Interpreting Organic Grower Community in Canterbury

New Zealand

by Wardah Alkatiri
Student ID: 1087803

Social Science Research Methods (Qualitative) SOCI 602

Lincoln University New Zealand

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 Abstract:
This essay presents the study of organic farming movement in New Zealand
undertaken by investigating the grower community in Canterbury who uses Biological
Husbandry Unit (BHU) at Lincoln University as a learning center where the community
member studies, exchanges news and information, develops activities and further establishes
networking with organic growers throughout the country. The study shows that even though
New Zealand possesses favorable preconditions for the success of organic farming
movement, such as the environmental conditions and hard working agrarian culture, but
paradoxically, the main challenge for the future of organic farming in this country lies itself
in the productionism agrarian values, which upon their interaction with the growing influence
of global economy and the highly capitalistic ideology in it, has made it even more difficult
for New Zealand people to appreciate anything that does not give excellent material yields
and physical performance. At the moment, this norms and cultures are likely to be the main
obstacle in instigating organic farming paradigm in the government level likewise in the
population, as self-sufficient movement to combat the likely challenge of climate change in
the near future. Regrettably, contrary to the widely known New Zealand green and clean
image, the study found evidences of environmental degradation in Canterbury and that
contra-organic farming current is also quite obvious in New Zealand as elsewhere in the
world.

Acknowledgement
I’d like to thank everyone who helped in the making of this project.
- Bill Martin, manager of the BHU
- Gilda Otway, BHU mentor
- Ivan Barren, BHU mentor
- Tineke, manager of Piko Whole Food, Christchurch
- Two respondents, the BHU students
- Christine Dann, Writer for Organic NZ Magazine

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I. Introduction:
My commitment to ‘organic ideals’ whereby man grows, farms, and produces
environmentally and socially responsible, has now reached the second decade. It was a naïve
young woman’s passion at the beginning and over this period, as I grew up spiritually and
mentally, the passion has changed substantially in its sense of inquiry and its significance. I
used to see organic as merely non-chemical substitute to conventional farming, a purely
natural way of producing food to guarantee perfect meal for the eater. As such, the emphasis
was health benefit for the consumer. This journey brought me to meet a number of amazing
people, among them are the Catholic Franciscan father in west Java, a European man who
then became my first mentor in organic farming and its ideals, the many like-minded friends
sharing ‘organic soul’ in different places in Java and Bali, and as I became more and more
engaged in the farming affairs, I turned to really enjoy it despites all its problems and
headaches. Organic farmers in Indonesia, just like in other developing countries, are
struggling to keep on producing in contrast to the notion that this method would engender
benefits for everyone involved: farmer, nature and consumer.
In the next stage, I came to encounter people who turned out to be giving profound
lessons: they were the puny Java farmers - poor people who were strong in adversity and rich
in hope - both the conventional and native (local version of ‘organic’) farmers alike. The
organic health benefit, as it initially kindled my excitement, now seems subsided as bigger
issues coming out. Confronted with the struggles those small peasants have to carry out, that
self-centered point of view for organic appeared to be somewhat shameful. My initial
question “Why can’t the farmers grow healthier produce for consumer?” was now reversed.
The new question arose was “Can organic really better them off?” “What benefits can this
method bring to these people?” I started to see the exigencies of works in appropriate
disciplines of science and simple technology to face the challenge of making organic farming
economically, besides socially and environmentally, feasible. It has to take account the
constrains that small (especially, poor) farmers normally have. Since that revealing moment
if I keep on choosing organic produce, provided my pocket allowed, as an expression to
support this movement, it is more toward ethical and spiritual reasons rather than health, and
if there were such health benefit, at least in the karmic sense, I believe.

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 The abovementioned background has laid rationale and sense of inquiry I have got in
conducting this research project for Social Science Research Method (Qualitative) course.

2. Methodological approach:
This research is an attempt to get a comprehensive view of New Zealand organic
farming situation through an investigation into its community grower in Canterbury region. I
am interested to know how the New Zealand organic growers are doing so far and what
meanings does organic have to the grower as well as to the consumer. My goal is to achieve
general impression of what initiating factors as a well as meanings which have been the
reason for grower’s conversion from conventional to organic, and what keeps them doing
that after certain period of time, given the more troublesome requirement this farming
technique imposes on its practitioners. Additionally I would like to get some indications of
the likelihood of organic farming movement in New Zealand in the future. Measuring the
level of grower’s and consumer’s comprehension about the holistic idea of organic is perhaps
too hard to quantify due to its intangible nature, but such impressions could possibly be
obtained through qualitative approach. Besides, with a focus on investigating the meaning
attached to organic for the actors, qualitative as opposed to the quantitative research
techniques is the appropriate method.

3. The study:
The setting of the research is Canterbury organic grower community centered at the
Organic Training College of Aotearoa New Zealand or the Biological Husbandry Unit
(BHU) of Lincoln University. The study was based on observation at the college programmes
and the semi-structured interviews with 6 persons: the BHU manager and mentors, the 2
students, and the manager of Piko Whole Food– an organic retail shop in Kilmore Street,
Christchurch. Other contextual information about organic farming in New Zealand to support
the field work findings was obtained from an interview with a writer Organic NZ magazine.

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4. Aotearoa Organic Training (the BHU)
The BHU (Biological Husbandry Unit) was established in 1976, but Bill said that it
had not done anything organic until 2001. In August 2001 it was relaunched as the BHU
Organic Trust, a charitable trust. Bill has just been there since October 2007 and the first
intake student started in January 2008 and they are having the second intake at the moment.
People know the program through word of mouth. The BHU then features a diverse range of
organic agricultural and horticultural systems that are used for research, demonstration and
education. In its education affair the BHU functions as “Organic Training College of
Aotearoa New Zealand” working with Telford Rural Polytechnic in Otago. It delivers
Telford qualifications and national Horticulture Certificates. The college is eligible for
funding through the ministry of education and start up funding from ministry of social
development and the logic behind that is to train long-term unemployed people. They also
got some startup funding through OANZ. The university also supports the college by
providing all the facilities and free of charge electricity and telephone.
The Organic Training College delivers practical and theory training in organic
horticulture utilizing 10 hectares of certified organic gardens and orchards and the on-site
propagation and greenhouse facilities and classrooms. The BHU has plenty of land available
if they needed some expansion in the future. The training is practical hands-on plant
cultivation and face-to-face tuition. Teaching staff have a high level of experience in certified
organic production, and a wide range of organic certified vegetables and fruit are grown and
marketed. The training content is NZQA unit standard based. The organic horticulture
training comprises of two years programme with more theoretical material in the first year
and more practical in the second year. It is very important to note that this is a zero fees
program for New Zealand citizen and upon completion the student get NZQA National
Certificate in Horticulture. In year one, students is taught the fundamental of growing things
organically, such as sowing, planting and harvesting organic crops, composting and liquid
fertilizers, vermiculture (worm farming), soil biology and management, plant structure and
function, organic pest and disease control, organic weed identification and management,
shelter selection, planting and maintenance, companion planting, beekeeping, permaculture

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(permanent agriculture), introduction to pruning, the development of organic in New
Zealand, chainsaw use and safety, and also tractor driving. In two, through hands-on
practical work the student studies organic standards and certification, planning for organic
production, beekeeping, permaculture, plant propagation from seed and cuttings, fruit tree
pruning and train, marketing, water use and quality, applied soil management, plant growth
factors, processes and lifecycles, and at last the study of legal requirement for a horticultural
business. Full-time and part-time choices are available for students and accommodation in
the Lincoln University Halls of residence may be available for Organic Training College
students too.
There are quite varieties of students. In terms of age from twentieth to mature adult,
in terms of background some had had other careers before, in terms of experience and
qualification there are some who had good qualification in other area from past career. The
common quality is that they are all interested in organic. The student’s intention are also
various. Half of them intend to work in organic industry, processor, retailer, or grow
themselves, and there are also the hobbyists. The students are able to grow and sell
organically certified produce on the BHU farm as part of Year two programme. Students
work with a local organic grower as a mentor to plan and market their crops. Year two
students can apply for New Zealand Nature Farming Society scholarship. The successful
applicant will receive a weekly grant to manage the Kyusei model garden over the summer
growing season as well as airfares and accommodation to attend Kyusei nature farming
training workshop in Thailand. Kyusei nature farming was developed in Japan with the
objective of producing food that is safe and free of harmful chemicals and toxic materials.
For many years the practitioners of Kyusei nature farming adopted the organic farming
system, with little results to provide adequate food for the majority of the population. In
1980’s, Prof. Dr. Teruo Higa introduced the concept of Effective Micro organism (EM) to
Kyusei nature farming. Thus, a group of beneficial micro organism were cultured and used as
means of improving soil conditions, suppressing disease inducing microbes, and improving
the efficiency of organic matters utilization by crops. This technology is called EM
technology and the international network of scientist in the Asia Pacific region is then called
Asia Pacific Natural Agriculture Network (APNAN) that was formed in Thailand to promote

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research, education practices and technologies. The main theme of Kyusei nature farming is
to practice an IDEAL AGRICULTURE which is “Take of the earth only What You can
Return Again” and “Use of Beneficial Micro Organism in Agriculture”. With this principle
of ideal agriculture advocated by Kyusei nature farming, the following five principles shall
be yielded:
1. it produces safe and nutritious food to enhance human health
2. it is economically and spiritually beneficial to both producers (farmers) and
consumers
3. it is sustainable and easily practiced by everyone
4. it conserves our environment
5. it produces sufficient food of high quality for an expanding world population.

5. The interpretation of New Zealand Organic Farming

From the interview with a writer for Organic NZ magazine, the study discovers that
New Zealand had one of the world first organic gardening organizations started in 1941
called Compost Society, which then changed its name to Soil and Health. They had been
publishing a magazine started just as a newsletter for 60 years and today the association
publishes “Organic NZ Magazine”. It appears that organic farming in the level of home
garden or hobbyist has deeply-rooted in New Zealand agrarian culture. There are still some
elders who were part of the association who joined that in 1940, which are pretty old now.
Margaret Jones was mentioned to be one of them, considered amazing woman in Auckland.
The association stayed as organic gardening club until the 1980s when things started to
change, and people started to grow commercially and the retail outlets began to be available.
Part of the growth on organic sale in NZ today has been actually import, unfortunately, even
for the things that is easy to grow here like oats, because they still not producing enough for
the local markets.
There are two major organic grower groups in NZ, a group called Organic Aotearoa
New Zealand, OANZ it is of industry body that has been going for about 15 years. It is run
by John Tennan based in Wellington. Another one is the group of small grower, Organic
Farmer NZ (OFNZ), for people who only grow for the local market and not exporting, and

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they are developing a different certification system. For the people who are exporting they
have to be certified to meet an international standard and for the local market New Zealand
has the ‘biogro’ standard and now the ‘demeter’ standard which is the biodynamic one.
There’s also a couple of other agri quality standard for export and they are recognized by
IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement). To overcome the cost
issues for small grower, OFNZ has different standard of certification. It tailored a system of
peer to peer certification for small grower. A group of organic farmers in one region get
together and they work out some kind of inspecting each other’s property.
Because NZ exports most of the food that it produces, commercial organic farming
really took off when the GE (Genetically Engineered) food came along in late 1980s and the
buying countries in Europe demanded more stringent trade standard in GE and pesticide
residue in food as more people wanting to consume food no longer treated chemically.
Actually NZ was one of the last rich countries to ban the organo-chlorine pesticides. It was
still using the DDT and things like that until the late 1960s to early 1970s. Exports have risen
from $10 million per annum in 1996 to around $70 million in 2001, and the domestic market
has grown from $32 million in 2000 to $71 million in 2002. (Murray Doak, MAF technical
paper, 2003). There are many examples across every primary production sector of
commercially oriented farmers successfully producing organic products to high international
standards.
From the observation at the BHU courses the study found that organic farming in New
Zealand is generally mechanized farming method rather than manual as the case in
developing countries. Greenhouse is a standard practice in organic vegetable growing here
and the grower generally can afford it, whereas in developing countries greenhouse is not
normally used because the small grower economic scale can not possibly cover it. There are
varieties of machineries and natural substitutes to agro-chemicals available in New Zealand
market which is advantageous for new grower in their early stage of conversion from
conventional to organic because then they do not have to invent by themselves as the case in
developing countries. One of them that study finds to be of importance in Canterbury is
Physical Weeding, a company of Charles Merfield, an organic researcher and consultant who
received his Master and PhD at Lincoln University in agro ecology and organic crop

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production. He appears to be an important figure in the BHU. His company designs specialist
physical weeding machinery as well as consultancy and advice in physical, cultural and
biological weed management for agriculture practice that avoid chemical herbicide in weed
control such as organic farming. They produce various products, steam weeders, flame
weeders, four wheel hoe, and false seed bed tillers. From the observation at the BHU the
study finds variety of technical know-how has been normally applied in New Zealand
organic farming, for example is what was found in the BHU apple orchard: the use of
pheromone traps with sticky base to monitor the insect pest using synthetic pheromone, a
hormone signal that triggers a natural response in another member of the same species. Also,
as reported by a BHU mentor, homeopathic remedies is available and proved to be successful
in animal rising in New Zealand. Additionally, the study found a generally susceptible
atmosphere toward changes and movement around sustainability ideals in New Zealand
society. It is due primarily to the agrarian culture of the nation and the relatively higher level
of education of the population that they are more environmentally conscious, compared to
developing countries like Indonesia, which even though agrarian culture is their culture
historically but agriculture is perceived to symbolize backwardness these days and therefore
society in general tries their best to avoid. Among the examples in New Zealand are
community garden and food garden which can be found here and there in Canterbury,
whereas in other developed countries are quite new ideas and in many cases simply rhetoric.
However, regretfully the study also finds various instances perceived to be of
disadvantageous to organic farming movement in New Zealand and becomes the imminent
challenge against the movement, i.e. :
a. the evidences of growing environmental degradation
b. contra organic farming debates in academic circle
c. the influence of global economy and the penetration of highly capitalistic logic in
New Zealand productionism and productivity paradigm, will potentially destroy the
agriculture and the environment of New Zealand.

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A. Environmental degradation in New Zealand
What follows are the expressions of several respondents concerning the growing
environmental depletion in New Zealand, one was made by an immigrant who came to
New Zealand some years ago, and the other one came here quite recently.
“since I came to New Zealand 13 years ago, the environmental degradation in
New Zealand is incredible. In the past drinking water from stream was not an
issue, it was clean. The landscape here is changing rapidly too, where before you
had a lot of shelterbelt and there were a lot of apple orchards around here, now it
all has been cut down, either you have subdivision or you have dairy farms. Dairy
farming in Canterbury is extremely demanding because there is not enough
resource for them. For dairy you need basically grass. Historically, in Canterbury,
during the summer there was no grass, because there was no water, at least not
enough rain. So what they do know they use irrigation to keep the grass growing.
It definitely helps the grass but you deplete the natural reservoir. So there is less
flow of water in the stream and there is more pollution going into the stream, so
you have less water and more pollution, you know, the combination is
like…hahaha…the local lake and stream are definitely getting polluted now. And
because there is much money involved in dairy, not only in making money but
also in investment, there is always the drive to increase production, in order to
increase production you have to use more water, and for more water now they
want to harvest water from the stream main river in Canterbury as well, so the
problem will become worse. Well, that’s here in Canterbury, although up to the
hill you will find it very pristine”. [Notes-6, 7]

“I found it quite interesting having got here with New Zealand Clean and Green
image, as to how that myth is almost been a bit dispelled by learning what we’ve
done in the class” [Notes-7, 3]

Two respondents talked about pesticide contamination in New Zealand soils:

“Most New Zealanders are not even aware of the amount of pesticides in their
food or in the environment, there is a terrible lot of it, and it’s getting
worse” [Notes-9, 3]

“Well, I will say the best soils here have been sprayed with DDT”.
[Notes-3, 1]

Another finding is what is presented by by Robin Wybrow, (Upoko o Te Rununga O

Wairewa – chair of Wairewa Runanga project) at an annual gathering in the BHU. It was a
discussion about the restoration of the Roto Wairewa (Lake Forsyth) on Banks Peninsula,

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which is severely degraded lake ecosystem with ‘eutrophication’ (a process whereby water
bodies receive excess nutrients that stimulates excessive plant growth), algae blooms and
sedimentation problems. Wairewa Runanga has a long term vision of rehabilitation for the
lake and its surrounds. The Runanga have brought up together a group of researcher to
provide science back up to this vision. The institution plans for an inherited farm which spans
Te Oka Bay to Magnet Bay and up to 900 m (1900ha). They would like to farm this
organically. Interestingly enough, in his presentation Robin was quoting several Maori
traditional teachings with regard to natural balance, such as when he said: “the water from
land feeds the Takaroa”, and “the whale are part of our Mahinga Kai Whakapapa”. He was
trying to get across the intuitive understanding of ecological balance between land and the
sea [Notes-1, 1].

B. Contra-organic debate
The pros and cons in organic farming are prevailing everywhere, but it is of big surprise
to me that it also happens even in a green and clean country like New Zealand. Two
respondents have expressed these facts:
“I happened to meet soil scientist from Lincoln University, actually he’s a professor,
and he claimed that there is absolutely no proofs that in conventional farming and
organic farming there is different in degradation of the soil. So, from his perspective,
doing organic is simply not an option”. [Notes-6, 11]

“Health Department does a kind of surveys of pesticides residue levels every 3 or

4 years and they always find some and they always say, o that’s not significant”.
[Notes-9, 3]

C. The Influence of global economy and the penetration of highly capitalistic logic in
the New Zealand productionism and productivity paradigm
Agriculture sector has traditionally contributed a huge share in NZ economy through the
export to its traditional markets, the UK and European countries, thus any attempt to
analyze organic movement in this country should put this fact in perspective as this
background must have largely shaped the people’s paradigm and the government policies
towards agriculture and resource management. The study found that this background

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which at the first glance looks favorable to organic farming movement in the country
endowed with so much environmental purity, after a deeper investigation the study found
it out to be paradoxical. Agrarianism, the belief that farming is the most important
economic activities (Egoz at al, 2001) has historically been a culture of New Zealand as a
farming nation. However, New Zealand’s legacy of a hardworking settler mentality has
ingrained highly productionism and productivity paradigms in its agrarian worldviews
which have historically been contributive to New Zealand success in developing
agriculture as the main support of its economy, paradoxically in the context of organic
farming they becomes inherent obstacle. Productionism is the value of extracting
maximum yields from the land, and productivity is the value of optimum production
without compromising the environment (Egoz at al,2001). These two paradigms, often
called “NPK mentality”, are apparently in contradiction with organic ideals. NPK are
initials from the periodic table for nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, three chemical
nutrients crucial to plant growth has been used as the main formula in chemical
fertilizers, and its invention had triggered the Green Revolution, the transformation of
agriculture, began in 1945. NPK mentality is believed by the proponent of organic
movement to be one of the keys to everything wrong with modern civilization. The
worldwide influence of global economy seems to be present everywhere including New
Zealand. The NPK mentality inherently attached in New Zealand agrarian ideologies is
prone to capitalistic principles in the logic of global economy. Some findings and
interviews suggest unfavorable indications to the future of New Zealand agriculture in
this respect.
“There are friends that I know have sold up the farms, largely because they just
struggle and struggle, and not being financially beneficial too, because the value of
the land has increased dramatically” [Notes-8, 9]

“Dairy has brought the big changes in land values. Dairy farmers have moved out
from the north island, down here to south island where they could buy anything up to
thousand numbers of acres for the values of a small of that block in the north island.
So, in other word if you would buy hundred acres in the north island they will be
worth, ..I think we are talking $18 thousands an acre,… where is down here they can
buy land at around probably two to three thousands an acre. Because they have the

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 capital to come down they might to come down with million dollars to buy three
thousand acre down here and set up a business” [Notes-8, 10]

“Corporate organization, that’s the other thing that has driven diary to the south
island, because big company has set up and force the land value quite high. But
generally farming is going to keep going but it’s quite questionable whether it can
always be in competitive margin worldwide, and sheep farming has always been very
low income. Sheep and beef are probably always been stretched. A lot of these local
farms are going, you know, people are struggling they don’t get the amount of feed as
needed, so their cost has to go up with irrigation”. [Notes-8, 11]

6. Organic meaning to the actors

To interpret the meaning that ‘organic’ has to the actors - who in this research are the
Canterbury organic grower community and the Christchurch consumer - the research uses
symbolic interactionism methodology designed to yield verifiable knowledge of human
group life and human conduct. Symbolic interactionism rests on three simple premises. The
first premise is that human being act toward things on the basis of the meaning that the things
have for them. The second premise is that the meaning of such things is derived from or
arises out of, the social interaction that one has with one’s fellows. The third premise is that
these meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the
person in dealing with the things he encounters. (Blumer H, 1969). Symbolic interactionism
is grounded on a number of basic ideas refer to and depict the nature of the following matters
that were used in the analysis of the data. Taken together, these basic ideas represents the
way in which symbolic interactionism views human society and conduct concerning organic.
The organic grower and consumer respondent of the study was interpreted through a
framework of meaning sorted out into five categories:

1. Economic: This group includes the meanings of organic derived from agrarianism
culture, and every physical, material, and economic reasons that makes the actor
ready to act towards, or against, organic.
2. Survivalistic: It is a person who has personal or group survival as primary goal in the
face of difficulty, opposition and the threat of natural calamity. The study defines
survivalist meaning of organic is what reflected by the acts toward organic initiated

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 by food-scares (chemical-fear and GE-fear), and health problems, both the curative
and preventive efforts. This category is applicable only to consumer.
3. Self-efficacy: Self-efficacy is person’s belief about his/her ability and capacity to deal
with the challenge. One’s sense of self-efficacy can play a major role in how one
approaches goals, tasks, and challenges (Albert Bandura, cognitive psychologist). The
study identified organic phenomenon possessing self-efficacious meaning to certain
actors symbolizing his/her ability to face the challenge posed by natural calamity such
as climate change, contaminated nature, and the threat of food scarcity. This category
is very much like category-2 Survivalist, but Self-efficacy is applicable only to the
grower.
4. Community: To some actors organic may simply means community and societal
works. Common example of this category is community garden and church garden
5. Unitive anthropology: It is a spiritual anthropology which views man not separate
form the universe (nature and human being) nor is universe apart from man. The bond
and unity between man and the universe implies that man’s awareness and knowledge
of the two are not separate and distinct from each other (Hamid Parsania,
philosopher). Including in this category are the actor having ethical and spiritual
reasons of acting toward organic, whereby the ethical reason includes both ethical
toward other human being or nature.

6.1. Economic:
Agriculture in NZ has been contributing a huge percentage to the country’s economy, and
therefore the meaning of organic farming to the majority of New Zealander is about the
economic reasons. There are two groups under this category:

*) Hamid Parsania, “Existence and the Fall: Spiritual Anthropology of Islam”, ICAS Press, London,
2006.

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 a) the first group is people who only see better market values of organic for the GE-fear
and chemical-fear market. Interestingly the study did not find any samples from this
group. It seems there is no longer opportunistic organic grower in Canterbury after a
large number of dropped out in the last years as reported by the respondents. [Notes-
6, 10], [Notes-7, 6] [Notes-8, 7]
b) the second group is people looking for ways of stewardship of their land, given the
premise of organic is about more than just chemical-free farming, but also about not
polluting the soil and the environment and giving back to the earth what has been
taken out. The study found two respondents looking soil maintenance and
rehabilitation functions of organic as the most important.

“the main reason that a lot of people today are looking at organic is trying to stabilize
soil condition and to be able to grow things supposedly not chemically treated. I think
we do seriously need to locate a lot more soil science, here we need to look back of
what soil conditions with nutrients that hundred years and see where we are today,
and then should try to redevelop.” [Notes-8, 1]

“if organic is gonna go anywhere it’s got to do something back to the grass root, we
got to go back and think what was the soil of antiquity and why isn’t like that today,
and what can we do to put it back. Too many organic farmers out there say I’m
organic farmer but they’re not really looking after the soil, and I feel, I’m quite strong
on that, even here, very-very frustrating that we haven’t tried to develop better soil
type” [Notes-8, 5]

One respondent answered assertively “soil maintenance, definitely” when asked the
main reason of his interest in organic farming [Notes-6, 9].

The acute problem in farming work is nevertheless its high level of uncertainty, especially if
it is compared with other professions available in modern world. A student at the BHU
clearly cited that, “farming is great, but you never know what’s gonna come out” [Notes-4,
11]. In brief, this is a challenge to the future of agriculture in New Zealand, both organic and
conventional, after the country is being in more intensive interaction with other cultures
brought in by what is called ‘globalization’.

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6.2. Survivalisict:
Early food scares were usually linked to the use of pesticides and weed killers on crops, but
these days the concerns vary widely from GE corn to mad cows. Widely publicized food
scares combined with increased consumer awareness are driving consumer to buy organic
produce in wealthy countries. From an observation and interview with organic retail outlet in
Christchurch the study found that concern over food quality are the main reasons for eating
organic.
“we have mothers who want their children to eat good food too. They may not be able
to buy everything, but they say they want to buy at least vegetables organic” [Notes-
3, 9]

“sometime people find out that they are being allergic and start to react to things and
they find out that organic is better” [Notes-3, 9]

“We were starting to grow in the 1980s and but it was really not until the 1990 and
we had the GE thing come along, that it really took off in term of more people
wanting to consume organic” [Notes-9, 2]

“Organic farming is possibly a jargon because of the need for hmm people wanting
food that’s no longer been treated chemically and all those appears that the adoption
of organic farming in the big large scale is huge” [Notes-8, 1]

However, the study also found an interesting instance of contra-productive character to

organic farming movement in New Zealand. It is the perception that the country is clean and
green already, so there is no point to eat organic.

“there is the perception of New Zealand as clean and green country, so there is no
point of paying extra for organic. If everything is clean and green, you do not need to
eat organic” [Notes-6, 10]

6.3. Self-efficacy:
According to psychologist Albert Bandura, people who regard themselves as highly
efficacious, act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as
inefficacious, they produce their own future rather than simply foretell it. The implication is
that people’s level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they

16
believe than on what’s objectively true. For this reason, how people behave can often be
better predicted by the beliefs they hold about their capabilities than by what they are
actually capable of accomplishing, for these self-efficacy perceptions help determine what
individuals do with the knowledge and skills they have. One of the four sources of
information used by individuals when forming self-efficacy judgments is Performance
accomplishments, i.e. personal assessment information that is based on an individual’s
personal accomplishments, such as previous success raise mastery expectations while
repeated failures lower them. The study found self efficacy among the meanings of organic
farming has to some growers. People in this group are willing to master organic farming
skills for self-sufficiency ideas such growing your own food, to earn the feeling of being
well-prepared in facing the challenge of what is believed to be food scarcity and climate
change in the near future. Hannah is a new immigrant from UK, coming to seek better life, to
have slight change of lifestyle, to make family more self-sufficient, and to find ways of
making saving because she believes that living cost in NZ is lower than in the UK, and she
believes that NZ offers the opportunity to buy property with some land that she will not be
able to do in the UK. She has interest in gardening and growing as a hobby in the UK and
that was why she found organic training. She had never been particularly purchased organic
foods in the UK but if she was growing something she would want to do it organically as
opposed to using conventional methods. That’s really where she came to. She answered
clearly that she is interested in organic prospect of being of used in the self sufficiency ideas
[Notes-7, 1&2], although sometimes not understood by others.

“My son thought I was mad,..hahaha…doing something like this, hahaha, he’s a
teenager, he couldn’t quite get the idea that Mom wasn’t earning very much, was
the main issue there you know I kept on saying, ‘James, we can’t afford to buy this
and that this week, hahaha…I think then he sort of come into the idea, we’ve got a
couple of program recently on the TV in view of possible food crisis is looming in
years to come, so then he thought, oh ok, that now was possibly mom and dad had
thought it through and got the idea that you could cover yourself hopefully, to cut
out some other stresses” [Notes-7, 7].

Another respondent in this group gave his reasons for organic farming in community garden
is to teach people to grow their own food.

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 “My mission was to encourage and teach people to grow their own food. So, that’s
the idea behind it. In this country everybody has got at least a small piece of land,
instead of growing stupid grows they might as well grow tomatoes and cucumbers”
[Notes-6, 3]

“I find it useful for the small grower and domestic grower, it’s actually easier to do
organic. Because, firstly you don’t need fancy tools, machinery, chemicals, and
secondly when you grow yourself you always have too much produces, so it doesn’t
matter if you have tomato plant instead of producing 60 kg a year you produce 15 kg,
because it’s enough” [Notes-6, 8]

However, it appears that the same obstacle by productionist agrarian worldview seems to be
present here impeding the effort to instigate “grow your own food instead of growing stupid
grows” organic farming campaign in New Zealand.

“The message is filtering through slowly. There are two issues here, one is their day
is very busy, and you do need time to do vegetable garden, especially if you don’t
really enjoy doing it and if you just do it for the sake of food, you will ask yourself,
‘well, how much money do I save’. And the other issue is many people like their
garden at home to be very tidy, but vegetable garden is not tidy, it’s only tidy for a
short period of time and as you start harvesting it’s not tidy anymore, and people
here are really crazy about tidy garden. So, I think that’s an obstacle. You know, you
need a small compost heap, yeah, it just doesn’t work for them. Planting grass is
easier”. [Notes-6, 4]

6.4. Community:
Community garden may provide opportunity to strengthen the connection between
individuals and their surroundings, and therefore some people practice organic farming in
community garden to create social ties with their surrounding. The study found a
respondent participated in community garden in Purau. They’ve got a number of plots
and have also done talks on trying to have initiative work by the experienced gardener to
go and help the beginner gardener set up their own vegetable garden in their own homes.
It was a kind of community education project to help people new to gardening and also
involved the youth group to get them coming to plot and do working.
“In the community garden they are 2 families, retired couples, another younger
family, couple of single gentlemen, so it is a good mix of ages, and also, in Diamond
Harbor they are hoping to involve the youth group and getting some of them in

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 coming to plot and do working, and we have occasional sort of join work together
built the compost altogether and you know, make the pile things like that. [Notes-7, 8]

“Really good sort of camaraderie within the student here” [Notes-7, 9]

6.5. Unitive Anthropology:

The ecological premise that everything is connected to everything else is essentially deeply-
seated in everyone’s intuitive understanding of the universe, whether he/she is learned or not,
unless it is veiled by self-interest or greed. Therefore, human being is always driven by moral
pressure from within. This tenet is firmly attested in perennial philosophy or the traditionalist
doctrine unitive anthropology which suggests that man has inner binding with nature, and
that every human being yearn that paradisal innocence of virgin nature because they still
carries that primordial nature in the deepest recesses of his being. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
Religion and the Order of Nature, Oxford University Press, 1996). The study recognizes such
esoteric meaning that organic farming has to some actors and tried to capture the
phenomenon in the following examples. People in this group act toward organic for deep
spiritual reasons which sometimes hard to be paraphrased because it is ineffable and possibly
not easily be understood by other people who have no contemplative character. The more
commensurable reason among them are what is reflected as ethical reasons, including people
who believe that organic is the way to better world because it stands for three principles:
environmental friendly, fair trade and food safety. The study found four important examples
to adduce this proposition. One is of a Middle-Eastern respondent, another one of Asian
mature adult couple, and some Hindus and Buddhist vegetarian customers in organic retail
outlet that I did not have a chance to interview, and the last one was organic grower
supplying produce to Piko organic retail outlet.

1) an interview with middle-eastern respondent (he is a New Zealand resident, going through
organic training):

“Soil maintenance, definitely!” (he considered soil maintenance to be the most important
meaning of organic for him, but yet he is not a farmer nor having land to farm in New
Zealand), when I inquired further, “why?, is that because soil is the beginning?” He

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answered “That’s the beginning and the end too, exactly”, and I continued inquiring “you
mean, from where we issue and to where we returned?”, he answered “absolutely,
absolutely, yesss, (laugh), because for me human being, and animal and everything else, is
basically from the same components you find in the soil, except different combination”.
[Notes-6, 9]

His response to my question on how he defines organic: “It’s a big question, organic is a mix
between science and witchcraft, because a lot of stuffs in organic actually does seem to work
but there is no scientific proofs behind it. So, it works empirically but there is no theory to
support it. But to me, if it works because it works after hundred of years of experience”. you
know, the classic example is growing tomatoes next to sweet basil, and the question is why
exactly these combination work well? There is no scientific reason, but if it works then why
not use it?”. [Notes-6, 9]

2) observation of Asian couple:

He was a retired teacher and when they came to NZ he started to know organic growing. He
exclaimed “how foolish I used to be, I didn’t know this, and I wonder how unfortunate
people out there who do not know such beautiful things”, he was referring “beautiful things”
to ‘organic’. [Notes-4, 8]

3) organic grower supplier of Piko organic retail.

“Our grower has got the philosophy also that they want the people to eat organic food. It’s
like a philanthropist attitude, you know..(laugh)..they’re not there to make a lot of money for
themselves. They just believe in a better world, and the better world starts with organic, and
better world starts with everybody being able to afford organic food, or everybody being able
to afford good food, you know”. [Notes-3, 10]

From the limited number of respondents of the study, these findings may suggests to further
elaboration of interesting indication on the phenomena of Eastern-Western mentality,
whereby Easterner views organic farming more through spiritually-embedded ethical
meanings while the Westerner views it more through the rationally-ethical meanings.

7. Conclusion
New Zealand had one of the world first organic gardening organizations started in 1941.
It appears that organic farming in the level of home garden or hobbyist has deeply-rooted in
New Zealand agrarian culture.

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 Because NZ exports most of the food that it produces, commercial organic farming really
took off when the GE (Genetic Engineered) food came along in late 1980s and the buying
countries in Europe demanded more stringent trade standard in GE and pesticide residue in
food as more people wanting to consume food no longer treated chemically.
There are variety of farming facilities substitutes required by organic farming are
available in New Zealand market which is advantageous for new grower in their early stage
of conversion from conventional to organic because then they do not have to invent by
themselves as the case in developing countries. The study also found a generally susceptible
atmosphere toward changes and movement around sustainability ideals in New Zealand
society. It is due primarily to the agrarian culture of the nation and the relatively higher level
of education of the population that they are more environmentally conscious, compared to
developing countries like Indonesia, which even though agrarian is their culture but
agriculture today is perceived to symbolize backwardness and therefore society in general do
not pay much attention..
However, regretfully the study also finds various instances perceived to be of
disadvantageous to organic farming movement in New Zealand and becomes the imminent
challenge against the movement, i.e. :
1. the evidences of growing environmental degradation
2. contra organic farming debates in academic circle
3. the influence of global economy and the penetration of highly capitalistic logic in New
Zealand productionism and productivity paradigm, will potentially destroy the agriculture
and the environment of New Zealand.

The organic grower and consumer respondent of the study was interpreted through a
framework of meaning sorted out into five categories:
1. Economic
2. Survivalistic
3. Self-efficacy
4. Community
5. Unitive anthropology

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 The study concluded, for the sake of the future of New Zealand environment and
agriculture, the government and population needs to be aware of the threats behind what
seemed to be the opportunities of global economy, and to work out policies focusing more on
the self-sufficiency of the country rather than being dragged along by the trade issues around
what the study calls ‘NPK mentality’. Being a country with small population and food-
producing ability, New Zealand is actually one of few countries in the world capable of being
self-sufficient in the light of climate change, provided that the government and the people is
able to address the present day challenges. The study suggests that the country needs more
research in sustainable agriculture fields beginning with soil and more media push to
promote sustainability ideals. New Zealand certainly needs to preserve the hard-working
agrarian culture in the society.

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