ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS, ECONOMIC ORIENTATION, AND FARMING PRACTICES - A COMPARISON OF ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FARMERS

This study examines similarities and differences between organic and c onventional farmers. We explore the factors that underlie farmers' con servation attitudes and behaviors, including demographic and farm char acteristics, awareness of and concern for environmental problems assoc iated with agriculture, economic orientation toward farming, and self- reported conservation practices. A series of intensive personal interv iews was conducted with 25 farmers in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA, using both qualitative and quantitative survey methods. The findings indicate that both groups or farmers share a concern for the economic risks associated with farming, although the organic farmers reported a significantly greater concern for long-term sustainability and a grea ter willingness to incur present risk to gain future benefits. Organic farmers expressed a greater awareness of and concern for environmenta l problems associated with agriculture. Organic farmers also scored si gnificantly higher on a multifaceted measure of conservation practices , although both groups had a fairly high adoption rate. implications o f these findings are discussed, relative to economic risks of farming, implications for new farmers, effectiveness of conservation education and government programs, and impact of farm size and crop diversity.