Book of Abstract (incl. addendum) - IFSA symposium 2012

Workshop 6.3 Organics: their dynamics
productions and processing system organisation, and on farmers' projects and expectations. Transition
to organic farming doesn't always mean a surplus of work. Nevertheless it often causes important work
organisation changes. In many cases, it leads to a new dynamic in which work perception and work
expectations will change and have an influence on farming systems transformations.
Transition to sustainable agriculture: How reframing the meaning of
organic farming contributed to its growth in Austria
Ika Darnhofer and Lee-Ann Sutherland
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria
Ika.Darnhofer@boku.ac.at
Although organic farming has seen a strong growth in the last two decades, in most countries it still
covers only a small share of the agricultural land (in the USA: 0.7%, in the EU: 4%). However,
currently in Austria 20% of agricultural land is certified organic. The aim of this contribution is to
analyse how changing the meaning of 'organic' contributed to this development.
To enable a transition, a broad range of social, political and technical factors need to align. The
development of organic farming in Austria is thus not reduced to an economic explanation (e.g.
subsidies offered). Instead, the complex interplay of social norms and values, geo-political
developments, agro-ecological opportunities, entrepreneurial individuals, collective action and
governance structures is analysed. Our analysis is based on the conceptual framework established by
the Dutch School on transitions (Frank Geels, John Grin and others).
The contribution will focus on how the meaning of ‘organic farming’ was transformed in the
course of the transition and discuss to what extend this transformation of meaning was what made
organic farming – originally an alternative production method and thus defined in opposition to
conventional farming – acceptable to the mainstream. Indeed, organic farming needed to become an
attractive opportunity for agricultural policy makers, and acceptable for the societal actors involved in
agriculture (e.g. the chamber of agriculture). It also needed to loose its 'müsli' flair (i.e. healthy but
tasteless food) to become appealing to new consumer groups. Through reframing what organic farming
and food means, it became attractive to a wider constituency, allowing it to seize an 'window of
opportunity' (the fundamental change in agricultural policy linked to the EU-accession of Austria). The
analysis will thus show how (the meaning of) organic farming was transformed in the course of the
transition. Indeed a transition changes the niche as well as the regime.
Soil conservation practices in organic farming : overview of french
farmers’experiences and contribution to future cropping systems design
Vincent Lefevre, Mathieu Capitaine, Joséphine Peigne and Jean Roger-Estrade
ABIES AgroParisTech, France
Vlefevre@isara.fr
In organic farming, as crops production is directly depending on the smooth functioning of soil,
farmers pay attention to preserve soil ecosystem in order to benefit from better ecological services.
Today, soil conservation practices, as ploughless soil tillage and cover cropping, have gained
prominence in organic cropping systems and provide for great potentials such as maintaining or
increasing soil fertility, saving labour and reducing energy costs.
This paper focus on pioneer organic farmers who integrated or tended to integrate soil
conservation practices into their cropping systems. The aims are (i) to understand how these new
combined practices are managed in relation to farmers’ objectives and constraints and (ii) to identify
difficulties encountered by farmers and how they deal with it. This work provides a reference base for
designing new organic cropping systems.
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