2. Methods
Data
The following analysis is based on a survey of 352 certified organic farmers,
being 182 Italian and 170 Portuguese, held between 2010 and 2012, using a fully
structured questionnaire. The data used in this paper was originally collected as part of a
larger research project with a different focus. Several survey methods were applied. In
Italy most of the data was collected by personal interviews, combined with telephone
interviews. In Portugal, the data was mainly collected by e-mail, although some
personal interviews took place at the beginning with some of the organic farmers more
involved in the overall research project. The list of all certified organic farms was
compiled using address data supplied by the government authorities concerned with
organic certification. At start, Portuguese organic farming organizations were contacted
by e-mail in order to inform them about the research project and the objectives of the
survey and to ask them to disseminate information to their members about the survey
and the stated objectives. Then a mail was sent directly to farmers, thanking for their
participation and including more details about the purpose of the study, a link to the
questionnaire and some filing instructions.
The questionnaire focused on different aspects of farmers, farm structure
(including acreage, main crops and livestock), varieties and seeds, other activities
besides farming and social network (market, main sources of information) (Table 1).