IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v23y2006i3p341-352.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contextualizing farmers’ attitudes towards genetically modified crops

Author

Listed:
  • Kazumi Kondoh
  • Raymond Jussaume

Abstract

Analyses of the role of technological development in agriculture are central to an understanding of social change in agri-food systems. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the formation of a broader perspective of how farmers are positioning themselves with respect to controversial agricultural technologies through an empirical analysis of Washington State farmers’ willingness or unwillingness to try Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) technology on their farms. The use of this type of biotechnology in farming has been criticized for its potential harmful effects on natural environments and socio-cultural systems, while proponents highlight the possibilities for increasing production with minimal use of other inputs. An analysis of the extent of farmers’ expressed willingness to use GMOs provides an opportunity to better understand how their diverse thoughts about controversial agricultural technologies are shaped not only by their own experiences but also by social context. The present study does this by analyzing data from a farm survey conducted on a random sample of farmers from across Washington State. The results show that the production practices farmers utilize and the market strategies they employ may be at least as useful as farmers’ socio-economic characteristics in explaining what types of farmers appear to be more or less interested in potentially using this technology. Furthermore, the relationship between level of formal education and willingness to use GMOs is not straightforward. It may hide differences between farmers with respect to where and how they received their formal education as well as the type(s) of knowledge they gained. It is argued that future research should recognize the diversity that exists in farmers’ interests vis-á-vis particular technologies and should also explore how these interests are shaped by farmers’ past and present social networks and life experiences. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Kazumi Kondoh & Raymond Jussaume, 2006. "Contextualizing farmers’ attitudes towards genetically modified crops," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 341-352, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:23:y:2006:i:3:p:341-352
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-006-9004-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-006-9004-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-006-9004-6?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. Vandenberg, Jennifer M. & Fulton, Joan R. & Dooley, Frank J. & Preckel, Paul V., 2000. "Impact of Identity Preservation of Non-GMO Crops on the Grain Market System," CAFRI: Current Agriculture, Food and Resource Issues, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, issue 1, pages 1-8, May.
    2. Frederick Buttel, 2000. "The recombinant BGH controversy in the United States: Toward a new consumption politics of food?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(1), pages 5-20, March.
    3. Ribaudo, Marc O. & Shoemaker, Robbin A., 1995. "The Effect of Feedgrain Program Participation on Chemical Use," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 211-220, October.
    4. Batie, Sandra S. & Ervin, David E., 2001. "Transgenic crops and the environment: missing markets and public roles," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 435-457, October.
    5. David Smith & J. Skalnik & Patricia Skalnik, 1997. "The bST debate: The relationship between awareness and acceptance of technological advances," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 14(1), pages 59-66, March.
    6. Bradford L. Barham, 1996. "Adoption of a Politicized Technology: bST and Wisconsin Dairy Farmers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(4), pages 1056-1063.
    7. Andrew W. Gilg & Martin Battershill, 1999. "The Role of Household Factors in Direct Selling of Farm Produce in France," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 90(3), pages 312-319, August.
    8. Friedland,William H. & Barton,Amy E. & Thomas,Robert J., 1981. "Manufacturing Green Gold," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521285841, September.
    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. Benjamin Cohen, 2009. "The once and future georgic: agricultural practice, environmental knowledge, and the place for an ethic of experience," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(3), pages 153-165, September.
    2. Tironi, Manuel & Salazar, Maite & Valenzuela, Daniel, 2013. "Resisting and accepting: Farmers' hybrid epistemologies in the GMO controversy in Chile," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 93-104.

    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. Mulvaney, Dustin & Krupnik, Timothy J., 2014. "Zero-tolerance for genetic pollution: Rice farming, pharm rice, and the risks of coexistence in California," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 125-131.
    2. Musser, Wesley N. & Hanson, James C. & Hewitt, Tracy Irwin & Reichelderfer Smith, Katherine & Peters, Steven E., 1996. "A Case Study of Federal Farm Commodity Programs and Sustainable Production Systems," Working Papers 197842, University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    3. Jill Harrison & Christy Getz, 2015. "Farm size and job quality: mixed-methods studies of hired farm work in California and Wisconsin," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 617-634, December.
    4. Rebecca Schewe & Diana Stuart, 2015. "Diversity in agricultural technology adoption: How are automatic milking systems used and to what end?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 199-213, June.
    5. A.Allan Schmid, 2004. "The Spartan School Of Institutional Economics At Michigan State University," Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, in: Wisconsin "Government and Business" and the History of Heterodox Economic Thought, pages 207-243, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Leland Glenna & Raymond Jussaume & Julie Dawson, 2011. "How farmers matter in shaping agricultural technologies: social and structural characteristics of wheat growers and wheat varieties," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(2), pages 213-224, June.
    7. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    8. Mario F. Teisl & Julie A. Caswell, 2003. "Information Policy and Genetically Modified Food: Weighting the Benefits and Costs," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 4, March.
    9. Gray, Emily M. & Ahmadi-Esfahani, Fredoun Z., 2008. "Uncertainty aversion in Australian regulation of agricultural gene technology," 2008 Conference (52nd), February 5-8, 2008, Canberra, Australia 6045, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    10. Tim Lang, 1999. "The complexities of globalization: The UK as a case study of tensions within the food system and the challenge to food policy," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 16(2), pages 169-185, June.
    11. Meredith T. Niles & Margaret Brown & Robyn Dynes, 2016. "Farmer’s intended and actual adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 277-295, March.
    12. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Zilberman, David & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "GM Technology Adoption, Production Risk and On-farm Varietal Diversity," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49173, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Barham, Bradford L. & Foltz, Jeremy D. & Moon, Sunung & Jackson-Smith, Douglas, 2002. "Rbst Use Among U.S. Dairy Farmers: A Comparative Analysis From 6 States," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19598, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    14. Ralandison, Tsilavo, 2021. "Exploring Corporation-Cooperative Arrangements in Agricultural Value Chains：The Case of Madagascar Vanilla," Japanese Journal of Agricultural Economics (formerly Japanese Journal of Rural Economics), Agricultural Economics Society of Japan (AESJ), vol. 23.
    15. Jutta Roosen & Jayson L. Lusk & John A. Fox, 2003. "Consumer demand for and attitudes toward alternative beef labeling strategies in France, Germany, and the UK," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(1), pages 77-90.
    16. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Zilberman, David & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Transgenic technology adoption and on-farm varietal diversity," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51750, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Iulie Aslaksen & Anne Ingeborg Myhr, 2006. ""The worth of a wildflower" Precautionary perspectives on the environmental risk of GMOs," Discussion Papers 476, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    18. Butler, Leslie J. & Henriques, Irene, 2001. "Adoption and Diffusion of Biotechnology: rbST in California," 2001 Conference (45th), January 23-25, 2001, Adelaide, Australia 125548, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    19. Mooney, Daniel F. & Barham, Bradford L. & Lian, Chang, 2013. "Sustainable Biofuels, Marginal Agricultural Lands, and Farm Supply Response: Micro-Evidence for Southwest Wisconsin," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150510, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Meredith Niles & Margaret Brown & Robyn Dynes, 2016. "Farmer’s intended and actual adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 277-295, March.

    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:spr:agrhuv:v:23:y:2006:i:3:p:341-352. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.