Organic Farmers and Rural Development

By Jennifer Sumner, PhD

A recent study reveals that organic farmers make a major contribution to rural development. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the study found that organic farmers in southwestern Ontario contribute to community sustainability on three levels: economically, socially and environmentally.

But in an era fixated on unsustainable growth, their contributions to rural development have not been recognized. On the contrary, Debi Barker, deputy director of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), notes that current public policy promotes an increasingly industrialized form of agriculture that tends to cater to a global export market and bypasses rural communities and thus has serious negative consequences for the environment and for people. She argues that it replaces local, self-reliant food systems, suppresses biodiversity, causes widespread soil, water and air pollution, requires huge increases in environmentally destructive transportation infrastructures, results in additional packaging and fuel use, fosters the spread of exotic species, viruses, bacteria and disease, strips away local control of common resources and introduces biopollution in the form of genetically modified organisms.

In contrast to what Barker sees as an inherently destructive form of agriculture, the study reveals that organic agriculture has much more positive outcomes. Organic farmers directly engage with their local communities and promote rural development by making a wide range of economic, social and environmental contributions.

Economically, organic farmers contribute to rural development in terms of both supply and demand. On the one hand, the study reveals that over half (56%) are involved in direct sales to local businesses, while approximately one-quarter of the respondents engage in farm-gate, farm-store or produce-stand sales (27%), sales to family, friends and local farmers (26%), or run a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project (21%). On the other hand, almost all of the organic farmers interviewed (93%) make a point of purchasing both farm supplies and household needs as locally as possible. They patronize local feed mills, shop at nearby supermarkets, buy from regional organic suppliers and spend money at local health-food stores. In this way, they contribute not only to their own financial stability, but to the financial stability of their rural communities.

Socially, organic farmers are involved in four main areas: social, cultural, political and human development. First, more than three quarters of the farmers interviewed (76%) volunteer in their rural community. They help at local churches, schools and community events. Seventy percent of them belong to a local club or organization, such as the Lion=s Club, the choir or the Women=s Institute. Second, more than three-quarters of the organic farmers interviewed actively support local cultural events and institutions. They attend fall fairs, watch school plays and recitals, participate in church-led projects and help their neighbours. Third, organic farmers play a vital part in local political activities. Seventy-one percent of the respondents had engaged with their local government regarding community issues, such as farm, land-use, severance and road issues, intensive livestock operations, and school and healthcare concerns. In addition, 61% of the respondents had participated in local roundtables and panels. And fourth, organic farmers are involved in human development activities. They participate in apprenticeship programs to train aspiring organic farmers and provide spaces for the advancement of rural women within their organizations.

Environmentally, organic farmers contribute to their local communities by practicing a form of agriculture that lowers the chemical burden on the surrounding land and water, and builds up the quality of the soil. The farmers in this study also took their environmental ethic beyond the farm gate when virtually all of them strictly followed guidelines on waste management (100%) and soil management (98%), and belonged to or supported a group or association that promoted environmental issues (93%). The majority sold their produce locally (88%), rather than add food miles to their products, actively supported local environmental initiatives (79%), and spoke about environmental issues to local community groups (69%) and their political representatives (55%).

These economic, social and environmental contributions are crucial to rural community sustainability. But they are often neither understood as rural development, nor recognized by policymakers at the local, provincial and national levels of government. In a situation of almost complete policy void, their way of farming has been marginalized and their contributions ignored. It is time for public policy to acknowledge their contribution to rural development and to promote the kind of "small-scale on a large scale" contributions that organic farmers clearly make to rural communities.

Dr. Jennifer Sumner is an Assistant Professor, Adult Education and Community Development Program, OISE/University of Toronto.

Posted on the OACC website, September 2005