There is a sharp divide between the attitudes of the environmental movement and what farmers consider to be environmentalism, says an American academic who has studied the issue in rural Illinois.
It revolves around the definition of the term.
When farmers imagine themselves as society’s primary environmentalists, they see it as a commitment to maintain the soil and not poison the waters, said University of Missouri assistant professor Michael Urban.
“It is really a conservation ethic.”
In contrast, environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club see the issue as one of preservation, keeping the natural ecosystems intact. When farmers divert streams, use pesticides or change local habitat, they are violating the environment in the groups’ view.
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“I think there is a fundamental mismatch of terms,” said Urban, who works in the geography department at the university and wrote a report based on extensive interviews with 55 farmers in Illinois.
He concluded that farmers have a strong conservation ethic that is based on keeping the land and the farm economic base productive and their farms appearing to be well manicured.
“Neatness not only indicates the amount of effort a farmer has invested in the landscape,” he wrote. “It is also perceived as a measure of productivity.”
Meanwhile, the environmental movement that has developed in the past four decades “has focused not on the productive potential of environmental resources but rather on the integrity and preservation of ecosystems.”
Urban said the two visions often are in conflict and farmers often are portrayed as environmental sinners, despite their self-view as front-line environmentalists.
“Farmers are offended at the idea that they are not environmentalists,” he said.
“It really is a question of definition. Farmers care for the land and the environment that sustains them. Environmentalists see any change in the ecosystem as a violation.”
Urban said his study has been interpreted by many as suggesting farmers are not really environmentalists with their manicured farms and chemical use.
“I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I think both sides have a point. It is just that both sides have got to get together to have some common languages.”
Still, farmers cannot simply see their soil and water conservation as enough to secure public approval as environmentalists.
Urban said they must make greater efforts to understand what broader society considers environmentalism. He said farm and non-farm environmentalists share many goals and could be natural allies if they agreed on some common definitions.
