Environmental Concern and the Adoption of Organic Agriculture

In an empirical study on the adoption of organic agriculture, hypotheses on the relation between environmental concern and environmental behavior are tested. The study is based on a postal survey of farmers conducted 2004 in Western Germany (n = 657). The results indicate that there is a direct as well as an indirect effect of environmental concern on the probability of an adoption of organic farming. The indirect effect is increasing the preference for environmentally friendly consequences and thus increasing the expected utility of environmentally friendly alternatives. Over and above this indirect effect, farmers with pronounced pro-environmental attitudes are more likely to act environmentally friendly, even if the influence of utility expectations is controlled in multivariate models.