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Brad Coombes

Bio: Brad Coombes is an academic researcher from University of Auckland. The author has contributed to research in topics: Indigenous & Indigenous rights. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 14 publications receiving 656 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors review three debates through which human geographers are beginning to engage more meaningfully with Indigenous environmentalism: the political ecology of neoliberalism, deliberation within claims settlement, and propertization of socio-ecological relations.
Abstract: Indigenous peoples live in challenging environments and engage in complex negotiations to access their rights. Yet research on their social mobilization often stereotypes them as victims of environmental management. We review three debates through which human geographers are beginning to engage more meaningfully with Indigenous environmentalism: the political ecology of neoliberalism; deliberation within claims settlement; and propertization of socio-ecological relations. A movement away from conflating Indigenous with local is evident in those debates, producing recognition of diversity in Indigenous motivations but also a range of challenges to geographical practice.

150 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that such studies pay insufficient attention to the contradictions and limitations of capitalist agriculture as established in recent and classical formulations of the agrarian question, and that small-scale organic producers are persistent, despite the increasing involvement of agribusiness in organic agriculture.
Abstract: Recent studies of organic agriculture are characterized by an assumption that it is relatively easy for agribusiness to transform the meaning of organic food and marginalize the position of small-scale organic producers. In this paper, it is argued that such studies pay insufficient attention to the contradictions and limitations of capitalist agriculture as established in recent and classical formulations of the agrarian question. Attempts to liberalize international trade and globalize the food system, which are particularly evident in New Zealand, result in disruption of food security and quality, so the agrarian question remains central in contemporary agri-food research. Tempered by biological conditions and associated with alternative social groups, organic production is strongly influenced by those forces which comprise the agrarian question, so attempts by agribusiness to manipulate the organic industry are fraught with contradiction. Research findings from four regional case studies in New Zealand show that small-scale organic producers are persistent, despite the increasing involvement of agribusiness in organic agriculture

125 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper worked with Indigenous peoples and stretched geographers' presumptions about appropriate modes of engagement and representation, and early feminist geography prompted methodological experimentation in the field of intersectional research with First Nations peoples.
Abstract: Working with Indigenous peoples has stretched geographers’ presumptions about appropriate modes of engagement and representation. Early feminist geography prompted methodological experimentation th...

110 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, in this paper, the authors argue that Indigenous peoples are required to negotiate a transcultural present in which their rights and opportunities are circumscribed by the pleadings of multicultural others.
Abstract: Required to negotiate a transcultural present in which their rights and opportunities are circumscribed by the pleadings of multicultural others, Indigenous peoples have attracted attention for the...

81 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The exporting of organic produce from New Zealand is a response to the ongoing breakdown of Fordist regulatory measures for agriculture in destination markets as discussed by the authors, which has also rendered the country's exporters of food products particularly sensitive to the trade and agricultural policies of the United States, Japan, and the European Union.
Abstract: The exporting of organic produce from New Zealand is a response to the ongoing breakdown of Fordist regulatory measures for agriculture in destination markets. The unambiguous neoliberal revolution in New Zealand has survived only through the expansion of food exports, especially by large corporate entities and producer marketing boards. It has also rendered the country's exporters of food products particularly sensitive to the trade and agricultural policies of the United States, Japan, and the European Union. Some commentators consider New Zealand's experiment in agricultural deregulation indicative of a wider coherence in global food trade, a new stability institutionalized in the Uruguay Round of the GATT and regulated under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. The case of organic and low-input food exporting from New Zealand shows that no such ‘new times’ exist. Rather, these new types of food exporting are crisis experiments induced by green protectionism—the use of health and food safety issues as an impediment to trade. In turn, green protectionism is a direct result of the continuing breakdown of Fordist agricultural regulation in key nations: the global trade in food products remains in crisis.

51 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors traces the development of food regime analysis in relation to historical and intellectual trends over the past two decades, arguing that food regime analyses underline agriculture's foundational role in political economy/ecology.
Abstract: Food regime analysis emerged to explain the strategic role of agriculture and food in the construction of the world capitalist economy. It identifies stable periods of capital accumulation associated with particular configurations of geopolitical power, conditioned by forms of agricultural production and consumption relations within and across national spaces. Contradictory relations within food regimes produce crisis, transformation, and transition to successor regimes. This ‘genealogy’ traces the development of food regime analysis in relation to historical and intellectual trends over the past two decades, arguing that food regime analysis underlines agriculture's foundational role in political economy/ecology.

1,010 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of focus group interviews and a national consumer survey were conducted to examine the significance of 'green' signifiers in the consumption practices of Australian consumers and identify the barriers and opportunities for expanding the organic industry in Australia in the context of the ways organics is constructed by consumers.
Abstract: Central to the development of green lifestyles is the consumption of foods that by dint of their status as chemical-free, locally produced and/or free of genetically modified ingredients, reduce the environmental impact of food provision. Yet there are many other factors, such as health concerns, that may also encourage the consumption of 'green' foods. This paper explores the ways in which Australian consumers construct organic food-a sector of the food industry that is currently growing at between 20 and 50 percent per annum but is struggling to keep up with rising consumer demand. In order to examine the significance of 'green' signifiers in the consumption practices of Australian consumers a series of focus group interviews and a national consumer survey were conducted. These examined both those characteristics of food that were valued in general, and those meanings that were associated with organic food in particular. In very general terms, analysis reveals that while consumers believed organic foods to be healthy and environmentally sound-both of which were considered desirable-these characteristics were subsumed by an overarching concern with convenience. This does not mean that consumers did not hold genuinely positive environmental attitudes. Rather, it reflects a range of contradictory beliefs and practices that appeared to derive from the discursive conflict between conventional and organic food industries over environmental, health and safety claims. The paper concludes by identifying the barriers and opportunities for expanding the organic industry in Australia in the context of the ways organics is constructed by consumers.

537 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive study of the California organic sector is presented, where the authors argue that agribusiness involvement does more than create a soft path of sustainability - or "organic lite"; the conditions set by processes of agro-industrialization undermine the ability of even the most committed producers to practice a truly alternative form of organic farming.
Abstract: Based on a comprehensive study of the California organic sector, this article responds to the conventionalization debate on organic farming that surfaced after the publication of Buck et al. in 1997 in this journal. First, it addresses the place of California within the international organic sector, justifying its importance as a case study. As an empirical point, it documents the form and extent of agribusiness involvement in California's organic sector and provides place-specific explanations as to how it articulated with the previously existing organic sector. It also considers how agribusiness has influenced organic production, in rule-setting, inter-sectoral dynamics, and agronomic practices. The argument is that agribusiness involvement does more than create a soft path of sustainability - or ‘organic lite’; the conditions set by processes of agro-industrialization undermine the ability of even the most committed producers to practice a truly alternative form of organic farming. This trajectory is not inevitable, however, and largely turns on the sort of state support given to organic farming.

428 citations

Book ChapterDOI
17 Nov 2005
TL;DR: The authors suggests that a corporate-environmental food regime is emerging as part of a larger restructuring of capitalism, which reflects specific social and political compromises, which they interpret through the social movement concept of interpretive frames.
Abstract: This paper suggests that a corporate-environmental food regime is emerging as part of a larger restructuring of capitalism. Like past food regimes, it reflects specific social and political compromises, which I interpret through the social movement concept of interpretive frames. The diasporic-colonial food regime of 1870–1914 grew up in response to working class movements in Europe, and created a historically unprecedent class of commercial family farmers. When world markets collapsed, those farmers entered into new alliances, including one that led to the mercantile-industrial food regime of 1947–1973. Lineaments of a new food regime based on quality audited supply chains seems to be emerging in the space opened by impasse in international negotiations over food standards. Led by food retailers, agrofood corporations are selectively appropriating demands of environmental, food safety, animal welfare, fair trade, and other social movements that arose in the interstices of the second food regime. If it consolidates, the new food regime promises to shift the historical balance between public and private regulation, and to widen the gap between privileged and poor consumers as it deepens commodification and marginalizes existing peasants. Social movements are already regrouping and consolidation of the regime remains uncertain.

373 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that biocultural approaches to conservation can achieve effective and just conservation outcomes while addressing erosion of both cultural and biological diversity.
Abstract: We contend that biocultural approaches to conservation can achieve effective and just conservation outcomes while addressing erosion of both cultural and biological diversity. Here, we propose a set of guidelines for the adoption of biocultural approaches to conservation. First, we draw lessons from work on biocultural diversity and heritage, social-ecological systems theory, integrated conservation and development, co-management, and community-based conservation to define biocultural approaches to conservation. Second, we describe eight principles that characterize such approaches. Third, we discuss reasons for adopting biocultural approaches and challenges. If used well, biocultural approaches to conservation can be a powerful tool for reducing the global loss of both biological and cultural diversity.

328 citations