Organic farming as a job and a calling

Abstract

This is the first sociological study of development of organic farming in Poland, based  on interprative paradigm and methodology of grounded theory. The basis of the study  form 27 narrative and unstructured interviews with organic farmers from many  regions of Poland, direct observation and content analysis of publications on organic  farming. The central question is about the essence of organic farming. Is it a  proffesion like any other or a social movement? What are the distinctive factors that  can help in differantiating an organic farmer from the „conventional” one? What  factors form the social world of organic farming, what kind of arenas of disputes  emerge?  At the beginning of the 1990s there were just some 20 organic farms in Poland and  those farmers who practised „ecology” where labeled as strange idealists. The key  factor that dynamised the development of ecofarming in Poland was the entrance of  this country into European Union. In the years 2003-2005 there was a 3-fold  increase in number of farms (from 2286 to 7813) and 4-fold increase in the surface  of organically farmed land. From the very beginning the organic farmers through their  association „Ekoland” had the power to set the criteria of „organic farming” and held  the keys to this world. In the first decade of 21st century they lost this power as he  state set a legal framework for organic farming, where private companies became  agencies of certification. Nonetheless, they still hold the keys to the informal social  world.  During the study, a typology of organic farmwers has emerged. Organic farmers with  mission (pioneers and disciples) conceive their endeavours as an ethical project  („healthy society through healthy plants and animals”), which also has to render  some economic profits.  The subvention-oriented farmers focus mainly on economic benefits thanks to the EU  subvention with scarce regard to non-economic factors. The „contemplative farmers”  focus on the intrinsic value of farming and harmony with nature, not paying attention  to economic value of the fruit of their work.