How Is Food Political? Market, State, and Knowledge - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 22

ideas about strategies and tactics become important. Schurman and Munro (2010)
demonstrated that the success of anti-GMO movements in Europe, for example,
resulted from focusing on food distributors, not producers: Monsanto failed to
recognize that a focus on science and producer benefits was politically ineffec-
tual and consequently lost the early contests in Europe. Ideas of labeling laws,
global campaigns such as “Ban the Terminator,” targets for mobilization such as
GMO-free zones, and such creative framings as that presupposed by the “I AM
NOT A LAB RAT” movement proved effective on the ground. The high degree
of modularity in social movements builds on this imperative (Tarrow 2011).
Likewise, the tactic of unsettling science by demonstrating lack of complete con-
sensus has created anxiety and thus uncertainty that reinforces the narrative of
special risk in agricultural biotechnology.53 Industry has tried, but largely failed,
to find comparably effective tactical ideas.
d) Institutionalization : Successful ideas create institutional niches. Institutionalized
ideas also generate and define new interests, creating a path dependency for
ideas. The existence of an official designation of “organic” agriculture and foods
has proved internationally powerful. Certifications for other normatively driven
labels have similar effects. Emily Clough in this volume analyzes how labels may
function to safeguard environmental, labor, and health standards in food produc-
tion that are unprotected by the state. The labels institutionalize an idea, such as
“fair exchange,” thereby enabling political consumerism, and potentially influenc-
ing production through market behavior of concerned individuals (Johnston and
MacKendrick, this volume). Both voluntary, market-based regulation through
networks and state-regulated labels have important effects on prices and oppor-
tunities for consumers and producers alike. Ideas about proper food handling
and safety have strong effects when institutionalized. Thomas Reardon and
Peter Timmer consider in their chapter the effect of legal standards on small and
medium enterprises in the rapidly globalizing agrifood sector in the developing
world:
. . . application of food safety and hygiene regulations to food businesses have
been important examples imposing special burdens on small firms who lacked the
investment surplus and access to bank loans to shift location, register their firm,
and adopt all the measures (such as hygiene facilities and cement floors) needed to
conform to new laws.
In this case, state regulation accelerates market forces—especially foreign direct
investment—that have reshaped traditional organization of food processing and
retailing in the “supermarket revolution” that began in the 1990s and accelerated
thereater:
The accelerated penetration of retail clashes both with broadly shared
self-perceptions in developing countries, as well as the pre-1990 retail literature
(where often one heard that somehow the “traditional food culture,” dense cities, low
opportunity cost of labor, and “habit of frequent shopping” militated against modern