IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v2y2010i1p163-188d6749.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Overcoming the Barriers to Organic Adoption in the United States: A Look at Pragmatic Conventional Producers in Texas

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas H. Constance

    (Department of Sociology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas 77341-2446, USA)

  • Jin Young Choi

    (Department of Sociology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas 77341-2446, USA)

Abstract

Organics is the one of the fastest growing segments in food sales. Though the amount of certified organic land is increasing, the supply of organic foods lags behind demand in the United States. The reasons for this gap include a lack of government support for organics, and the peculiarities of organics as an innovation. In an attempt to close this gap, and increase the environmental sustainability of U.S. agriculture, this paper has two objectives. The first is to document the structural and institutional constraints to organic adoption. This is accomplished through a review of organic programs and policies in the U.S., in particular the National Organic Program. The second objective is to investigate the predictors of interest and the perceived barriers to organic adoption among pragmatic conventional producers in Texas, compared to organic and conventional producers. This is accomplished through a survey of a representative sample of producers in Texas. The results indicate that more than forty percent of producers who currently have conventional operations have at least some interest in organic production (pragmatic conventional producers). There are significant differences among the three groups in their structural and attitudinal characteristics related to organic adoption. For the pragmatic conventional producers, an increase in revenue would be a major facilitator of organic adoption. Their high levels of uncertainty regarding organic production and marketing, and especially organic certification constrain organic adoption. The results also reveal that the institutional setting in the U.S. hindered adoption. The paper concludes that increased institutional support would facilitate organic adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas H. Constance & Jin Young Choi, 2010. "Overcoming the Barriers to Organic Adoption in the United States: A Look at Pragmatic Conventional Producers in Texas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:1:p:163-188:d:6749
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/1/163/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/1/163/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim O'Riordan & Dick Cobb, 2001. "Assessing the Consequences of Converting to Organic Agriculture," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 22-35, 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. Ariana P. Torres & Nicholas A. Lancaster & Luiz H. B. Vilas Boas, 2020. "Categorizing Organic Grain Buyers in the Midwestern United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Irwa Issa & Ulrich Hamm, 2017. "Adoption of Organic Farming as an Opportunity for Syrian Farmers of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Structural Equation Modelling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-22, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Bruce, Analena B. & Farmer, James R. & Giroux, Stacey & Dickinson, Stephanie & Chen, Xiwei & Donnell, Michael O. & Benjamin, Tamara J., 2022. "Opportunities and barriers to certified organic grain production on rented farmland in the U.S. Midwest state of Indiana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Delbridge, Timothy A. & King, Robert P., 2016. "How Important is the T-Yield? An Analysis of Reforms to Organic Crop Insurance," Staff Papers 244732, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    6. Delbridge, Timothy A. & Connolly, Cristina, 2017. "The Neighbor Effect: The Nature of Spatial Externalities in the Decision to Adopt Organic Production Systems," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258358, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Laura Restrepo Campuzano & Gustavo Adolfo Hincapié Llanos & Jhon Wilder Zartha Sossa & Gina Lía Orozco Mendoza & Juan Carlos Palacio & Mariana Herrera, 2023. "Barriers to the Adoption of Innovations for Sustainable Development in the Agricultural Sector—Systematic Literature Review (SLR)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, March.
    8. Glenn, Viola & Dale, Kelli & Sligh, Michael & Robinson, James, 2014. "Examining Adverse Selection in Organic Crop Insurance: Where Do We Go From Here?," 2014 AAEA: Crop Insurance and the 2014 Farm Bill Symposium: Implementing Change in U.S. Agricultural Policy, October 8-9, 2014, Louisville, KY 184264, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Alotaibi, Bader Alhafi & Yoder, Edgar & Brennan, Mark A. & Kassem, Hazem S., 2019. "Training needs of extension agents’ regarding organic agriculture in Saudi Arabia," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    10. Giovanna Sacchi & Vincenzina Caputo & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2015. "Alternative Labeling Programs and Purchasing Behavior toward Organic Foods: The Case of the Participatory Guarantee Systems in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-20, June.
    11. Łuczka, Władysława, 2020. "Institutional Barriers To The Development Of Organic Farming In Poland," Roczniki (Annals), Polish Association of Agricultural Economists and Agribusiness - Stowarzyszenie Ekonomistow Rolnictwa e Agrobiznesu (SERiA), vol. 2020(1).
    12. 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.
    13. Anastasiadis, Foivos & Kolympari, Petroula, 2019. "Sustainable or conventional production? The influence of farmer demographic characteristics," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 0(Issue 2).
    14. Beatrice Dingha & Leah Sandler & Arnab Bhowmik & Clement Akotsen-Mensah & Louis Jackai & Kevin Gibson & Ronald Turco, 2019. "Industrial Hemp Knowledge and Interest among North Carolina Organic Farmers in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, May.
    15. Juan Carlos Sánchez Herrera & Carolyn Dimitri, 2019. "The Role of Clustering in the Adoption of Organic Dairy: A Longitudinal Networks Analysis between 2002 and 2015," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, March.
    16. Waripas Jiumpanyarach, 2021. "Organic Agriculture: Farmers Perception and Adaptation in Northern Thailand," Asian Journal of Agriculture and rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 11(3), pages 245-254, September.
    17. 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).
    18. Attitudes & Perceived behavior & Costs of production & Conventional agriculture & Organic agriculture & Farmers’ decision & Farm practices, 2021. "Organic Agriculture: Farmers' Perception and Adaptation in Northern Thailand," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 11(03), January.

    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. Wheeler, Sarah Ann, 2008. "What influences agricultural professionals' views towards organic agriculture?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 145-154, March.
    2. Hiroki, Uematsu & Mishra, Ashok K., 2011. "Are Organic Farmers Really Better Off Than Conventional Farmers?," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103862, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    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. Attitudes & Perceived behavior & Costs of production & Conventional agriculture & Organic agriculture & Farmers’ decision & Farm practices, 2021. "Organic Agriculture: Farmers' Perception and Adaptation in Northern Thailand," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 11(03), January.
    5. Khanal, Aditya & Mishra, Ashok, 2016. "Are all farms better-off growing organic? An unconditional quantile regression approach," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235618, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Jones, Philip J., 2006. "Barriers to the adoption of organic farming in the European Union," Centre for Agricultural Strategy - Papers and Reports 337542, University of Reading.
    7. Waripas Jiumpanyarach, 2021. "Organic Agriculture: Farmers Perception and Adaptation in Northern Thailand," Asian Journal of Agriculture and rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 11(3), pages 245-254, September.
    8. 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.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:1:p:163-188:d:6749. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.