Possible, Adaptable, Gainful: Normative and Political Economic Barriers to Adopting Agricultural Climate Change Mitigation Practices

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

Abstract

Nitrogen fertilizer use in agriculture is a significant contributor to anthropogenic climate change through the release of nitrous oxide gas. This study examines the potential effectiveness of a policy aimed at reducing nitrogen fertilizer application as a climate change mitigation strategy. Using Firey’s (1999) theory of natural resource practices and policy, we analyze a potential offsets payment program in terms of its ecological Possibility, sociocultural Adaptability, and economic Gainfulness. Firey theorizes that only when a new resource practice offers improvements on all three dimensions will it be widely adopted and that the primary goal of resource policy should be to balance these three dimensions of resource management. Our study finds that significant obstacles to the reduction of nitrogen fertilizer use exist on all three dimensions: farmers fail to recognize the Possibility of anthropogenic climate change and the contribution of nitrogen fertilizer, highly productivist social norms make farmers wary of any practice that might threaten production, and the political economy of rowcrop production, particularly seed corn contracts, make nitrogen reduction economically unGainful. This and other market-based climate change policies must address all three dimensions to increase their possibility of success and encourage adoption of climate change mitigation practices.

Authors

• Rebecca L. Schewe, Mississippi State University

• Diana Stuart, Michigan State University