Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
business. . . . What I say is, as a graduate student, you need to set up your
credentials in an academic environment, and then you can expand your
interests. But I think that it's very risky as a graduate student.”
Partnership activities are a form of moonlighting for most LGU research
scientists. They offer scientists an opportunity to interact with skilled
growers and PCAs and contribute substantively to the well-being of agri-
culture, but they have to be careful it does not interfere with their scien-
tific careers.
New Roles for Agricultural Organizations
Partnerships build on existing social networks in agriculture.
Commodity-specific organizations have played crucial facilitating roles
in agroecological partnerships. They pursue the interests of their
member growers (at least the larger and influential ones), while helping
growers recognize that the social and regulatory context of agriculture
has changed since
Silent Spring
. Other types of grower organizations
include non-governmental organizations, grower cooperatives, trade
organizations, and informal groups like ACIRDS. For the purposes
of partnership activities, the legal status and original purpose of a grow-
ers' group is less important than the development of environmental
The Commodity Organization
Early California growers and the state created commodity-specific institu-
tions to address marketing and production research. These were historical
antecedents to the commodity organizations participating in agroecologi-
cal partnerships starting in the 1990s. Commodity organizations originally
emerged to help growers manage the cross-country transportation of their
fruit but their roles expanded to help growers in all phases of their indus-
trial development. Growers were able to lobby successfully for enhanced
status and authority for them during the farm crisis of the early twentieth
century. In 1915, the California legislature passed the first laws enabling
fruit marketing cooperatives. In 1937, the California legislature and the
US Congress passed laws based on these cooperatives to help producers
cope with Depression-era prices. There are now 33 federal and 41
state crop commodity organizations. The single-crop focus of these organ-
izations tends to reinforce commodity-specific knowledge systems, and
predisposes them to play a facilitating role in agroecological initiatives.
