The cultural model of "the good farmer" and the environmental question in Finland

Farmers' relationship with nature is determined by the significance of agriculture for human beings. When agriculture is defined as human activity that uses renewable natural resources and aims to produce usable food and fiber products, agriculture is explicitly defined as production. Farmers' relationship with nature is based on the principle of production. This article discusses the contradiction between the peasant values of protection of nature that many farmers in Finland still have and the environmental harm their production-oriented farming style causes. When farmers interpret their farming practices as harmonious co-operation with nature, it is difficult for them to see the polluting effects of their work. Paul B. Thompson's suggestion that three religious-philosophical doctrines (hard work, the doctrine of grace, and the myth of garden) have made it easy for farmers to adopt productionist farming strategy is used as a framework to interpret farmers' narrative; concerning their relationship with nature. The research is qualitative and biographical. The data include life stories and biographical texts farmers wrote for a competition in 1997.