Sociological Aspects of Sustainable Agriculture and its Practice: The Korean Case

The term sustainability is conceptualized as a having double meaning--inter-generational and intra-generational equity. Sustainable agriculture (SA) is also understood as a totality encompassing agricultural and rural development. Korean sustainable agriculture evolved since the late 1970s as a "movement'' to restore the soil, undergoing rapid expansion in the 1990s. A few studies on Korean sustainable agriculture have indicated that the farmers in this field are younger and more educated, implying that the sustainable agriculture is a promising alternative farming technique. Consumers are also younger, better educated, wealthier, and very often from the countryside. A hypothesis is provided here about the existence of two types of SA farmers, the "movement type" and "business type" practitioners. The possible convergence between sustainable agriculture and sustainable rural development, and its necessity, is discussed and proposed