This research investigates the relationship between institutions (e.g., formal laws and community norms) and compliance in the context of organic farming in the United States. The project focuses on how policy designs and individual and socially derived motivations such as attitudes, social norms and habits, and individual capacity influence decision making regarding compliance. The case study is organic farming, the fastest growing food industry over the past decade in the United States. The organic farming industry faces growing pains as it seeks to provide and maintain a standardized certification process that instills consumer confidence and protects the integrity of its processes for the benefit of human health.
The study applies the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, and the Institutional Grammar Tool to analyze organic farming policies, including organic crop and livestock/dairy farm certifications, comparatively across six states. The investigators use data gathered from interviews and questionnaires given to organic farmers and regulators to compare policy designs with actual behaviors as well as to principles of organic farming as identified by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. The investigators compare compliance in organic farms in six states to fish farms in three states previously studied by the investigators. This study will contribute to understanding how to strengthen the alignment between policy designs and actual behaviors.
