Agri-environmental policies and ‘good farming’ in cultivation practices at Finnish farms

Abstract

Twenty years has passed since Finland joined the European Union in 1995. Agriculture was one of the key areas in which significant changes were both anticipated and realised. Besides the European-wide structural change towards larger production units and the steeply decreasing number of farms, the EU's agricultural policy has brought about significant changes in farming as a livelihood and the ways in which it is practiced in Finland. These changes involve environmental considerations related to fertilisation or tillage practices, for example, but they are also reflected in wider meaning-making related to what farming fundamentally is about. Using the concept of good farming as the key, we explore how the introduced agri-environmental policies have changed farming practices and how this is reflected in the ways that good farming ideals are understood and constituted among different farmers. The analysis is based on interviews in which farmers describe their farming practices, purposes and the influence of policies. Our results suggest that the ideals related to good farming are diversifying and changing as the ways of gaining a livelihood through farming changes. This change occurs as the ideals are renegotiated when performing new voluntary or forced practices. Good farming ideals do not only function as a cultural barrier to the adoption of new practices, but they can actively contribute to the accommodation and development of the practices.