Pacific Northwest Hop Growers’ Attitudes and Perceptions Toward Sustainable Agriculture: A Mixed-Methods Study

Facing stricter regulations on pesticide use in important export markets, stakeholders in the hop industry are seeking more long-term solutions with less dependency on agrichemical application while maintaining crop quality and productivity. Research into technical solutions for prioritizing pest issues is ongoing, but it is equally important to understand the social dimensions of adopting new technologies. In this exploratory sequential mixed-methods study, we examined Pacific Northwest hop growers’ perceptions toward sustainable agriculture and the potential motivations for and barriers to adoption. The study was conducted in two phases: in-depth interviews with growers and a hop merchant followed by a quantitative survey. Both quantitative and qualitative findings showed that the dual interest framework addressing both the economic viability of the farm and land stewardship is needed to understand the growers’ behaviors. The results of this study also indicate the importance of creating opportunities for a trusted peer-to-peer learning approach for the adoption of new practices. [Formula: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2026.