Farmers’ reasons for deregistering from organic farming

Abstract

Every year since 2002, 150 to 200 farmers in Norway have deregistered from certified organic production. The aim of this study was to get behind these figures and improve our understanding of the reasoning leading to decisions to opt out. Four cases of deregistered organic farmers with grain, sheep, dairy or vegetable production were selected for in-depth studies. The cases were analysed from the perspective of individual competencies and the competencies available in the networks of the selected organic farmers. Besides the conspicuous reasons to opt out of certified organic farming, such as regulations getting stricter over time and low income, personal reasons such as disappointment and need for acceptance were also important. This shows that hard mechanisms, such as economic support and premium prices, are not sufficient to motivate farmers for sustained organic management. Support and encouragement, for example from people in the local community, politicians and other spokespersons, would likely contribute to increase farmers' motivation.

Passages à l’agriculture biologique. Une diversité de processus

“…Des approches par les récits de vie témoignent de tensions identitaires qui peuvent se nouer au niveau des individus, pris entre exploitation, famille, regard des autres, en amont de la certiication, et montrent comment des évènements biographiques peuvent aider à franchir le pas de l'AB (Van Dam, 2005). De nombreux travaux ont étudié les motivations à la conversion, mais peu d'auteurs ont choisi de suivre les processus de passage à l'AB au niveau des exploitations et des exploitants, et d'analyser les changements dans les conceptions et les pratiques, les évolutions dans le temps (Koesling et al, 2012 ;Lamine 2011), même si de telles approches étaient au coeur des travaux pionniers sur l'agriculture biologique (Harris et al, 1979 ;Barrès et al, 1985 ;Le Pape et Remy, 1988). mettent ainsi en évidence des conversions directes au sens où la certiication concerne d'emblée la totalité de l'exploitation, et des passages à l'AB indirects et progressifs, au sens où la première certiication concerne une partie seulement de l'exploitation tandis que d'autres parties sont certiiées par la suite.…”

Is it time for a socio-ecological revolution in agriculture?

“…Farmers have become accustomed to all-but eliminating non-crop species in pursuit of 'tidy' farms (Burton, 2012) and to farming monocultures of a restricted range of food crops. Encouraging farmers to adopt practices and cropping patterns which will see their farms transformed will take time, not least because of the need for acceptance within their peer group (See Koesling et al, 2012). Potentially the push will come from broadened dietary preferences or social desire for more diverse and complex landscapes.…”

Withdrawal from organic farming in France

“…Farmers' motivations to revert to conventional farming are examined, statistically or qualitatively, sometimes coupled with the analysis of the characteristics or competencies of farmers' ceasing certified production (Alexopoulos et al 2010;Darnhofer et al 2005;Ferjani et al 2010;Flaten et al 2010;Harris et al 2008;Kaltoft and Risgaard 2006;Kirner et al 2006;Koesling et al 2008Koesling et al , 2012Rigby et al 2001;Sierra et al 2008;Strochlic and Sierra 2007). Sahm et al (2012) compare farmers' reasons to revert to conventional farming in a review and they classify them into economic motives, difficulties regarding certification and control, problems with organic production techniques and farms' macroenvironment.…”

“…Sahm et al (2012) compare farmers' reasons to revert to conventional farming in a review and they classify them into economic motives, difficulties regarding certification and control, problems with organic production techniques and farms' macroenvironment. Other authors (Sierra et al 2008;Koesling et al 2012) mention as well issues unrelated to organic production such as individual reasons, poor health or negative pressure from other farmers. The reasons for choosing organic farming in the first place and thereafter to opt out include a complexity of reasons of technical, economic, social and cultural issues.…”

“…Many studies have emphasised the motivations behind transitions out of organic farming. The approaches vary but few authors have chosen to follow organic farmers' trajectories and to study the changes in their conceptions and practices over time (Koesling et al 2012;Lamine 2011), even though such approaches were at the core of some pioneering studies on organic farming (Harris et al 1979). Indeed, motivation theories can be classified broadly into two different perspectives: content and process theories (Lamine and Bellon 2009).…”