| This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Farmers convert to organic farming for a variety of reasons including environmental concerns, problems with conventional systems, and personal and financial reasons. They also vary in their management styles. These personal characteristics are rarely considered as explaining variables in comparative studies of farming systems, because of the contrasting methods used to evaluate personal objectives and attitudes as opposed to farm activities. Farming should be seen as a human activity system, in which people actively manage some natural resources, for the purpose of producing output, influenced by their subjective values and attitudes. The Farming Systems Research (FSR) approach aims to... |
