Individuals and communities need 'living' environmental knowledge as their particular resource in order to develop their environmental practices and identities. Environmental knowledge can be defined as embedded explanatory, instrumental and evaluative knowledge, offering the 'why' and 'how' for the actors

Mikkola, Minna

English

Organic Eprints

16FORSKNINGSNYTT • Nr 2 • 2005The meaning of environmentalknowledge in organic farmingKnowledge may appear as a boring andempty word; it reminds us of educationand official knowledge systems, piledup in libraries and databases. Externallydocumented knowledge may seem todiffer from ‘living’ knowledge, active inone’s work, identity, motivation andfuture plans. However, ‘official’ and‘external’ knowledge can develop linkswith ‘living’ and ‘internal’ knowledge,to be acted out in personal life and pro-fessional work.Organic farming started during thetwentieth century initially mainly withother than scientific efforts. Today, bothnatural and social scientific studies aremade to develop organic farming. Themeaning of environmental knowledgein organic farming is especially con-sonant with individual world view,educational knowledge resources andfarming practices as well as one’s iden-tity and position in the food chain andsociety. Is there evidence of ‘technical-scientific’ environmental knowledgelinking to organic farmer’s ‘living’ know-ledge? Could environmental knowledgebe a powerful resource for farming acti-vities, motivation and identity of theorganic farmer? What if this kind of li-ving knowledge would further modifyproductive activities and identities in thefood chain?Actor’s particular knowledge, notjust ‘knowledge’Instead of understanding actor’s know-ledge as just a solid but complex ‘lump’,it is interesting to view knowledgethrough it’s meaning and purpose forthe actor.Niiniluoto (1989) discerns twobasic types of knowledge, the singularand the general. The singular knowledgeis about events and histories known to aparticular individual, whereas generalknowledge reflects the technical andscientific knowledge documented in pu-blic storages and matters commonlyknown as causes and consequenses. Thelocal knowledge can be seen to positionbetween these two; it is knowledgeshared in a particular locality and com-munity, unknown to outsiders.There are still other types of knowledge(Niiniluoto 1989), without which every-day work would miss it’s human core.The explanatory knowledge representsthe knowledge – often very particular –why some phenomena happen and itcan be used as a basis for particularactivities. Instrumental knowledge in-cludes the methods how to achieveparticular goals and tasks. Evaluativeknowledge indicates an evaluation scaleand some criteria of goodness. Theknowledge about norms, understandingof the good and evil by a society, groupor person is kind of evaluative know-ledge too. Metaphor expresses know-ledge in a very crystallised and ‘strong’form. All these knowledge types can actThe meaning of living environmental knowledge inproductive activities: the case of a Finnish dairy farmIndividuals and communities need ‘living’ environmental knowledge as theirparticular resource in order to develop their environmental practices and identities.Environmental knowledge can be defined as embedded explanatory, instrumentaland evaluative knowledge, offering the ‘why’ and ‘how’ for the actors.  This casestudy exemplifies the translation of technical-scientific environmental knowledgeto professional particular resource mounted in practices.Knowledge types active in organic farming based on Niiniluoto (1989) and modified byMinna Mikkola.ExplanatoryknowledgeInstrumentalknowledgeMetaphoricalknowledgeEvaluativeknowledgeLocalknowledge communityGeneral knowledge– tehcno-scientific and official communitiesSingular knowledge – individual17FORSKNINGSNYTT • Nr 2 • 2005simultaneously through an individualand community, participating in activi-ties, decisions and identities.Environmental knowledgebenefitting practices and buildingup identities in organic farmingIn this Finnish case study the environ-mental knowledge types identifiable inthe everyday practices of an organicdairy farmer were studied by inter-viewing the farmer and analysing histalk. Essential technical-scientific gene-ral knowledge was clearly spilling intoother types of knowledge, gaining ‘life’in every-day work.By the examples listed below, the moun-ting of techno-scientific environmentalknowledge as particular ‘living’ know-ledge types becomes visible in practisesand values of organic dairy farmer.Clearly, it has benefitted the develop-ment of practices, offered bases for theirevaluation and participated in the buil-LiteratureAltieri, Miguel A. 1987. Agroecology TheScientific Basis of AlternativeAgriculture. Westview Press, Boulder.IT Publications, London.Niiniluoto, I. 1989. Informaatio, tieto jayhteiskunta. Filosofinen käsiteanalyysi.Helsinki. Valtionhallinnonkehittämiskeskus. Valtionpainatuskeskus. In Finnish. (Informa-tion, knowledge and the society.Philosophical concept analysis.Government Development Centre. InFinnish)Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of Practice.Learning, Meaning, and Identity.Cambridge University Press. New York.ding of the identity of the farmer.■ Explaining why organic primaryproduction is more energy efficientthan conventional.■ Knowing the instruments or methodsof nitrogen fixation.■ Evaluating different productionmethods based on nutrient balance.■ Understanding organic production aslocomotive in the society.On the basis of this case study, trans-lation of environmental knowledge intofood chain actors’ particular professionalactivities, motivation and identity can befollowed. This example opens visions forliving environmental knowledge tofurther modify productive activities andidentities within the food chains.Minna MikkolaE-mail: minna.mikkola@helsinki.fi,minna.mikkola@nic.fiMinna Mikkola  is a PhD student in theUniversity of Helsinki, Environmental sci-ence, writing her thesis about ecosocialdevelopment dynamics of food chains.She works as research scientist in a projectfunded by Ministry of Agriculture and Fores-try, Organic farming research program2003–2005 at Institute of Rural Researchand Training, University of Helsinki.■EU-projektet OMIard:Ekologiska marknadsinitiativ värdefulla för lokal utvecklingFöretag som marknadsför ekologiska produkter är oftast små ochhar begränsade resurser. Enligtdet EU-finansierade projeketet ”OrganicMarketing Initiatives and Rural Deve-lopment” (OMIard) har de ändå lyckatsfinna strategier som varit framgångsrikaäven i avlägsna landsbygdsområden.I ett tidigare skede gjorde den höga ef-terfrågan och den låga konkurrensen attdet var relativt enkelt att utveckla lycko-samma affärsidéer. Senare, när markna-den har växt, krävs mer kundorienteradestrategier. Det räcker inte längre enbartmed ekologisk produktion som mark-nadsargument.Några av de viktigaste faktorerna för attlyckas är leveranspolicyn, logistiken ochförädlingspolicyn. Personligheterna hosgrundare och affärsledare är avgörandeför att få med ägare och producenter påföretagets vision. De ekologiska värde-ringarna måste genomsyra hela kedjanfram till konsumenten. Konsumenternamåste få veta fördelarna med produk-terna och de måste känna förtroende föraktörerna i kedjan.Trots att det mesta av försäljningen, sär-skilt i Norden och Storbritannien, gårtill snabbköpskedjorna (”supermarkets”),vill många ändå utveckla direktförsälj-ning och den regionala marknaden.I OMIard ingår tio partners från åttaeuropeiska länder. Sammanlagt har 67marknadsinitiativ i 35 utvalda regionerundersökts. Dessutom har nästan 800konsumenter intervjuats och 72 diskus-sioner i fokusgrupper genomförts.I projektet konkluderas att de ekologiskamarknadsinitiativen har en positiv po-tential för miljö samt social och ekono-misk utveckling i avlägsna landsbygds-områden. Denna potential kan tas till-vara av nationella och europeiska makt-havare, särskilt när instrumenten för EU:snya landsbygdspolitik ska utvecklas.Mer om OMIard finns påwww.irs.aber.ac.uk/omiard ■

The meaning of living environmental knowledge in productive activities: the case of a Finnish dairy farm

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