Journal ArticleDOI
Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements
TLDR
The international organic agriculture and fair trade movements represent importantchallenges to the ecologically and sociallydestructive relations that characterize the global agro-food system as discussed by the authors, and the success of these movements is perhaps better judged by their ability tochallenge the abstract capitalist relations that fuelexploitation in the global agriculture system.Abstract:
The international organic agricultureand fair trade movements represent importantchallenges to the ecologically and sociallydestructive relations that characterize the globalagro-food system. Both movements critique conventionalagricultural production and consumption patterns andseek to create a more sustainable world agro-foodsystem. The international organic movement focuses onre-embedding crop and livestock production in ``naturalprocesses,'' encouraging trade in agriculturalcommodities produced under certified organicconditions and processed goods derived from thesecommodities. For its part, the fair trade movementfosters the re-embedding of international commodityproduction and distribution in ``equitable socialrelations,'' developing a more stable and advantageoussystem of trade for agricultural and non-agriculturalgoods produced under favorable social andenvironmental conditions. The international market forboth organic and fair trade products has grownimpressively in recent years. Yet the success of thesemovements is perhaps better judged by their ability tochallenge the abstract capitalist relations that fuelexploitation in the global agro-food system. While theorganic movement currently goes further in revealingthe ecological conditions of production and the fairtrade movement goes further in revealing the socialconditions of production, there are signs that the twomovements are forging a common ground in definingminimum social and environmental requirements. I arguefrom a theoretical and empirical basis that what makesfair trade a more effective oppositional movement isits focus on the relations of agro-food trade anddistribution. By demystifying global relations ofexchange and challenging market competitiveness basedsolely on price, the fair trade movement creates aprogressive opening for bridging the wideningNorth/South divide and for wresting control of theagro-food system away from oligopolistic transnationalcorporations infamous for their socially andenvironmentally destructive business practices.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Institutional Emergence in an Era of Globalization: The Rise of Transnational Private Regulation of Labor and Environmental Conditions1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a different account by viewing institutions as the outcome of political contestation and by analyzing conflict and institutional entrepreneurship among a wide array of actors, and used a comparative case study design to explain the formation of social and environmental certification associations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors link changing global coffee markets to opportunities and vulnerabilities for sustaining small-scale farmer livelihoods in northern Nicaragua and suggest that participation in organic and Fair Trade networks reduces farmers' livelihood vulnerability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Shifting plates in the agrifood landscape: The tectonics of alternative agrifood initiatives in California
TL;DR: Alternative food initiatives are appearing in many places Observers suggest that they share a political agenda: to oppose the structures that coordinate and globalize the current food system and to create alternative systems of food production that are environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially just as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fair trade: quality, market and conventions
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze Fair Trade, its evolution and the challenges it faces, in the light of the convention theory and its application to the ambit of agro-food.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the booming world trade in organic agro-foods such as tropical products, counterseasonal fresh produce, and processed foods and identified key contradictions between mainstream agroindustrial and alternative movement conventions in global organic networks.
References
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Book
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time
TL;DR: In this paper, the key to the institutional system of the 19 century lay in the laws governing market economy, which was the fount and matrix of the system was the self-regulating market, and it was this innovation which gave rise to a specific civilization.
Journal ArticleDOI
From Farm to Table: The Organic Vegetable Commodity Chain of Northern California
TL;DR: In this article, the AA. montrent que le capital agro-alimentaire is en train de penetrer le segment de plus forte plus-value de la chaine de production des legumes biologiques, malgre l'existence of pratiques et d'idees allant a contrecourant du secteur conventionnel de production.
BookDOI
Globalising food : agrarian questions and global restructuring
David Goodman,Michael Watts +1 more
TL;DR: Globalising Food as discussed by the authors provides an innovative contribution to the area of political economy of agriculture, food and consumption through a revealing investigation of the globalisation and restructuring of localised agricultural sectors and food systems.
Book
Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism
TL;DR: O'Connor as discussed by the authors argues that environmental and social crises pose a growing threat to capitalism itself and demonstrates the power of ecological Marxist analysis for understanding our diverse environment and social history, for grounding economic behaviour in the real world, and for formulating and evaluating new political strategies.
Book ChapterDOI
Nourishing Networks: Alternative Geographies of Food
Sarah Whatmore,Lorraine Thorne +1 more
TL;DR: McDonaldization as mentioned in this paper is a process of social rationalisation modelled on the fast-food restaurant which he argues has "revolutionized not only the restaurant business, but also American society and, ultimately, the world".