IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v136y2015icp39-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organic agriculture values and practices in Portugal and Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Dinis, Isabel
  • Ortolani, Livia
  • Bocci, Riccardo
  • Brites, Cláudia

Abstract

Most definitions of organic farming emphasise a holistic approach that combines quality production with sustainable practices and positive impact on resource conservation, biodiversity and animal welfare. Its founding values were also connected to small-scale production, minimisation of external inputs use, diversification and short market circuits. In the last two decades, organic farming has grown very rapidly, resulting in the subordination of its values to market forces. There has been a greater specialisation, an increase of scale, the involvement of large multinational corporations and the inclusion in global trade. This conventionalisation process and the connected certification standards, primarily focussed on banning the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, may weaken the vision of organic farming as a more sustainable alternative to conventional farming.

Suggested Citation

  • Dinis, Isabel & Ortolani, Livia & Bocci, Riccardo & Brites, Cláudia, 2015. "Organic agriculture values and practices in Portugal and Italy," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 39-45.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:136:y:2015:i:c:p:39-45
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2015.01.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X15000086
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2015.01.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Fairweather, 1999. "Understanding how farmers choose between organic and conventional production: Results from New Zealand and policy implications," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 16(1), pages 51-63, March.
    2. Efthalia Dimara & Dimitrios Skuras, 1998. "Adoption of new tobacco varieties in Greece: Impacts of empirical findings on policy design," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 19(3), pages 297-307, December.
    3. Saha Atanu & H. Alan Love & Robert Schwart, 1994. "Adoption of Emerging Technologies Under Output Uncertainty," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(4), pages 836-846.
    4. Raynolds, Laura T., 2004. "The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 725-743, May.
    5. Hugo Fjelsted Alroe & Egon Noe, 2008. "What makes organic agriculture move: protest, meaning or market? A polyocular approach to the dynamics and governance of organic agriculture," International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1/2), pages 5-22.
    6. Padel, Susanne & Röcklinsberg, Helena & Schmid, Otto, 2009. "The implementation of organic principles and values in the European Regulation for organic food," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 245-251, June.
    7. Rigby, D. & Caceres, D., 2001. "Organic farming and the sustainability of agricultural systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 21-40, April.
    8. Gebremedhin, Berhanu & Swinton, Scott M., 2003. "Investment in soil conservation in northern Ethiopia: the role of land tenure security and public programs," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 69-84, July.
    9. J. Scott Long & Jeremy Freese, 2006. "Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables using Stata, 2nd Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, edition 2, number long2, March.
    10. Patricia Allen & Martin Kovach, 2000. "The capitalist composition of organic: The potential of markets in fulfilling the promise of organic agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 221-232, September.
    11. Susanne Padel, 2008. "Values of organic producers converting at different times: results of a focus group study in five European countries," International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1/2), pages 63-77.
    12. Sunding, David & Zilberman, David, 2001. "The agricultural innovation process: Research and technology adoption in a changing agricultural sector," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 207-261, Elsevier.
    13. Dimara, Efthalia & Skuras, Dimitrios, 1998. "Adoption of new tobacco varieties in Greece: Impacts of empirical findings on policy design," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 297-307, December.
    14. Henning Best, 2008. "Organic agriculture and the conventionalization hypothesis: A case study from West Germany," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(1), pages 95-106, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Natalia Brzezina & Katharina Biely & Ariella Helfgott & Birgit Kopainsky & Joost Vervoort & Erik Mathijs, 2017. "Development of Organic Farming in Europe at the Crossroads: Looking for the Way Forward through System Archetypes Lenses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Magali Aubert & Geoffroy Enjolras, 2017. "Are EU subsidies a springboard to the reduction of pesticide use?," Post-Print hal-02733800, HAL.
    3. Xiuping Yang & Dacheng Zhang & Qiqi Jia & Wentao Zhang & Tianyou Wang, 2019. "Exploring the Dynamic Coupling Relationship between Agricultural Economy and Agro-Ecological Environment in Semi-Arid Areas: A Case Study of Yulin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Rui Chen & Ye Su & Lan Tran, 2024. "Small Farmer’s Perceptions of Climate Change and Adoption of Climate-Smart Practices: Evidence from Missouri, USA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Lyu Yun & Jing Li & Ruixing Hou & Zhigang Sun & Peifei Cong & Rubiao Liang & Sheng Hang & Huarui Gong & Zhu Ouyang, 2019. "Emergy-Based Sustainability Analysis of an Ecologically Integrated Model with Maize Planting for Silage and Pig-Raising in the North China Plain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Jennifer A. Ball, 2020. "Women farmers in developed countries: a literature review," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(1), pages 147-160, March.
    7. Alon Tal, 2018. "Making Conventional Agriculture Environmentally Friendly: Moving beyond the Glorification of Organic Agriculture and the Demonization of Conventional Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    8. Marilena Gemtou & Konstantina Kakkavou & Evangelos Anastasiou & Spyros Fountas & Soren Marcus Pedersen & Gohar Isakhanyan & Kassa Tarekegn Erekalo & Serafin Pazos-Vidal, 2024. "Farmers’ Transition to Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Systematic Review of the Decision-Making Factors Affecting Adoption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-34, March.
    9. Unay-Gailhard, İlkay & Bojnec, Štefan, 2021. "Gender and the environmental concerns of young farmers: Do young women farmers make a difference on family farms?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 88, pages 71-82.
    10. Schulz, Dario & Börner, Jan, 2021. "Context and Technology Traits Explain Heterogeneity Across Adoption Studies of Agricultural Innovations: A Global Meta-Analysis," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315003, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Feliu López-i-Gelats & Jordi Bartolomé Filella, 2020. "Examining the role of organic production schemes in Mediterranean pastoralism," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5771-5792, August.
    12. Jennifer Hayden & Sarah Rocker & Hannah Phillips & Bradley Heins & Andrew Smith & Kathleen Delate, 2018. "The Importance of Social Support and Communities of Practice: Farmer Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities of Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems on Organically Managed Farms in the Northern U," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-26, December.
    13. Unay-Gailhard, Ilkay & Bojnec, Štefan, 2021. "Young Farmers' Attitudes Towards Agri-Environmental-Climate Measures: Do Young Women Farmers Make a Difference?," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315374, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Mahmoud Tarhini, 2022. "Consumption and Consumer Behaviour of Organic AGRI-FOOD Products," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(1), pages 136-149, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dimara, Efthalia & Skuras, Dimitris, 2003. "Adoption of agricultural innovations as a two-stage partial observability process," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 187-196, May.
    2. Lee-Ann Sutherland, 2013. "Can organic farmers be ‘good farmers’? Adding the ‘taste of necessity’ to the conventionalization debate," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 429-441, September.
    3. Charalampos Konstantinidis, 2018. "Capitalism in Green Disguise: The Political Economy of Organic Farming in the European Union," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 830-852, December.
    4. Seufert, Verena & Ramankutty, Navin & Mayerhofer, Tabea, 2017. "What is this thing called organic? – How organic farming is codified in regulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 10-20.
    5. Natalia Brzezina & Katharina Biely & Ariella Helfgott & Birgit Kopainsky & Joost Vervoort & Erik Mathijs, 2017. "Development of Organic Farming in Europe at the Crossroads: Looking for the Way Forward through System Archetypes Lenses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-23, May.
    6. Kurkalova, Lyubov A. & Kling, Catherine L. & Zhao, Jinhua, 2001. "The Subsidy For Adopting Conservation Tillage: Estimation From Observed Behavior," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20542, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Mohamed Gafsi & Jean-Luc Favreau, 2014. "Diversity of operating logics and sustainability of organic farms [Diversité des logiques de fonctionnement et durabilité des exploitations en agriculture biologique]," Post-Print hal-02076167, HAL.
    8. Gafsi, Mohamed & Favreau, Jean-Luc, 2014. "Diversité des logiques de fonctionnement et durabilité des exploitations en agriculture biologique," Économie rurale, French Society of Rural Economics (SFER Société Française d'Economie Rurale), vol. 339(January-M).
    9. Larson, James A. & Roberts, Roland K. & English, Burton C. & Larkin, Sherry L. & Marra, Michele C. & Martin, Steven W. & Paxton, Kenneth W. & Reeves, Jeanne M., 2007. "Factors Influencing Adoption of Remotely Sensed Imagery for Site-Specific Management in Cotton Production," 2007 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2007, Mobile, Alabama 34971, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    10. Zorn, A. & Lippert, C. & Dabbert, S., 2013. "Zur Nichteinhaltung von Vorschriften des ökologischen Landbaus in Deutschland und in der Schweiz – Statistische Analyse einzelbetrieblicher Daten," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 48, March.
    11. Diagne, Aliou, 2006. "Taking a New Look at Empirical Models of Adoption: Average Treatment Effect Estimation of Adoption Rates and their Determinants," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25623, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Masoud Yazdanpanah & Kurt Klein & Tahereh Zobeidi & Stefan Sieber & Katharina Löhr, 2022. "Why Have Economic Incentives Failed to Convince Farmers to Adopt Drip Irrigation in Southwestern Iran?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-15, February.
    13. Alessandra Arcuri, 2015. "The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 144-159, June.
    14. Araba, Narjiss, 2022. "Organic markets: a safe haven from volatility," 96th Annual Conference, April 4-6, 2022, K U Leuven, Belgium 321209, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    15. Lim, Krisha & Wichmann, Bruno & Luckert, Martin, 2021. "Adaptation, spatial effects, and targeting: Evidence from Africa and Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    16. Aslihan Arslan & Kristin Floress & Christine Lamanna & Leslie Lipper & Solomon Asfaw & Todd Rosenstock, 2020. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 63 - The adoption of improved agricultural technologies - A meta-analysis for Africa," IFAD Research Series 304758, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    17. Katharina Biely & Dries Maes & Steven Van Passel, 2018. "Market Power Extended: From Foucault to Meadows," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, August.
    18. Pépin, Antonin & Morel, Kevin & van der Werf, Hayo M.G., 2021. "Conventionalised vs. agroecological practices on organic vegetable farms: Investigating the influence of farm structure in a bifurcation perspective," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    19. 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.
    20. Laure Latruffe & Douadia Bougherara & Jasmin Sainte-Beuve, 2012. "Economic performance in organic farming in France: incentive or disincentive to convert?," Post-Print hal-01190622, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:136:y:2015:i:c:p:39-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.