Differences in Organic and Conventional Agricultural Requirements
Abstract
As Americans increasingly produce and consume more organic foods, consumers’ perceptions
of organic requirements may inaccurately reflect the legal requirements. My first
question was, how do consumers’ perceptions of organic fertilizer, pesticide, and
livestock management requirements differ from the requirements written in the law?
My second question was, how have the differences in requirements for the USDA organic
certification and conventional agriculture changed in North Carolina and California
since 1990? While a majority of past research on the differences between organic and
conventional production has focused on environmental impacts, this research is unique
because it focuses on the differences in legal requirements as well as consumers’
and producers’ perceptions of those requirements, particularly for California and
North Carolina.
To assess consumers’ perceptions, I surveyed 560 Americans and found that the respondents
overestimated the fertilizer, pesticide, and livestock management requirements for
organic agriculture. To explore the second question, I focused on fertilizer, pesticide,
and livestock management requirements in federal and state laws for organic and conventional
agriculture, and I interviewed 22 farmers about their experiences with the two systems.
Both my examinations of the law and the interviews showed significant variation in
the differences between organic and conventional requirements across state and food
product. Some farmers see few differences while others who see large differences believe
organic agriculture is more ethical than conventional. There are also conventional
farmers who argue that their practices are more sustainable than those of organic
farmers and there are organic farmers who obtain the organic label in order to charge
a higher price. In terms of the written law, USDA seems to have relaxed organic requirements
in some cases, while both USDA and EPA have tightened requirements for conventional
systems thereby diminishing at least some differences between organic and conventional
requirements. I conclude that consumers should not assume all organic foods have the
fewest environmental impacts and that all conventional foods have the most environmental
impacts, and should instead do background research on particular products. Farmers
should help consumers by making their production processes more salient. To more accurately
highlight and reward environmentally sustainable farms, the government should continue
decreasing organic certification costs for small-scale sustainable farms.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
Public Policy StudiesPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9349Citation
Hossain, Shajuti (2015). Differences in Organic and Conventional Agricultural Requirements. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9349.Collections
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