Organic agriculture values and practices in Portugal and Italy

Isabel Dinis, Livia Ortolani, Riccardo Bocci and Cláudia Brites

Agricultural Systems, 2015, vol. 136, issue C, 39-45

Abstract: Most definitions of organic farming emphasise a holistic approach that combines quality production with sustainable practices and positive impact on resource conservation, biodiversity and animal welfare. Its founding values were also connected to small-scale production, minimisation of external inputs use, diversification and short market circuits. In the last two decades, organic farming has grown very rapidly, resulting in the subordination of its values to market forces. There has been a greater specialisation, an increase of scale, the involvement of large multinational corporations and the inclusion in global trade. This conventionalisation process and the connected certification standards, primarily focussed on banning the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, may weaken the vision of organic farming as a more sustainable alternative to conventional farming.

Keywords: Organic farming; Conventionalisation; Probabilistic models; Sustainability; Certification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:136:y:2015:i:c:p:39-45

DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2015.01.007

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