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Socioeconomic comparisons of organic and conventional farms in Canada : results from the 2001 Census

This thesis examines differences between organic and conventional farm and operators' characteristics, and identifies which characteristics explain whether a farm is organic or conventional. The data comes from the 2001 Canadian Census of Agriculture, which makes this study the first that is national in scope and includes detailed analysis of the differences between organic and conventional agriculture using a large sample size. / Farms were divided into three groups: conventional, primarily organic, and mixed production (some organic production). Parametric and nonparametric tests were used to analyze farm and operator characteristics. Logistic regression was used to determine which variables explain whether a farm is organic, conventional or mixed. Results indicate that organic farmers are more likely to be younger, female, work less off farm and more on farm, when compared to conventional. Organic farms tend to be smaller, more profitable, more diversified, and have a higher dependency on hired labour. There were no differences in capital intensity. Mixed farms manifested the same patterns as organic when compared to conventional.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.101864
Date January 2007
CreatorsLipai, Monica.
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Science (Department of Natural Resource Sciences.)
Rights© Monica Lipai, 2007
Relationalephsysno: 002670043, proquestno: AAIMR38415, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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