Exploring professional attitudes towards organic farming, genetic engineering, agriculture sustainability and research issues in Australia

Abstract

This paper reports the quantitative and qualitative answers of two groups of public agricultural professionals (a general sample and a targeted sample with some knowledge of organic farming) to issues relating to organic agriculture, genetic engineering, sustainability and associated research issues in Australia. It also analyses what influences these professionals’ views on the sustainability of conventional agriculture in Australia and other agricultural research issues. Professional views towards organic farming and genetic engineering are explored and analysed for their realism. The advent of genetic engineering has been accompanied by growing concern among many of these professionals about safety, public and private research issues, including intellectual property rights, patenting and private funding of public research.