Withdrawal from organic farming in France

Summary

Many European nations envision organic farming as the future of sustainable agriculture. However, actual production is still far from objectives set for organic production. Both research and policies for organic farming have mainly focused on the conversion from conventional to organic farming. On the other hand long-term maintenance of organic farming has not been studied, despite its obvious importance for sustainability. Specifically, there is few knowledge on the extent and dynamics of farmer withdrawal. Little is known on farmer decisions to opt out, especially in France. Here, we study the extent and processes of withdrawal from organic farming in France. First, withdrawal extent was studied at the national level using data provided by the Agence Bio on organic certification and withdrawal from 2005 to 2010. Results show that estimated withdrawal varied from 208 over 16,446 organic farms (1.3 %) in 2009, to 610 over 11,978 organic farms (5.1 %) in 2007. Our findings thus show that organic farming withdrawal in France is lower than 5 % of organic farms. Nonetheless, there is a trend towards earlier withdrawals that raises issues. The withdrawal process was further analysed by a case study of interviews of 18 former organic farmers from the Rhône–Alpes region. Qualitative analyses show various processes of withdrawal at the interface of two dimensions: the circumstances causing farmers to leave organic farming and what farmers learned by experience. Our process-based method of this study gives more insights than current methods based solely on motivations for opting out. Our method integrates various aspects of the organic farming system, such as modes of certification, what being an organic farmer entails, and the transmission of organic farming values and practices. We used this knowledge to help farmer keep farming organically.