Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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In other words, organic farming in New Zealand remains closely aligned
with the organic social movement that stands in opposition to the industrial
food system. The authors show how the development of Bio-Gro organic
certification in the 1980s was accomplished by organic farmers, biodynamic
growers, inspectors, exporters, and consumers and other stakeholders work-
ing together. So“by institutionalizing one discourse of 'organic' ”(that is, the
creation of organic certification standards), there was a shift in “the terrain
of contestation of the meaning of organic out of the alternative agriculture
social movement” (31). This means that rather than debate organic practices
within a small, specialized social movement, organic methods became more
broadly accepted because of certification. Certification allowed farmers to
tap into global organic markets, and the exporting companies desired high
standards. More recently, there is talk of developing a domestic organic
certification scheme that would be more closely aligned with the organic
grassroots movement, as many growers still use the “on-trust”or noncertifi-
cation system domestically. Overall, this article shows the complex circular
process “by which contexts, constructions and processes of circulation” (34)
influence the evolution of organic production in New Zealand.
Discourse analysis is a research technique that involves reading and find-
ing themes within public and private documents, interview transcripts, and
historical books, pamphlets, and magazines. This approach was also used
to analyze the organic movement in the UK (Reed 2001). The focus was
the Soil Association, an organization whose influence began with Lady Eve
Balfour in the 1930s and continues to the present; it now certifies 70 percent
of British organic farms. The highs and lows of this organization were
tracked within the context of other political and environmental issues. At
one time shunned by the government that sought to facilitate conventional
methods and the Green Revolution, the Soil Association has now become
the British government-sponsored supplier of organic farming informa-
tion. How times change! Apparently the mad cow scare put the issue of
food safety on the public's radar screen, and the Soil Association has thus
been able to inform people about the benefits of the organic farming alter-
native. Perhaps similar consumer concerns will ultimately lead American
consumers to demand higher governmental accountability for the U.S. food
supply. Likewise, consumers seeking alternatives may stimulate the contin-
ued growth of organics.
Deeper theoretical issues of how organic farming meshes with ideas of
modernity were described by Kaltoft (2001), who says that organic farming
has been a successful recent social movement. She draws from the case of
Denmark to investigate how “institutionalization” of organic (in the form
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