Norwegian farmers ceasing certified organic production: Characteristics and reasons

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThis article examines the characteristics of and reasons for Norwegian farmers' ceasing or planning to cease certified organic production. We gathered cross-sectional survey data in late 2007 from organic farmers deregistering between January 2004 and September 2007 (n ¼ 220), and similar data from a random sample of farmers with certified organic management in 2006 (n ¼ 407). Of the respondents deregistering by November 2007, 17% had quit farming altogether, 61% now farmed conventionally, and 21% were still farming by organic principles, but without certification. Nearly one in four organic farmers in 2007 indicated that they planned to cease certification within the next 5e10 years. From the two survey samples, we categorised farmers who expect to be deregistered in 5e10 years into three groups: conventional practices (n ¼ 139), continuing to farm using organic principles (uncertified organic deregistrants, n ¼ 105), and stopped farming (n ¼ 33). Of the numerous differences among these groups, two were most striking: the superior sales of uncertified organic deregistrants through consumer-direct marketing and the lowest shares of organic land among conventional deregistrants. We summarised a large number of reasons for deregistering into five factors through factor analysis: economics, regulations, knowledge-exchange, production, and market access. Items relating to economics and regulations were the primary reasons offered for opting out. The regression analysis showed that the various factors were associated with several explanatory variables. Regulations, for example, figured more highly among livestock farmers than crop farmers. The economic factor strongly reflected just a few years of organic management. Policy recommendations for reducing the number of dropouts are to focus on economics, environmental attitudes, and the regulatory issues surrounding certified organic production.

Labour Use on Organic Farms: a Review of Research since 2000

“…Some studies show that labour requirement on organic versus conventional farms does not reflect a decision rule for adopting or not adopting organic farming [3,37,38]. External factors, in particular labour availability, are likely to become increasingly relevant and should be considered in future research.…”

“…Likewise, some authors contend that labour seems not to be crucial in farmers' decision to expand or reduce farm size [38], whether organic or not, and that the higher labour requirement on organic farming is of intermediate importance as a reason for opting out of organic farming [3]. Type of labour (hired versus family labour) was found to be related with the adoption of organic farming by Larsen [39], who suggested that the probability to adopt organic methods increases with the share of hired labour.…”

“…Labour use on organic farms is expected to differ from that on conventional farms [1][2][3]. In particular, organic farming is frequently associated with claims of high labour requirements, because it needs more resources than conventional for manual and mechanical weed control, is based on a greater diversity of crops at farm level, and organic farmers more often develop marketing and processing activities on farm [2,4,5].…”

Comparing attitudes and characteristics of organic, former organic and conventional farmers: Evidence from Ireland

“…Despite large fluctuations in the organic sector with many farmers adopting and abandoning organic production each year, the organic sector in the EU has increased over the past 10 years, mainly due to policy support and market demand for organic products 4 . Given the commitment of many European governments to increase the size of their organic sectors and considering the large withdrawal rate from organic agriculture, it seems important to implement measures to prevent organic farmers from ceasing production rather than focusing on recruiting new farmers 5 . However, in order to decrease the number of farmers abandoning organic farming, more information about organic, former organic and conventional farmers is required.…”

Quality perception of organically grown tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) in Vienna, Austria

“…Similar challenges have been found to hinder organic farming even in some other European countries like Norway (Flaten et al, 2010). The increment in costs was due to the need to utilize more organic fertilizers and also carry out frequent weeding in order to get fruits of better intrinsic quality as demanded by the local and export markets.…”