The Rise of the Organic Foods Movement as a Transnational Phenomenon - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 747

Moreover, any current advantages associated with organic farming techniques
mayproveunsustainableinthelongertermasorganic'sideologicallylessconstrained
“Other”(i.e.,conventionalfarming)evolvesinresponsetothechangingpolitical,com-
mercial,andecologicalcontext.Insodoing,itisabletodrawonawiderrepertoireof
agricultural models and techniques—conventional, organic, no-till, integrated pest
management,SRI,conventionalandgeneticplantbreeding,andmore.19Inthelong
run, so-called conventional farmers are likely to be better positioned than their organic
colleagues to harvest the private benefits of combining organic farming methods with
transgenic technology while in the process generating larger positive externalities.
The classic example is no-till farming, which typically is done with herbicide-tolerant
transgenicseeds.Inthislight,itisdiiculttoseehowtheorganicfoodsmovement's
dominantframe—positingabinarybetweenorganicandconventional—canbemain-
tained as increasingly sophisticated and pragmatic consumers, producers, and regula-
tors search for answers to new questions. The transnational organic foods movement is
vulnerabletoshitsinthestandardsbywhichenvironmentalimpactsaremeasured.
However,efortstoadapttotheseshitingprioritiesandstandardswillexacerbateten-
sionswithinthecoalitionofdiverseinterestsandorganizationsthatshelterunderthe
transnationalmovement'sumbrella.Forexample,whileIFOAMhasputtheissueonthe
topofitsadvocacyagenda,manyorganicfarmersremain,likesomeinNewZealand,
“amongthemostadamantclimatechangesceptics”(CampbellandRosin2011).here
may thus be less of an elective affinity between the environmental sensibilities of organic
farmingandotherenvironmentalconcernsthanisotenassumed.Inasimilarvein,the
temptation to follow the cue of the “global justice” movement and adopt its communi-
tarian and anticapitalist answers to the question of “how to feed every person on the
planetwhilstsafeguardingitsfuture”(Reed2010,p. 148)mustbetemperedbythereal-
izationthatdoingsowouldexcludethesupportersoforganicfoodsinthetransnational
“socialmovementsforglobalcapitalism”(Sklair1997),mostnotablythelargeretailers.
Managingtheseconlictingexternalpressuresandinternaldemandsisthechallengethat
theorganizationsthatmakeupthetransnationalorganicfoodsmovementnowface.
Notes
1. The segment can be viewed at http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-may-14-2009/
little-crop-of-horrors . This public reaction can be contrasted with that experienced by
Prince Charles, who was regarded as a loony eccentric who “talked to his plants” when he
beganpromotingorganicfoodsintheearly1990s(Shnayerson2007).
2. OnthehistoryofIFOAM,seeGeier(2007).
3. hisispartandparcelofthebroadertrendtowardso-calledconventionalizationthat
hasbeenobservedintheorganicfoodsindustry.See,forinstance,Bucket al.(1997)and
Howard(2009).
4. For dairy, it was also the consequence of a negative consumer reaction to the introduction
ofMonsanto'sgeneticallyengineeredrecombinantbovinegrowthhormone(rBGH)inthe
early1990s(DuPuis2000).