OPINIONS ON THE ROLE AND DESIGN OF AGRICU LTURE IN SOCIETY - RESULTS OF A SURVEY AMONG VISITORS OF THE FEDERAL RESEARCH-CENTER OF AGRICULTURE BRAUNSCHWEIG-VOLKENRODE (FAL) ON THE OPEN HOUSE DAY ON JUNE 6,1993

Environmental problems related to farming and animal husbandry, applic ation of new techniques and inputs based on genetic engineering in agr icultural research and farm production, and the discussion on the orga nisational structure of German agriculture which came up after reunifi cation suggest that the main attitudes of the non-agricultural populat ion in Germany toward agriculture may be in a process of change. This question has been analysed by a survey among visitors of the Federal R esearch Centre of Agriculture Braunschweig-Volkenrode on the Open Hous e Day on June 6, 1993. The questions and statements which were present ed to the visitors by means of a brief questionnaire aimed at social d emands on agriculture (i.e., quantity, prices and safety of food, envi ronmental protection and landscape conservation), at the organisationa l form of farm enterprises (i.e., family farms, commercial farms with hired labour, or cooperative types of farming), and at other critical issues (e.g., mass animal husbandry, social status of farmers, interre lation between farm size and environmental pollution, convictions rela ted to agrarian fundamentalism, the role of farmers in villages, and g enetic engineering in farm and food production). Though overproduction is a well-known phenomenon, a majority of visitors said that the quan tity of farm products should be maintained in the future or even be in creased. Probably, many of them implicitly referred to the world food situation. The visitors' demand for food safety proved to be very clea r; particularly for persons with higher education and for women health y food seems to be important. Elder citizens put more emphasis on low food prices and sufficient food supply than younger ones. Environmenta l protection and landscape conservation were considered as urgent task s of agriculture in the future; people with higher education even more frequently declared that this aspect had been neglected too much. Tho ugh the former centrally planned system of collective and state farms in East Germany has paid less attention to landscape conservation than the less politically regulated system of private farming in West Germ any, citizens from the Eastern part of the country did not demand more efforts toward improvement of landscape than those from the Western p art. Surprisingly, the family farm was only preferred by one quarter o f those visitors included in the survey, and 35 % were favouring coope rative farming. Among citizens from Eastern Germany a higher percentag e voted for cooperative farms and a lower one for family farms; and th e opposite is the for persons living in Western Germany. Women express ed less sympathy for family farms than men. The high burden of labour women usually have to accept on family farms may be the reason for thi s difference. People with higher education more frequently refused to give priority to any form of organisation, whereas those with lower ed ucation tended to prefer the family farm. Three fourth of the visitors who took part in the survey were convinced that mass animal husbandry had expanded too far, and more women than men agreed with this statem ent. The opposite opinion was expressed by die majority of those perso ns who were familiar with farming due to their agricultural profession . Amazingly, the opponents of mass animal husbandry did not deliver a higher proportion of answers in favour of family farms (which usually breed smaller numbers of animals) and against cooperative and commerci al farms with hired labour (usually holding larger animal stocks). Obv iously, this aspect was less relevant as a motivation, when the visito rs expressed their preferences regarding the organisational form of ag riculture. The hypothesis that large farms are generally more harmful to the environment than small ones cannot be substantiated on an empir ical basis. In spite of this, the results of the survey suggest that t his opinion still prevails and is even more popular among older people than among younger ones. Within the ''agricultural group'' (i.e. thos e persons who work or have worked, live or have lived on a farm, were brought up in a farm household, or have professional links to the agri cultural sector) and among citizens from Eastern Germany this view was shared by a smaller proportion; but also in these cases it was still the majority. The same is true for visitors with higher education. It seems plausible that those ones who associate larger farms with more e nvironmental pollution are also less fond of commercial farms with hir ed labour. However, this relationship could neither be confirmed nor b e refused by this survey. Thus, no conclusion can be drawn as to wheth er there is a link between the preferences related to the organisation al form of agricultural enterprises and the prejudice concerning large farms mentioned above. 70 % of the participants disagreed with the st atement that application of genetic engineering techniques or inputs t o food production should be increased. This critical attitude was more often expressed by young people than by older ones, by the non-agricu ltural than by the agricultural group, by women than by men, and by ci tizens from the Western part of the country than by those from the Eas tern part. In contrast, there was no difference with regard to educati on. Furthermore, the results show that persons who expect agriculture to be more in accordance with principles of environmental protection a re simultaneously likely to belong to the opponents of increased appli cation of genetic engineering. In declarations and discussions on agri cultural policies the notion that farmers are more important for stabi lity in society than other social groups still plays a major role. In this survey, a statement referring to this opinion provoked neither di stinct agreement nor strong disagreement, but most of the persons ques tioned decided for a less differentiated response. Though this issue n eeds more detailed investigation, there is some evidence that convicti ons related to agrarian fundamentalism actually play a minor role in s ociety than political rhetorics sometimes suggest. Perhaps such tradit ional views of farming are more and more replaced by the extended disc ussion on environmental aspects and genetic engineering. The survey sh owed some more agrarianism among older people, persons with lower educ ation, and farmers themselves; and agreement with the fundamentalistic statement was below average when presented to participants