Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Convergent and Divergent Motivations of NGOs and Commodity
Organizations
The configurations of the aforementioned networks exhibit remarkable
variation, reflecting the priorities of leaders who set them up and partic-
ipation of various actors. Partnership leaders evince their strategies for
inducing change by how they organize these networks and their relation-
ships. The creation of BIOS marked the entrance of new institutional
actors into extension activities in California agriculture. The Community
Alliance with Family Farmers integrated environmental concerns and
populist values with practical and economic information about agricul-
tural alternatives. This “intrusion” was highly controversial among
Farm Advisors: some attacked BIOS as illegitimate science, while a few
supported it quietly. CAFF sought to enroll other institutions in this proj-
ect, and was most successful in helping the Almond Board of California
(ABC) to adapt some elements of BIOS.
For all its farmer-centric discourse, CAFF effectively was able to weave
the BIOS network around itself, effectively capturing influence from
other actors in agriculture, specifically Farm Advisors and affiliated
PCAs. As figure 6.3 shows, CAFF's relationship with growers became the
central dyad in this network, supported by the power of non-crop
ecological actors and the scientific expertise. Through developing close
ties with growers, CAFF addressed some of growers' economic and envi-
ronmental problems. Those Farm Advisors and affiliated PCAs not
Private
foundation
funders
UCCE Farm Advisors
SAREP
CAFF
(growers
organization)
Commodity
Organization
USEPA
Growers
PCAs
Figure 6.3
The almond BIOS network.
