Open AccessEcological Attitudes and Their Components about Organic and Conventionally Grown Food: The Case of the Gauja National Park
Author(s) -
Renārs Felcis,
Janis Zaltkovskis
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
rural environment. education. personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
eISSN - 2255-8071
pISSN - 2255-808X
DOI - 10.22616/reep.2021.14.037
Subject(s) - organic farming , agriculture , expiration date , index (typography) , scale (ratio) , descriptive statistics , psychology , ecology , geography , computer science , mathematics , cartography , chemistry , statistics , food science , world wide web , biology
The 2nd year students of sociology in Faculty of Social Sciences in University of Latvia conducted a study “Attitudes of the residents of the Gauja National Park region towards organic and conventional agriculture” during the spring of 2020, under the supervision of lecturers Renārs Felcis and Jurijs Ņikišins, where ecological attitude index has been made on organic and conventional farming (including 4 statements regarding statements of state action). The aim of the article is to describe the index of ecological attitudes and to identify the latent themes of ecological attitudes about organic and conventional farming to reveal in more detailed hidden similarities of 10 statements about aspects of organic and conventional farming. A type of factor analysis (principal component analysis (further ‒ PCA)) was performed in addition to the descriptive analysis to achieve the aim. In the final analysis, 3 components were proposed, the first of which reflects the ecological habits of purchase, the second ‒ the ecological habits of growing and the third ‒ the individual variables on the importance of the expiration of products. The applicability of the statement scale in future research is suggested for discussion and conclusions.