Quality of life of organic and conventional soybean farmers

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the quality of life of organic and conventional soybean farmers in Brazil. We analyzed self-reported symptoms associated with exposure to pesticides and measured life satisfaction levels of the farmers. We applied three models to analyze the data according to the dependent variable distribution - dichotomy, Poisson, and ordinal. Questionnaires were applied to 62 and 139 organic and conventional soybean farmers, respectively. We found that the probability of organic farmers to report symptoms related to pesticides exposure was 59% lower than conventional farmers; and organic farmers had a 68% higher odds ratio for life satisfaction compared to conventional farmers. We conclude that organic soybean production has improved the quality of life for agricultural workers, while also enhancing the sustainability of rural areas.

Keywords

• Organic production
• health
• life satisfaction
• soybean
• sustainable rural development