.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems - Tập 21 Số 2 - Trang 134-141 - 2006
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