After the ‘Organic Industrial Complex’: An ontological expedition through commercial organic agriculture in New Zealand (original) (raw)
Related papers
Beyond bifurcation: Examining the conventions of organic agriculture in New Zealand
Journal of Rural Studies, 2009
The last 10 years have witnessed numerous attempts to evaluate the merits of new theoretical approaches -ranging from Actor Network Theory to 'post-structural' Political Economy and inhabiting a 'post-Political Economy' theoretical space -to the explanation of global agricultural change. This article examines Convention Theory (CT) as one such alternative approach, assessing its potential in the context of ongoing change within commercial organic agriculture in New Zealand. More specifically, CT is used to expose the insufficiency of recent ideas of conventionalisation and bifurcation, both reflecting more traditional Political Economic approaches, as explanatory concepts for the emerging condition of the New Zealand organic sector. In this paper, the concept of worlds of justification as developed in CT is utilised to address the emerging complexity of organic production. While farmers supplying a more diversified domestic market can be distinguished from those supplying export markets, an exclusive focus on such distinctions ignores the influential role of extra-economic factors on the viability of organic production systems. Thus, in addition to what are classified as market and industrial worlds in CT, the paper addresses aspects of civic, green, domestic, inspired and renown worlds. Producers' selections of organic certification organisations are used to demonstrate the interaction of these worlds in the development of the organic sector in New Zealand. The article concludes with the imperative to move 'beyond bifurcation' and acknowledge the greater complexity of negotiated outcomes that might be achieved from a CT perspective than from existing political economy-derived models like conventionalisation and bifurcation.
Naming organics: understanding organic standards in New Zealand as a discursive field
Sociologia Ruralis, 2001
While these regional studies have all traced the variable spatial development of the organic sector, many have also contributed to an emerging debate about the theoretical significance of organic agriculture. References to organic agriculture began to emerge in the early 1990s almost in tandem with the rising scope and complexity of the global trade in organic products. Even in these early works two theoretical tendencies could be identified. On one side, the promise of organic agriculture as a concrete manifestation of principles of agricultural sustainability was seen to be under threat from the globalizing and/or corporatizing food system. Prominent commentators like McRae and Friedmann (McRae et al. 1993; Friedmann 1993) referred in passing to the organic sector as something that had shown promise but was now being undermined or corrupted by corporate influence. On the opposite side, organic agriculture also featured briefly in the theoretical accounts of Marsden and Arce (Marsden and Arce 1995; Arce and Marsden 1993). In these accounts organics was envisaged as an example of new food configurations, growing up in the spaces left unexplored by globalizing food systems (and thus ignored by globally focused theorists). These two tendencies-to either see organic agriculture as under threat and being co-opted or corrupted, or to envisage organics as something operating counter to globalizing logics, has persisted during the subsequent flourishing of theoretical debate around organics. The first articles to fully engage the organics phenomenon in a mainstream rural sociology journal-Sociologia Ruralis-were Buck et al. (1997) and Tovey (1997). In chronicling the transformation of the organic agriculture social movement in California, Buck et al.
2019
This panel aims to explore the tensions within the organic farming movement in a historical perspective. Its main objective is to contextualize the birth, development, institutionalization of sustainable agriculture in time and space. As a concept, organic agriculture is often said to have began in the early part of the twentieth century as a reaction to rapidly changing farming practices and the "modernization" of agriculture. The pioneers of the early organic movement were indeed motivated by a will to reverse the environmental and social issues associated with agriculture. In this respect, they embraced a holistic approach to agriculture and promoted agricultural practices in balance with the natural environment. While the organic movement represented at its beginnings a form of social resistance to and a critique of conventional industrial and productivist forms of agriculture, occurring at the periphery of dominant agriculture and food systems, its gradual intertwining with the State and the market has raised questions about its "conventionalisation", coinciding with the emergence of so-called "green capitalism". The purpose of this panel is to initiate a conversation among participants on these tensions and the ways they structure the field of organic farming in different national contexts. Bringing together different national histories of the organic movement will help to further our understanding of its socio-economic, political, and spatial dynamics. Connecting national histories with global history will also contribute to "deprovincialize" them and to acknowledge the differing trajectories of agro-ecologisation of practices in multiple regions and time periods. The history of organic farming movement will be studied from a variety of disciplinary approaches and will be traced through published and un-published historic sources, national/regional legislation and regulations, farmers unions and environmental associations archives, etc. This panel welcomes historical case studies on the organic farming movement drawn from all periods and places and invites that address anyone or more of the following topics: exploring the social space of the organic farming movement in historical perspective; analyzing the politics of organic farming; connecting the local with the global; discussing the emergence of "conventionalisation phenomena".
Int. J. Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 2008
Many different actors have hopes and aspirations for the future of organic agriculture. They have different perspectives on organic agriculture with different understandings of what it is and what makes it move. Each perspective entails a certain understanding of organic agriculture featuring certain concepts and values and a particular logic or rationality. It is important to acknowledge this heterogeneity when investigating the dynamics and governance of organic agriculture. We suggest a polyocular approach that facilitates a comprehensive and balanced understanding of organic agriculture by enabling us to handle different perspectives reflexively. To illustrate this approach we describe three significant perspectives on organic agriculture based on protest, meaning and market. No perspective is the ‘right’ one and we claim, different perspectives on organic agriculture cannot be merged to one. We hope that polyocularity as a general analytical tool, and the three specific perspectives, will be helpful in understanding the future development of organic agriculture and how it may be influenced.
Corporate Environmentalism and Organic Agriculture in Australia: The Case of Uncle Tobys1
Rural Sociology, 2009
Recent expansion in the organic food industry represents an increasing awareness amongst an array of actors of the implications of conventional agriculture . In particular, the organic agriculture movement has been driven by both organic producers and consumers concerned about the environmental implications of food production and the health effects associated with food consumption . The recent institutionalization of the organic movement in organic regulatory bodies and through the involvement of food companies has encapsulated other actors within this network . This paper looks specifically at Uncle Tobys, a producer of breakfast cereals, which joined this network when it decided to produce an organic breakfast cereal called "Organic Vita Brits ." The integration of this company has expanded the range of actors participating within the organic network and altered the relationships between them . The temporary involvement of Uncle Tobys in the organic food industry has also resulted in a shift in the construction of meaning of "organic ." The limited success, despite many efforts to appeal to green consumers, of Uncle Tobys within this network suggests that organic food remains a niche product, consumed by a minority of consumers.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2000
Public concern over environmental quality and food safety has culminated in the development of markets for "green" foods -foods that are variously construed as fresh, chemical-free, nutritious, natural, or produced in an environmentally-sustainable manner. Understanding the emergence of "green" foods is dependent on analysis both of the ways in which foods are produced and processed, and of the meanings that are attached to them at each stage of their production, transformation, and consumption. The notion of "green" foods is thereby understood here as a fluid and contestable signifier that myriad actors involved in the production/consumption cycle may attempt to shape for their own purposes. This paper explores corporate capital's recent attempts, through certification logos and advertising, to signify the "healthiness" and environmental virtues of organically-produced foods in Australia and New Zealand. These attempts have not, however, been universally successful either in terms of gaining consumer interest, or in gaining agreements between farmers, certifying organizations, and capitalist firms over the meaning of "organic" and the practice of "sustainable" agriculture. The experience of corporate involvement in the organics industry is illustrative of yet-to-be-resolved processes of reflexive modernization. As food production and transformation continues to produce environmental and social risks, the question of just what makes food "green" will continue to be a source of social conflict.
Negotiating Sustainabilities. Navigating Organic Practices in Capitalist Markets
ETHNOLOGIA FENNICA, 2022
Organic agriculture aims at enabling sustainable food economies. But agricultural temporalities and practices do not necessarily align with demands and schedules posed by packers, processors, or retailers-a detachment that complicates the actors' pursuits of sustainability. This paper builds on participant observation during nine workshops with actors along the German organic food supply chain. Viewing these events through an ethnographic lens reveals the complex web of agricultural, political, and economic constraints that needs to be navigated from farm to supermarket. Situated at the intersection of more-than-human anthropology and anthropology of time, this article asks how actors involved in the production, distribution, and marketing of organic foods negotiate and (re)imagine sustainability. What obstacles do they see, and whose agencies and fates do they consider within their negotiations? How do these narrations and practices point to possible reconfigurations of sustainability? The analysis sheds light on sustainability's emergent nature and its relations to prevailing (global) power imbalances and wealth gaps. Looking at the organic food supply chain through the lens of time frames and rhythms allows for a conceptualization of sustainability as a situated endeavor, variable across time and space and deeply dependent on nonhuman agencies and specific situational contexts. Following globalized connections further demonstrates how sustainability must include disadvantaged and exploited people within and across national borders.