IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v49y2014ip2p429-436.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To certify or not to certify? Separating the organic production and certification decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Veldstra, Michael D.
  • Alexander, Corinne E.
  • Marshall, Maria I.

Abstract

This article separates the decision to be certified organic into the decision to use organic practices and the subsequent decision to certify those practices, using data from a survey of US fruit and vegetable producers. We document that many producers are using organic practices but choosing not to certify. Philosophical beliefs and perceived risk of losses due to disease, weeds, and insects have the largest impact on the decision to use organic practices. Producers who use organic practices and direct market are less likely to certify. Moreover, we find that the certification process discourages certification.

Suggested Citation

  • Veldstra, Michael D. & Alexander, Corinne E. & Marshall, Maria I., 2014. "To certify or not to certify? Separating the organic production and certification decisions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P2), pages 429-436.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:49:y:2014:i:p2:p:429-436
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.05.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919214000840
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.05.010?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. Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2011. "Farmers adoption of integrated crop protection and organic farming: Do moral and social concerns matter?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1536-1545, June.
    2. Ika Darnhofer & Walter Schneeberger & Bernhard Freyer, 2005. "Converting or not converting to organic farming in Austria:Farmer types and their rationale," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(1), pages 39-52, March.
    3. Dimitri, Carolyn & Greene, Catherine R., 2002. "Recent Growth Patterns In The U.S. Organic Foods Market," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33715, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Greene, Catherine R., 2004. "Recent Trends In Organic Production," Agricultural Outlook Forum 2004 33006, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Outlook Forum.
    5. Hayley H. Chouinard & Tobias Paterson & Philip R. Wandschneider & Adrienne M. Ohler, 2008. "Will Farmers Trade Profits for Stewardship? Heterogeneous Motivations for Farm Practice Selection," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(1), pages 66-82.
    6. Greene, Catherine R. & Dimitri, Carolyn & Lin, Biing-Hwan & McBride, William D. & Oberholtzer, Lydia & Smith, Travis A., 2009. "Emerging Issues in the U.S. Organic Industry," Economic Information Bulletin 58617, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. Robert J. Sheeder & Gary D. Lynne, 2011. "Empathy-Conditioned Conservation: “Walking in the Shoes of Others” as a Conservation Farmer," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 87(3), pages 433-452.
    8. Kim Darby & Marvin T. Batte & Stan Ernst & Brian Roe, 2008. "Decomposing Local: A Conjoint Analysis of Locally Produced Foods," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 476-486.
    9. Lohr, Luanne & Salomonsson, Lennart, 2000. "Conversion subsidies for organic production: results from Sweden and lessons for the United States," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 133-146, March.
    10. Genius, Margarita & Pantzios, Christos J. & Tzouvelekas, Vangelis, 2006. "Information Acquisition and Adoption of Organic Farming Practices," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(1), pages 1-21, April.
    11. Karen Klonsky, 2000. "Forces impacting the production of organic foods," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 233-243, September.
    12. Low, Sarah A. & Vogel, Stephen J., 2011. "Direct and Intermediated Marketing of Local Foods in the United States," Economic Research Report 118025, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    13. Michael Burton & Dan Rigby & Trevor Young, 1999. "Analysis of the Determinants of Adoption of Organic Horticultural Techniques in the UK," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 47-63, January.
    14. D'souza, Gerard & Cyphers, Douglas & Phipps, Tim, 1993. "Factors Affecting the Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 159-165, October.
    15. Park Timothy & Lohr Luanne, 2006. "Choices of Marketing Outlets by Organic Producers: Accounting for Selectivity Effects," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-26, July.
    16. Yuko Onozaka & Dawn Thilmany Mcfadden, 2011. "Does Local Labeling Complement or Compete with Other Sustainable Labels? A Conjoint Analysis of Direct and Joint Values for Fresh Produce Claim," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(3), pages 689-702.
    17. Park, Timothy A., 2009. "Assessing the Returns from Organic Marketing Channels," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 34(3), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Dimitri, Carolyn & Oberholtzer, Lydia, 2008. "The U.S. Organic Handling Sector in 2004: Baseline Findings of the Nationwide Survey of Organic Manufacturers, Processors, and Distributors," Economic Information Bulletin 58638, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Läpple, Doris & Rensburg, Tom Van, 2011. "Adoption of organic farming: Are there differences between early and late adoption?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1406-1414, May.
    20. KS Pietola & AO Lansink, 2001. "Farmer response to policies promoting organic farming technologies in Finland," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 28(1), pages 1-15, March.
    21. D'Souza, Gerard E. & Cyphers, Douglas & Phipps, Tim T., 1993. "Factors Affecting The Adoption Of Sustainable Agricultural Practices," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 22(2), pages 1-7, October.
    22. Karen Klonsky & Laura Tourte, 1998. "Organic Agricultural Production in the United States: Debates and Directions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1119-1124.
    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. Maria Raimondo & Francesco Caracciolo & Concetta Nazzaro & Giuseppe Marotta, 2021. "Organic Farming Increases the Technical Efficiency of Olive Farms in Italy," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Nuray Cakirli Akyüz & Ludwig Theuvsen, 2020. "The Impact of Behavioral Drivers on Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: The Case of Organic Farming in Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Delmas, Magali A. & Gergaud, Olivier & Lim, Jinghui, 2016. "Does Organic Wine Taste Better? An Analysis of Experts' Ratings," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 329-354, December.
    4. Chiaverina, Pierre & Drogué, Sophie & Jacquet, Florence, 2024. "Do Farmers Participating in Short Food Supply Chains Use Less Pesticides? Evidence from France," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    5. Philippos Karipidis & Sotiria Karypidou, 2021. "Factors that Impact Farmers’ Organic Conversion Decisions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, April.
    6. Mosier, Samantha L. & Thilmany, Dawn, 2016. "Diffusion of food policy in the U.S.: The case of organic certification," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 80-91.
    7. Yu, Yanan & He, Yong & Zhao, Xuan, 2021. "Impact of demand information sharing on organic farming adoption: An evolutionary game approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Yanan Yu & Yong He & Xuan Zhao & Li Zhou, 2022. "Certify or not? An analysis of organic food supply chain with competing suppliers," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 314(2), pages 645-675, July.
    9. Bonisoli, Lorenzo & Piedra-Muñoz, Laura & Galdeano-Gómez, Emilio & Pérez Mesa, Juan Carlos, 2019. "Benchmarking agri-food sustainability certifications: evidences from applying SAFA in the Ecuadorian banana agri-system," MPRA Paper 119956, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Joice Aline Aguiar Cruz Zanatta & Reginaldo Fidelis & Lyssa Setsuko Sakanaka, 2023. "Method for selecting certification standards for food safety," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(4), pages 1071-1085, August.
    11. Malek, Žiga & Tieskens, Koen F. & Verburg, Peter H., 2019. "Explaining the global spatial distribution of organic crop producers," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    12. Dimitrios Tselempis & Philippos Karipidis & Alexandra Pavloudi & Anastasios Semos, 2015. "Is quality certification in fruit and vegetable production a market-driven choice in Greece?," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Dabbert, Stephan & Lippert, Christian & Zorn, Alexander, 2014. "Introduction to the special section on organic certification systems: Policy issues and research topics," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P2), pages 425-428.
    14. Schmidt, Claudia & Goetz, Stephan J. & Tian, Zheng, 2021. "Female farmers in the United States: Research needs and policy questions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Kang, Shijia & Frick, Fabian & Ait Sidhoum, Amer & Sauer, Johannes & Zheng, Shaofeng, 2023. "Does food quality certification improve eco-efficiency? Empirical evidence from Chinese vegetable production," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    16. Zhou, Y., 2018. "Assessing the Market Premium for Organic Certification among Canadian Community Supported Agriculture Programs," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275901, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Hanna Górska-Warsewicz & Sylwia Żakowska-Biemans & Dagmara Stangierska & Monika Świątkowska & Agnieszka Bobola & Julita Szlachciuk & Maksymilian Czeczotko & Karol Krajewski & Ewa Świstak, 2021. "Factors Limiting the Development of the Organic Food Sector—Perspective of Processors, Distributors, and Retailers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-22, September.
    18. Khanal, Aditya R. & Mishra, Sachin K & Honey, Ummey, 2018. "Certified organic food production, financial performance, and farm size: An unconditional quantile regression approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 367-376.
    19. González-Azcárate, Mario & Cruz-Maceín, José Luis & Bardají, Isabel, 2022. "Certifications in short food supply chains in the region of Madrid. Part of the alternative?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    20. Arthur P. J. Mol & Peter Oosterveer, 2015. "Certification of Markets, Markets of Certificates: Tracing Sustainability in Global Agro-Food Value Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-21, September.
    21. Felix Zoll & Caitlin K. Kirby & Kathrin Specht & Rosemarie Siebert, 2023. "Exploring member trust in German community-supported agriculture: a multiple regression analysis," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(2), pages 709-724, June.
    22. Froehlich, Anderson G. & Melo, Andrea S.S.A. & Sampaio, Breno, 2018. "Comparing the Profitability of Organic and Conventional Production in Family Farming: Empirical Evidence From Brazil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 307-314.

    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. Torres, Ariana P. & Marshall, Maria I. & Alexander, Corinne E., 2013. "Does Proximity Determine Organic Certification Among Farmers Using Organic Practices?," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150607, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Wollni, Meike & Andersson, Camilla, 2014. "Spatial patterns of organic agriculture adoption: Evidence from Honduras," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 120-128.
    3. Uematsu, Hiroki & Mishra, Ashok K., 2012. "Organic farmers or conventional farmers: Where's the money?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 55-62.
    4. Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2011. "Farmers adoption of integrated crop protection and organic farming: Do moral and social concerns matter?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1536-1545, June.
    5. Anderson, Jamie B. & Jolly, Desmond A. & Green, Richard D., 2005. "Determinants of farmer adoption of organic production methods in the fresh-market produce sector in California: A logistic regression analysis," 2005 Annual Meeting, July 6-8, 2005, San Francisco, California 36319, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    6. Zein Kallas & Teresa Serra & José Maria Gil, 2010. "Farmers’ objectives as determinants of organic farming adoption: the case of Catalonian vineyard production," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(5), pages 409-423, September.
    7. Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2014. "Do organic farmers feel happier than conventional ones? An exploratory analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 38-43.
    8. Daniele Mozzato & Paola Gatto & Edi Defrancesco & Lucia Bortolini & Francesco Pirotti & Elena Pisani & Luigi Sartori, 2018. "The Role of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices: Can Geographical Context and Time Explain the Differences Emerging from Literature?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, August.
    9. Nguyen Cong Dinh & Takeshi Mizunoya & Vo Hoang Ha & Pham Xuan Hung & Nguyen Quang Tan & Le Thanh An, 2023. "Factors influencing farmer intentions to scale up organic rice farming: preliminary findings from the context of agricultural production in Central Vietnam," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 749-774, September.
    10. Boun My, Kene & Nguyen-Van, Phu & Kim Cuong Pham, Thi & Stenger, Anne & Tiet, Tuyen & To-The, Nguyen, 2022. "Drivers of organic farming: Lab-in-the-field evidence of the role of social comparison and information nudge in networks in Vietnam," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    11. Läpple, Doris & Kelley, Hugh, 2013. "Understanding the uptake of organic farming: Accounting for heterogeneities among Irish farmers," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 11-19.
    12. Han, Guang & Arbuckle, J. Gordon & Grudens-Schuck, Nancy, 2021. "Motivations, goals, and benefits associated with organic grain farming by producers in Iowa, U.S," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    13. Mannaf, Maksuda & Wheeler, Sarah Ann & Zuo, Alec, 2023. "Global and Local Spatial Spill-Overs: What Matters Most for the Diffusion of Organic Agriculture in Australia?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    14. Władysława Łuczka & Sławomir Kalinowski, 2020. "Barriers to the Development of Organic Farming: A Polish Case Study," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    15. MacInnis, Bo, 2004. "Transaction Costs And Organic Marketing: Evidence From U.S. Organic Produce Farmers," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20386, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Cuong Le Van & Nguyen To The, 2019. "Farmers’ adoption of organic production," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 33-59, February.
    17. Sheng Gong & Jason.S. Bergtold & Elizabeth Yeager, 2021. "Assessing the joint adoption and complementarity between in-field conservation practices of Kansas farmers," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    18. Caroline Roussy & Aude Ridier & Karim Chaïb, 2014. "Adoption d’innovations par les agriculteurs : rôle des perceptions et des préférences," Post-Print hal-01123427, HAL.
    19. Velandia, Margarita & Clark, Christopher D. & Lambert, Dayton M. & Davis, James A. & Jensen, Kimberly & Wszelaki, Annette & Wilcox, Michael D., 2014. "Factors Affecting Producer Participation in State-sponsored Marketing Programs: The Case of Fruit and Vegetable Growers in Tennessee," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 249-265, August.
    20. Hattam, Caroline & Holloway, Garth J., 2007. "Bayes Estimates of Time to Organic Certification," 81st Annual Conference, April 2-4, 2007, Reading University, UK 7979, Agricultural Economics Society.

    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:jfpoli:v:49:y:2014:i:p2:p:429-436. 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/foodpol .

    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.