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Exploring Farm Development Strategies on the North Island of New Zealand

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Exploring Farm Development Strategies on the North Island of New Zealand Maxime Veenhoven Exploring farm development strategies A study on organic farming strategies of farmers located in the North island of New Zealand 0 MSc Thesis: International Development Studies Department: Sociology of Development Exploring farm development strategies A study on organic farming strategies of farmers located in the North island of New Zealand Date: October 2019 Name of Student: Maxime Veenhoven Name of Supervisor: Dr. Dirk Roep Name of Second Assessor: Han Wiskerke MSc Program: International Development Studies Specialization: Sociology of Development Thesis Code: RSO-80436 1 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research thesis could not have been done without the help of 19 farms in New Zealand. Therefore, I want to draw special attention to the hospitality, kindness and enthusiasm of all the farmers and people who helped me with the fieldwork. The farms shared amazing stories, showed me around and made my time in New Zealand unforgettable. Thereby, I want to thank Sita Venkateswar in special, as she was my mentor and friend during my time in New Zealand, and back in the Netherlands. Her network in NZ and knowledge helped me launch the research in the right way. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dirk Roep, my supervisor, for his enthusiasm, quick and honest feedback and general support. Without him, Sita and all the farms, this research was not possible. 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The environmental damage, due to agricultural farming practices, is a lively discussion in the global political spheres. Discussions on polluting water sources, global warming, soil degradation and the decrease of biodiversity are an upcoming threat to our food systems. A counter movement to these industrial agricultural food industries is the organic agricultural trend, which started around the 19th century, as pioneers and visionaries gathered and demonstrated against the dominant agricultural order. Since then, many streams of organic farming started, such as the so-called Organic 1.0 , 2.0 and 3.0 movements. This thesis is exploring the diversity in organic agricultural patterns by studying farm development strategies. Focus is on farmers located on the North island of New Zealand. Moreover, the country New Zealand is chosen as agricultural activity there is largely present and has an extensive history. In order to explore farm development strategies in this study, 19 farms were visited, whereby three elements were studied; the cultural repertoire, the farming practices and the resource relations. These elements were investigated through qualitative ethnographic research methods which included semi structured interviews, participant observation and discussions. The findings were analysed, which resulted in four fully defined farm development strategies, illustrating the current situation in the organic sector. This study emphasises the diversity in the farm development strategies of farmers on the North island of New Zealand. Key words: organic agriculture, farm development strategies, cultural repertoire, farming practices, resource relations, diversity 4 CONTENT CHAPTER 1: Introduction 7 The origins of organic agriculture 8 Current situation organic farmers 9 Problem statement 12 Research objective 12 Research questions 13 CHAPTER 2: Theoretical framework 14 Farm development strategies 14 Organic development strategies 19 Conclusion 20 CHAPTER 3: Methodology 21 Introduction 21 Study site: North island of New Zealand 22 Study population: organic farmers 23 Methods of the research questions 25 Analysis of empirical data 32 Ethics 32 CHAPTER 4: Context of organic agriculture in New Zealand 34 Introduction 34 Agriculture in New Zealand 34 Organic agriculture in New Zealand 36 Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI): regulation and standards 39 Certification bodies 43 Organic undercurrents 47 Conclusion 51 CHAPTER 5: Emergent cultural repertoires of organic farming 53 Introduction 53 The investigated farmers 54 Cultural repertoires of organic farming 59 From personal to shared cultural repertoires 65 Conclusion 70 CHAPTER 6: Farming practices and farm business strategies 71 Introduction 71 Farming practices of dairy farmers 72 5 Farm business strategies and certification of dairy farmers 76 Farming practices of fruit and vegetable farmers 80 Farm business strategies and certification of fruit and vegetable farms 83 Farming practices of meat and egg famers 87 Farm business strategies and certification of meat and egg farmers 89 Conclusion 90 CHAPTER 7: Webs of internal and external resource relations 92 Introduction 92 Common relations; internal (family) relations and the bank 93 External resource relations per farming pattern 95 Conclusion 106 Chapter 8: Conclusion and Discussion 108 The four farm development strategies 109 Diversity in organic agriculture 111 Discussion of the research questions 113 Discussion of methods 115 Input substitution versus integrated farming systems 117 Recommendations for future research 118 REFERENCES 120 ANNEX 125 Farming practices Interview Questions 125 Resource relations Interview Questions 127 Cultural Repertoire Interview Questions 128 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the primary source of food production on the earth, without agriculture, humanity cannot sustain itself. However, since the industrialization of agriculture, the global food production has become one of the biggest threats to humanity, as agriculture is one of the key players contributing to environmental degradation and climate change (Novotny, 1999). Agricultural practices cover 40% of the earth’s surface and is responsible for 70% of consumptive water use. Thereby, farming creates a form of income for 40% of the global population. Hence, agriculture has a huge impact on the environment and on humans (Kleinschmit, 2009). This environmental impact increased after the second World War, when the agricultural sector reinforced its power. Only this time, new technologies like synthetic fertilizer, new crop varieties and pesticides were discovered and expanded over the world as, for example, the Green Revolution. In the beginning, these new technologies boosted the food production intensively. However, it didn’t take long to discover that the intensive use of chemicals had a major impact on the soil, water and air (Anandaraj, 2019). Nowadays, the environmental degradation due to agriculture is openly recognized and discussed. The main forms of degradation are; decrease in soil fertility, erosion of soil, decrease of biodiversity, pollution of water sources (ground water, rivers and seas), pollution of the air (emissions), growing human health problems, socio-economic problems and so on (Novotny, 1999; FAO, 2009; Anandaraj, 2019; Chandini et al, 2019). In response to these developments, people established organic farming counter movements. This started with a so-called hippie movement but grew so fast that a global organization for organic agriculture (OA) originated in 1972: Internal Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). This federation has been coordinating the organic movements worldwide and is gathering scientific and experimental data about organic farming. Moreover, the IFOAM produces standards and guidelines for organic farmers and retailers. The amount of initiatives that joined the IFOAM grew from 25 to more than 500 initiatives in the year 2000. As many organic initiatives follow the IFOAM standards, their definition of organic farming is globally recognized. IFOAM defines organic agriculture as: ‘An agricultural system that promotes environmentally, socially and economically sound production of food, fiber, timber, etc. In this system, soil fertility is seen as the key to successful production. Working with the natural properties of plants, animals and the landscape, organic farmers aim to optimize quality in all aspects of agriculture and the environment.’ (IFOAM, 2005) However, OA is practiced by farmers in different ways. Within the organic agricultural movement, farmers have found their own priorities and have gathered in different groups. For instance, there 7 are farmers who follow permaculture, agroecological or regenerative farming principles. These forms of OA strive for an environmentally friendly way of farming. This growing organic farming trend is also noticed in New Zealand (NZ). This country could be described as an agricultural heaven; soft winters, fertile soils and a wet climates. After the war, large numbers of migrants came to NZ to start a farm and brought their ideas about organic farming. Now, decades later, OA in NZ went through different stages and is still developing. This thesis is about these organic sectors and looks at the different farm development strategies that organic farmers obtain to sustain their livelihood. Before, going deeper into the case, some background information about the history of OA is provided. THE ORIGINS OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE The origins of organic farming go back to the end of the 19th century when concerns about the condition of the earth started to rise and organic movements emerged. Visionaries described new ways of living and started to preach that the current way of living would not benefit the earth (IFOAM, 2016). Besides visionaries, life reform movements stood up and disapproved the dominance of the industries and the modern technologies. Both parties acknowledged the direction that agriculture was taking and asked for a radical change. These movements visualized a world of ‘going back to the land’ and a new diet with healthy nutrition-rich food (Vogt, 2007).
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