The Influence Of Framing In The National Debates On Sustainable

Agriculture: A Comparison Between Switzerland And New Zealand

Philipp AerniETH Zurich,

World Trade InstituteUniversity of Berne, Switzerland

IAREP/SABE conference at LUISS,Rome, 6. Sept. 2008

What is Sustainable Agriculture?

• The limits of the legal definition of sustainable agriculture (based on a social planning model)

• Most countries agree about the economic, social and environmental goals but disagree on how to achieve them– New Zealand tries to reconcile competitiveness and

sustainability (facilitating sustainable change)– Switzerland tries to preserve sustainable agriculture in

the face of a trend towards agricultural liberalisation (preventing unsustainable change)

• Research Question: To what extent is the perception of sustainable agriculture in a country influenced by the domestic political interests that frame the public debate?

Basic motivation to conduct surveys on stakeholder attitudes toward sustainable

agriculture• Public perception of sustainable agriculture shapes agricultural

policy (taxpayers, consumers)

• Stakeholders involved in the public debate on sustainable agriculture shape public perception

A national strategy of sustainable agriculture is shaped by public concerns…which are framed by political interests …which tend to make effective use of affect heuristics in postmaterial society.

Goal of the surveys: To identify the primary forces that shape the beliefs andpolicies of sustainable agriculture in countries with different positions in international agricultural trade (NZ/CH)

Surveys

• Stakeholder survey in New Zealand from April to July 2006. 39 questionnaires completed (81% return rate)

• Stakeholder survey in Switzerland from November 2006 to January 2007. 41 questionnaires completed (86% return rate)

Semi-structured Questionnaire:- problems of sustainable agriculture/solutions- statements (mitigation/adaption-related)- policy network analysis

Workshops: Feeback from participants

Survey Participation

813

8

66

45

75

2

9 7

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Switzerland New Zealand

NGOs

Media

Business

Legislative

Government

Academia

The assessed impact of five different practices on sustainable agriculture

1

2

3

4Organic Agriculture

Labelling Eco-FriendlyAgriculture

Taxing Food Miles

Direct Payments

Precision Agriculture

Genetic Engineering

CHNZ

Perception Pattern Analysis (Part 1, 2)• Formation of variables with a high degree of similarity (e.g.

category of statements, category of problems) using Principal Component Analysis

• Cluster Analysis (Ward Clustering Method) for each country

• Biplot Analysis for CH, NZ (allows to identify each single stakeholder perception and his/her position within the respective cluster)

NZ A B G L M N Total1 5 2 0 0 1 1 92 5 3 5 1 1 4 193 3 2 1 3 0 2 11

Total 13 7 6 4 2 7 39

CH A B G L M N IN Total1 0 1 3 6 2 0 1 132 4 2 1 0 2 4 1 143 4 2 4 0 1 3 0 14

Total 8 5 8 6 5 7 2 41

Perception Patterns in New Zealand (Biplot)

Perception Patterns in Switzerland (Biplot)

L7 L4

IN1

IN23

B4

B5

A1

G3

G2

G5 G4

A3

A2

G6

G7

N6

I1

B3

B8 B1 M4

I4

G1

A5 N2

B2

N7

N4

A8

A6

we give financial support to them

we receive financial support from them

we give and receive financial support

The Swiss Network of Financial Support

L2 L1 A6

G2

G5

G4

A2

A1

A7

A8

A5

B11

G6

A3

B12

IN3

IN1

B1

N8 B8

B3 B2

B5

G3

N1 N2

B7

B4

B12

G1

N9

A9

I1

I2 B10

I3

we give financial support to them

we receive financial support from them

we give and receive financial support

The New Zealand Network of Financial Support

Conclusions

• Two countries with a similar political committment to sustainable agriculture but different approaches how to achieve these goals

• New Zealand believes that change is necessary to ensure sustainable agriculture (government as facilitator)

• Switzerland believes its agriculture is already sustainable and that change might harm it (government as regulator)

• Stakeholders in CH tend to cater to the nostalgic views cherished by a society that does not (want to) see agriculture as a business anymore

• Stakeholders in NZ know that the environment as well as agriculture are strongly linked to the long time economic survival of the country. the instrumental use of affect heuristics in politics is less effective.