The Rise of the Organic Foods Movement as a Transnational Phenomenon - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 745

Clearly,theEuropeanpolityhasfunctionedasa“coralreef,”touseTarrow'smeta-
phor(2001,pp. 15-16;2002,p. 242),thathasprovidedampleinstitutionalopportunities
for the development of transnational dimensions of the organic foods movement. To
a somewhat lesser extent, but more global in scope, this is true also of UN institutions
suchasFAO,theUNConferenceonTradeandDevelopment(UNCTAD),theWorld
TradeOrganization(WTO),andtheWorldHealthOrganization(WHO).heseorga-
nizationsworkcloselywithIFOAMindevelopingstandardsandalsoinpromoting
organic agriculture, not the least in developing countries.
The UN agencies have also helped legitimate further action to promote organic foods
production.A particularlysigniicantUN-ledinitiativeisknownastheInternational
Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development
(IAASTD).InitiatedbytheWorldBankandco-sponsoredbyawiderangeofUNagen-
cies,theIAASTDprocessbroughttogetherrepresentativesofgovernments,civilsociety
(includingIFOAM),andscientiststomakeaninternationalassessmentoftheroleof
agricultural science and technology in “reducing hunger and poverty, improving rural
livelihoods, and facilitating equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sus-
tainabledevelopment.”hedratingandeditingofthereportprovidedafocalpointfor
civilsocietyactivism(Scoones2009),andtheinalreport,presentedin2008,has,with
itsendorsementoforganicagriculture,helpedshitthedebateonagriculturalpolicyin
wayswelcomedbyorganicfoodadvocates(McIntyreet al.2009;IAASTDWatch2008).
The Organic Foods Movement
as a Model
heriseoftheorganicfoodsmovementtoapositionofpowerandinluenceinworld
politics may partly be explained by the efficacy of the organic frame and by the plethora
ofinstitutionalopportunitiesoferedbystatesandinternationalorganization.However,
how themovementhasbeenorganizedandoperatedatthetransnationallevelhasalso
helped legitimate the transnational dimension in relation to both its own members and
toexternalstakeholders(states,corporations,internationalorganizations,andother
INGOs).Itisatellingindicatorthattheorganicfoodsmovementhascometoserve
as a model for other social movements seeking to develop a transnational element to
their own work on issues relating to social and environmental “sustainability.” Notably,
IFOAMservedasanorganizational“blueprint”whentheForestStewardshipCouncil
(FSC)wasfoundedin1993,anditfurthermore“providedtheinstitutionalmodelfor
certification as the primary policy instrument used by the FSC and later also by a vari-
etyofothertransnationalrule-makingorganizations”(DingwerthandPattberg2009,
p. 723).16Inaddition,keyorganizationalfeaturespioneeredbyIFOAMweresubse-
quently adopted by other prominent international NGOs (INGOs) concerned with
global sustainability. These include a parliamentary-style governing body and an