Religious Attitudes Towards Ethical Problems in the Greenhouse Vegetable Cultivation in Türkiye
Authors: KARSLI Bahset , KARAMAN Süleyman 
Published: December 2023

The main purpose of this study is to determine the level of influence of religious sensitivity regarding the ethical problems of greenhouse vegetable cultivation and to investigate the possibility of religious contribution to the solution of ethical problems arising on the ground of greenhouse cultivation. Religious sensitivities of greenhouse vegetable growers, where physical conditions are controlled and industrial production is dominant, were analyzed through main categories such as daily life and religion, pesticides and health, genetics and nature. The study aims to provide a background reading of specific moral issues in the context of religious sensitivity analysis.

The data were collected by means of questionnaires arranged in accordance with the purpose, by interviewing 430 producers growing vegetables in greenhouses within the borders of Antalya province located in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey. An index was created to analyze the religious mentality of greenhouse vegetable growers and to show their religious sensitivity levels in solving ethical problems. The characteristics of the producers, their attitudes and behaviors in the production process are known as the factors that affect the religious sensitivity towards the ethical problems of greenhouse vegetable cultivation. These factors were tested with a multiple linear regression model whose dependent variable was the religious sensitivity index.

Producers who think that they are praying while doing their work in the greenhouse vegetable production process and quit their job to perform the Friday Prayer have been found to be more religiously sensitive to ethical issues than other producers. Religion was found to be important in the daily lives of the producers and it was stated that religion affected behaviors on the basis of mentality. The level of religious sensitivity was determined to be quite high, that a mistake they made in greenhouse vegetable growing activities would be punished not only in the hereafter but also in this world. This situation shows that in order to overcome the ethical problems in greenhouse vegetable cultivation, the strategies to be followed should be considered within the religious framework. In the linear regression model, it can be said that the producers with high school and undergraduate education levels have higher religious sensitivity to the ethical problems of greenhouse vegetable cultivation compared to the producers with primary education level. Certain experiences of greenhouse vegetable growers may be linked to their general religious attitudes. In this respect, it can be said that the religious sensitivity of the producers, who have been doing greenhouse cultivation for a long time, towards ethical problems is more important than the less experienced ones.

The religious sensitivity index for greenhouse vegetable cultivation is the first in the literature. The religious sensitivity index, whose relationships are analyzed in the form of daily life and religious perception, genetics and nature, greenhouse vegetable production and the hereafter, chemical spraying and health, non-compliance with the spraying time and seeing the return in life, moral consistency and market conditions, seems to have the potential to guide further studies.