How can organic farmers be good farmers? A study of categorisation in organic farmers’ talk

Abstract

Conversion from conventional to organic farming is considered to indicate changes in farmers’ professional identities—more specifically, in their perceptions of the idea of a ‘good farmer’. In this study, we focus on this theme by analysing how ‘good farmer’ ideals appear when farmers who have converted to organic agriculture make sense of the differences between conventional and organic farming. Through the discursive analysis of interviews with organic farmers, we show how they categorise farmers, producing and using an evaluative division in which both organic and conventional farmers fall into two subcategories, namely, ‘practical organic farmer’, ‘idealistic organic farmer’, ‘conservative conventional farmer’ and ‘rational conventional farmer’. We argue that this categorisation, as a way to define a ‘good farmer’, enables organic farmers to create a coherent identity as ‘good farmers’ in regard to both their former conventional self and current organic self. Our study further contributes to the theoretical discussion on ‘good farmer’ by highlighting that, in addition to productivist symbols and economic viability, organic farmers also view a practical and open-minded attitude to managing the farm as a criterion of a ‘good farmer’, thus critically distancing themselves from conservative and ideological ideals.