Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
agencies to be identified with an organization widely perceived to be
innovative and environmentally responsible. The ABC was always more
comfortable with the pro-grower dimension of CAFF than with its envi-
ronmental advocacy activities. Four years into the five-year partnership,
tensions erupted and CAFF was dismissed from the partnership. The
proximate cause of this divorce was CAFF's participation in the
Fatal
Harvest
project and the “Beyond Organic” campaign that accompanied
it. This topic, financed by the Foundation for Deep Ecology, attacked
industrial agriculture with a broad brush and savage language. Many of
its essays are by leading voices for reform in agriculture and are quite
thoughtful. These are jumbled with vitriolic denunciations of industrial
agriculture and the environmental impacts of agrochemicals. The topic
included numerous distortions and mis-statements of fact, and Heintz
and Farm Advisors described the topic as “a hit piece.”
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CAFF had readily agreed to participate in the “Beyond Organic” mar-
keting campaign launched with the release of the topic, and to receive
grant monies for this. CAFF did so before the factual inaccuracies and
controversial nature of the topic came to light, and it became apparent
that the topic would disrupt their network. Once the topic was published,
the topic exacerbated CAFF's internal tensions between advocacy for
change and serving growers. Vigorous debates broke out between staff
members, among the directors of CAFF's board, and between staff and
directors. CAFF's executive director rebuffed Heintz's request for CAFF
to renounce
Fatal Harvest
, and the relationship between their organiza-
tions became acrimonious. In September of 2002, the management team
of the almond PMA tried again to persuade CAFF to disavow the topic,
without success. Most of the PMA management team felt that CAFF was
attacking them, thus disqualifying their further participation. The ABC
terminated CAFF's participation in December of 2002. Knowledge can
serve as the foundation for creativity and innovation in partnerships, but
arguments about knowledge can fracture them just as easily.
Grower Knowledge versus Expert Knowledge
A comparison of the Randall Island Project and the Prune partnership
reveals divergent attitudes about the role of Cooperative Extension in
these networks. Grower Doug Hemly and PCA Pat Weddle had prior
