Organic farmers or conventional farmers: Where's the money?

Uematsu, Hiroki; Mishra, Ashok K.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.03.013

Cited by 129 publications

(126 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Recent scholarship highlights that many motivations and factors affect the decision to farm organically and these factors are consistent across both country and cultural lines [40,41]. Prominently, environmental concerns with pollution and deleterious impacts [42], economic factors [43], and demographic differences between organic producers and conventional farmers (age, gender, and size of operation) [44,45] are often highlighted throughout the literature as variables that predict the decision to pursue organic production methods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurological and mental health outcomes among conventional and organic farmers in Indiana, USA

Khan¹,

Baidya²,

Aryal³

et al. 2018

Ann Agric Environ Med.

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Introduction. Every farming method, whether conventional or organic, has been associated with some sort of risky behaviors leading to health issues among farmers. Substantial evidence is not available in the literature to determine whether the magnitudes of health outcomes vary between conventional and organic farmers. The study investigated whether selfreported neurological and mental health symptoms differ between conventional and organic farmers living in Indiana, USA. Materials and method. A self-reported questionnaire survey collected information from 200 conventional and 157 organic farmers of Indiana on demographic characteristics, depression and neurological symptoms. Statistical analyses were conducted to observe the differences in self-reported symptoms by groups of farmers. Results. It was observed that the conventional farmers had significantly higher age-adjusted mean neurological symptom score (p<0.01) than the organic farmers. Regression models revealed positive and significant associations of conventional farming with total (β =1.34; p=0.02), sensory (β =0.83; p=0.001) and behavioural (β =0.09; p=0.03) symptoms after accounting for age, income, education and years in farming. Positive but non-significant associations were also observed in conventional farmers with cognitive and motor symptoms, and with all subscales of depression symptoms in the adjusted models. Conclusion. The findings obtained suggest the importance of a larger study to further explain the difference in mental and neurological health effects in these two categories of farmers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurological and mental health outcomes among conventional and organic farmers in Indiana, USA

Khan¹,

Baidya²,

Aryal³

et al. 2018

Ann Agric Environ Med.

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show abstract

“…Secondly, attention would need to be paid to worker hours, which are closely related not only to the economic indicator but also to Social Life Cycle Assessment. In general, organic farming needs higher amounts of labor time(Uematsu and Mishra 2012).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of organic paddy rotation systems using land- and product-based indicators: a case study in Japan

Hokazono

Hayashi

2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose This study aims to compare crop rotation systems used in organic farming (organic rotation systems) with those of both conventional farming (conventional rotation systems) and continuous rice cropping systems. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed based on land-and product-based indicators. Methods Seven crop rotation systems for rice, barley, and soybeans and continuous rice production systems were evaluated in this study. These systems are practiced by farmers in the study region and were constructed using production records, statistics, and guidelines. Comparisons were then made between organic and conventional crop rotation systems and between these crop rotation systems and a continuous rice production system. We used land-oriented expression to analyze tradeoffs between physical and monetary productivity and the environmental impact per area unit and productoriented expression to analyze efficiency as measured by the environmental impact per product unit. Results and discussion Results are summarized as follows: (1) The product-oriented expression, which is equivalent to conducting product LCA, revealed that organic conversion tended to be efficient, irrespective of using physical productivity (the functional unit of product mass measured as averaged annual energy yield) or using monetary productivity (the functional unit of product mass measured as averaged annual income).(2) However, the land-oriented expression revealed that there were tradeoffs between physical productivity and environmental impacts, although these tradeoffs were converted to win-win relationships if monetary productivity was used instead of physical productivity, and (3) the alteration of a continuous rice production system into crop rotations tended to be efficient and enables a win-win relationship.Conclusions Organic rotation systems have the potential of being recommended as sustainable agricultural practices in comparison with conventional rotation systems and continuous (organic and conventional) rice production systems. However, it was not clarified which productivity concepts should be used as evaluation criteria. It is considered that further studies using mechanistic modeling of crop rotations are required to improve LCA practices.

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“…The choice to adopt organic farming practices has been studied in a variety of settings, although much of this work has examined the transition from conventional to organic agriculture outside of the United States (Uematsu & Mishra, 2012) and much of it is qualitative. Previous quantitative work has tended to estimate correlations between production and factors such as farm economics, risk, and environmental concern, and contextual factors such as a producer's experience, age, and gender (Darnhofer, Schneeberger, & Freyer, 2005), without considering the larger context in which farmers are making decisions.…”

Section: Previous Evidence Of Factors Affecting Choice To Farm Organimentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Farming in West Virginia: A Behavioral Approach

Farmer

Epstein

Watkins

et al. 2014

JAFSCD

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Organic farmers or conventional farmers: Where's the money?

Cited by 129 publications

References 30 publications

Neurological and mental health outcomes among conventional and organic farmers in Indiana, USA

Neurological and mental health outcomes among conventional and organic farmers in Indiana, USA

Life cycle assessment of organic paddy rotation systems using land- and product-based indicators: a case study in Japan

Organic Farming in West Virginia: A Behavioral Approach

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