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The emergence and growth of organic farming is part of the changing picture and potential new functions of agriculture. In such situations of change, we need new ways of seeing and investigating the local and every-day practices in their evolving societal linkages. This book discovers the practices and problems on different kinds of organic vegetable farms and in organic inspections. Challenges for learning emerge in practical and collective activity: learning consists of expansive practices that can move farming towards both the ecological and sustained use of natural resources, and societal and entrepreneurial integration. This book shows how reflective learning tools, based on an analysis of contradictions and learning challenges, were created and used. The activity-theoretical way of discovering learning processes, combined with a developmental perspective of organic farming, is useful for researchers, advisors and practitioners interested in learning and development organic and sustainable agriculture.

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Laura Seppänen, Dr (Sc), worked many years in advising and research in organic farming completing her doctoral thesis in 2004. Currently, she works at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health where she uses the approach described in this book to investigate the challenges and tools for learning in many kinds of work.

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