To be, or not to be, organic : Motives and barriers for Swedish wine farmers to use organic practices

Abstract: Wine production is one of the farming practices with the highest negative environmental impacts, mainly due to a heavy use of pesticides, why it is important to find more sustainable wine production practices. One such practice is organic farming, but the transition is slow and the number of organic certified vineyards remain low. The purpose of this study is to map what motives and barriers Swedish wine farmers perceive in using organic practices in their production, and to what extent the decision to do so is guided by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. This was studied by visiting 11 Swedish vineyards and conducting interviews with the wine farmers. The theoretical framework used in this thesis builds on the Self-determination theory about motivation together with previous research on motives and barriers to convert to organic farming. The results show that despite that only 5% of the Swedish vineyards are organically certified, all visited vineyards almost exclusively use organic practices in their production. The main motives to use organic practices were identified to be soil protection and long-term scope of the vineyard, biodiversity and ecosystem protection, lower exposure to agrochemicals, to produce an honest product, and the possibility of increased sales. Perceived barriers with using organic practices among Swedish wine producers were increased workload and labour costs, lack of access to knowledge about organic viticulture, difficulties with weed and pest control, and lower harvest yields. The decision to use organic practices are mainly guided by inner beliefs about producing the wine in harmony with nature, not causing unnecessary damage, producing a high-quality product they can be proud of, and the desire to get a professional challenge and develop as winemakers, consequently indicating that Swedish wine farmers are motivated by intrinsic motivation. Only weak indicators of extrinsic motivation were found in the study. Furthermore, the study found that the climate in southern Sweden is facilitating for organic viticulture which together with a lack of regulations regarding grape- and vine varieties could act as a foundation for Sweden to become a leader in sustainable wine production, but that a lack of knowledge and the strict regulation on sales of alcohol might prevent this.