Are the motives of recent adopters in line with the conventionalisation hypothesis?

Summary

To contribute to the discussion on the con-ventionalisation hypothesis, empirical data on mo-tives for the conversion to organic farming by recent adopters is analysed. The results indicate that the preferences and attitudes of the new organic farmers contradict the conventionalisation scenario: (1) Com-pared to conventional farmers, the new adopters have lower preferences for high yields, market prices and easy control of weed and pests, but higher prefer-ences for receiving subsidies and not using chemicals. (2) Environmental concern has an effect on the odds of an adoption of organic farming. Thus, new organic farmers significantly differ in their preferences and attitudes from conventional farmers – they hold a less productivist, relatively alternative view of farming. In a conventionalised organic agriculture we would not expect to observe these differences.