Facing paradoxical identities: How Indonesian organic food community unify consumers and environmentalist identities (original) (raw)
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Revisiting Social Movement in Organic Agriculture Community in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2020
Organic agriculture in Indonesia originally started with various civil society groups and social movements that practiced alternative agriculture methods that were different from conventional agriculture. Over time, organic agriculture in Indonesia continued to develop until it became a way of agriculture that is now supported by the government and became the object of agricultural policy with the aim of large-scale industrialization. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a review of the three pioneering groups of the organic movement in Yogyakarta, some of which were once studied, namely the World Food Day group in Ganjuran, farmers groups and one of young organic farmer activist figure in Kalongan, Sleman, and the Sahani Organic Community. Specifically, this study aims to document the narrative of the formation process of groups and organic social movements in Yogyakarta and the values and ideology about organic agriculture revealed from the narrative. This research will also observe and document the development of group activities over time. Conceptually, this research will be guided by the analysis of organic agriculture as a social movement, focusing not only on group activities but also on the use of language as a manifestation of organic agriculture discourse. To get findings from various research objectives. Divers scientific studies in organic agriculture studies (for example, Farmia 2008, Jahroh 2010, Edwards 2013, David and Ardiansyah 2016) suggest that organic agriculture in Indonesia arises from the initiatives and activities of various non-governmental organizations. Literature trace from Jahroh denote that the earliest non govermental initiation of organic agriculture in Indonesia conducted through establishment of Bina Swadaya Bhakti Foundation in 1984. These studies point to that several organizations, such as Bina Sarana Bakti (under the auspices of Father Agatho Elsener in Cisarua, West Java), the Bali Organic Association, the Forum for the Environment (WALHI), and the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), played an important role in bringing up the movement organic agriculture in Indonesia in the mid-1980s until the late 1990s. Furthermore, in the first decade of the 21st century, various other social networks and organizations engaged in organic agriculture emerged. Some examples include the Indonesian Organic Farmers Network (Jaker-PO), the Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture Foundation (IDEP), representatives of the Belgian international NGO VECO-Indonesia and the Indonesian Organic Alliance (AOI). David Ardiansyah (2016) consider
South East Asia Research, 2021
Organic agriculture has developed in Indonesia since the 1980s due to the work of various pioneer social movement organizations and as a reaction to the ecological and socioeconomic problems arising from the Green Revolution. In the twenty-first century, organic agriculture has undergone standardization and market expansion, following the dominant agroeconomic trajectory. This article discusses the way three pioneer organic organizations in the Yogyakarta region have reacted to these developments. The findings show two divergent reactions, with one group resistant to market expansion while the others are more open to it, due to their funding needs. However, all share tensions regarding issues of fairness in market relations. These tensions reveal unarticulated socio-structural issues that tend to be overlooked in the current trend towards marketization in organic agriculture. The move away from its social movement foundations leads to laments that 'organic has lost its way.' This article argues that the tensions illustrate issues voiced by the conventionalization debate in organic agriculture and that these issues require articulation to reclaim the transformative potential of organic as a social movement in Indonesia.
Styles of organic agriculture intellectuals in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
EuroSEAS Conference, 2019
Organic agriculture originally emerged as a social movement reacting to the ecological costs of conventional agriculture and the perceived socio-political inequities of the global agri-food economic system. However, the growth of organic agriculture and market at the turn of the 21st century meant that it has itself become a global agro-industry. Participants in organic agriculture can vary in their styles, practices and motivations, ranging from those treating it as a social movement to those that treat it as a business and economic endeavor (Vos 2000, Guthman 2004, Alroe and Noe 2008, Reed 2010). Organic agriculture in Indonesia has also followed a similar trajectory, with a contemporary trend towards industrial scale production and trade facilitated by state-backed organic regulations and standards (David and Ardiansyah 2016), leading to similar multiplicity in meanings and motivations around organic agriculture for practitioners (Schreer, forthcoming). In his study of organic rice farming in Bali, McRae (2011) points out that the personal qualities of certain individuals are often the key driver of organic agricultural endeavors. Adopting Gramsci’s notion of ‘organic intellectuals’, who are intellectuals that emerge and are connected to a specific social class or group (Forgacs (ed.) 2000, Kurzman and Owen 2002), this paper seeks to describe case examples of different styles of individuals who act as organizers of organic agriculture activities in Yogyakarta. Data on these individuals were obtained through observation, interviews, and participation in events on organic agriculture in Yogyakarta. The data collection is also a collaborative part of the on-going IndORGANIC research project with the University of Passau. The study aims not only to illustrate the social role these individuals play in organizing organic agriculture endeavors but also to describe their different perspectives on organic agriculture and the strategies (both practical and discursive) that they employ to enact their perspectives. The preliminary findings describe three different styles of organic agriculture intellectuals in Yogyakarta, (1) the activist, (2) the cultural entrepreneur, (3) the organic business entrepreneur. Each style is similar to the three perspectives on organic agriculture protest, logo-poietic, and market outlined by Alroe and Noe (2008). The protest perspective emphasizes organic agriculture as a counter and alternative to conventional agriculture, the logo-poietic perspective focuses on developing a unique meaning of organic agriculture for practitioners, while the market perspectives views organic agriculture as a potential and sustainable niche in the agri-food market. Each style of organic agriculture intellectual in Yogyakarta uses their own respective discursive symbols and organizational methods, ones which are socio-culturally significant to their perspective. The activists reference terms and figures from the activist discourse of the global organic agriculture social movement, the cultural entrepreneurs make use of traditional Javanese philosophy, symbols and agricultural rituals, while the organic business entrepreneurs emphasize increased farmer welfare as well as developing marketing network and techniques.
Sustainability, 2021
While there is a global consensus that agricultural systems need to be transformed to be more sustainable, possible pathways and challenges to this process are still debated. We analyse the challenges and opportunities involved in transforming smallholder farming to organic agriculture in Indonesia, where the intense application of Green Revolution technologies came at enormous environmental costs. We adopt a transdisciplinary approach to identify possible pathways towards organic agriculture, based on an analysis of farmers’ knowledge and barriers to adoption, value and belief systems, and institutional structures, including policies and regulations. We present our empirical findings as ‘system knowledge’, ‘target knowledge’ and ‘transformation knowledge’ and incorporate insights from both academics and practitioners. We draw on evidence from large-scale surveys, field experiments, in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis. A key insight of our research is that Indonesia does not lack initiatives towards organic farming, but that these various initiatives have different motivations, goals and strategies. This misalignment detracts from the transformational potential of organic agriculture and is responsible for the hitherto limited success of the organic transition. Our findings suggest that policy action at multiple levels is required, guided by an inclusive strategy that is drawn up in a participatory manner.
Regaining Lost Ground: A Social Movement for Sustainable Food Systems in Java, Indonesia
Anthropology of Food, 2019
Since the 1960s, Indonesia has industrialised agriculture, following the model promoted by the global bio-tech research complex and development agencies. Alternative approaches favoured by local grassroots organisations and NGOs include solutions grounded in moral economic systems of communal solidarity, small-scale production, local knowledge and the localisation of distribution and consumption networks. To illustrate the viability of such alternatives, we explore new Indonesian farmers’ movements that seek to produce high-yield, high-quality low-cost food using ecologically responsible food production methods and ‘symbiotic cooperation’ strategies founded upon a moral economy ethos. Our case studies contribute to a model for a worldwide transition to socially and ecologically sustainable regional food systems.
The Socio-Nature of Local Organic Food
The concept of socio-nature asserts that social relations are inherently ecological and that ecological relations are inherently social. This paper examines how, and with what consequences, discourses and practices of support for local and organic food reflect this idea. It argues that proponents of local organic agriculture view the food they promote as simultaneously social and the product of human labor. However, advocates' understanding of the concept is partial and constrained by social privilege. It does not extend to industrial agriculture or paid farm labor. The literature on socio-nature coheres around the revelation that what is understood as natural is also social and vice versa. In contrast, this paper takes a new approach, examining socio-nature as a practice-shaping discourse already embedded in social life. Investigating the on-the-ground ideological work performed by the concept also allows for assessment of its political consequences.
Campaigning for sustainable food: sustainably certified consumer communities
British Food Journal
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumer movements and sustainability certification bodies in the development of food-related consumer campaigns.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a longitudinal approach to the study of an empirical case, the Fairtrade Towns (FTT) movement in the UK. It combines netnographic analysis on the FTT’s online forum with interviews with members of the community and of the certification body coordinating the movement.FindingsThe author conceptualises Sustainably Certified Consumer Communities (SCCC) as a distinct sub-group of consumer movements whose identity coalesces around a sustainable certification and that mobilises supporters with the purpose of promoting social change through the marketplace. The longitudinal approach allows the identification of definitional elements, main practices and unresolved tensions of this concept.Originality/valueResearch addressing the social movement dimension of cont...
European Scientific Journal, 2015
The aim of this paper is to create a more complex and holistic understanding of the value system of the political consumer. A case study was undertaken were the unit of analysis constituted 12 high users of organic food products. The empirical data was analysed by utilizing Reynolds and Gutman's laddering technique. The results revealed that the purposive selected informants activate different cognitive structures when buycotting organic food. In other words, the informants activate different values for similar attributes and consequences. This means that consumption of organic food is related to different value sets. That is, value sets where the political aspects are represented to different degrees. This means that some informants primarily buycott organic food for personal or family related reasons. For this group of informants, the focus is mainly on health related issues. Preservation of nature or environmental concern is important in the sense that it in the end relates to promoting personal security and health. This means that the environmental aspect cannot automatically be assumed to be a political motive when buycotting organic food, because it can be linked to personal motives. Understanding environmental issues solely as political motives thus reflects a rather mundane understanding. Further and more problematic it also leads to wrong results when trying to investigate the extent of political consumption from a positivistic paradigmatic posture.More specifically, survey studies will have a tendency to conclude that the phenomenon i.e. political consumption is much more prevalent than it actually is. The novel findings yield theoretical as well as practical implications. For practitioners a more comprehensive understanding of consumer values related to "politicized" products or services will enable companies to better understand consumers need and expectations. The latter being a necessity if confirmation of expectations, satisfaction, retention of customers and customer loyalty are goals of importance for the selling company.
Journal of Consumer Culture, 2020
The number of organic shops in Bengaluru has increased remarkably in the last few years, with millets being the main products drawing consumers. Yet, organic shops are only attracting middle-class consumers. We observed and interviewed 104 customers in five organic shops in Bengaluru to find out why this is the case. In this article, we follow practice theory to discuss the reported consumption patterns. We show that consumers, influenced by commercials and the advice of medical and nutritional professionals, legitimize their consumption of organic foods as an investment in their future health. We show that the customers of organic shops legitimize their consumption practice with affective engagements; thereby, performing symbolic boundaries that distinguish them from other social classes. This distinction manifests itself in the consumption of millets, which contributes to the change of the meaning of this food from a life-sustaining staple to a lifestyle superfood. In this article...