Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
work brought significant resources that were made more available to
other sectors of the network to better achieve common goals. In this
regard, the ABC does not have to represent its growers to regulatory
agencies as reducing their pesticide use to zero, but only demonstrate a
reduction in their use faster than other commodities with similar
problematic pesticides, such as prunes. The process of bringing these
institutional representatives to negotiate a consensus about the needs of
the industry is beneficial
in and of itself
because it helped oriented a
group of institutional actors toward common goals. The ability of the
ABC to convene diverse interest groups within the industry should not
be overlooked. Relationships within many commodity networks are
fractured. Some other commodity groups have been unable to agree even
on how to go about writing a grant proposal to fund an agricultural
partnership, and several have been voted out of existence by their
member growers.
The economic structure of almond hulling and marketing firms mir-
rors that of almond production: a few dominant operations and many
smaller ones. This bi-modal economic structure plus the legal constraints
on the ABC as a commodity board have so far thwarted eco-label efforts
in the almond industry. Blue Diamond processes about one third of
California almonds, and is at least six times the size of the next largest
processor. None of the other hundred or so processors have more than 5
percent of the market. In 2001, Augie Feder took a leave from the
USEPA to try to start a BIOS eco-label. He worked with a marketing
consultant to develop certification standards and a marketing strategy
for BIOS-grown almonds. Blue Diamond was decidedly cool to the plan.
It was uninterested in additional separation and certification hassles, but
also feared losing market share to their smaller, more nimble competi-
tors. European demand has kept organic almond prices high, roughly
twice the rate of conventional almonds, so smaller hullers who handle
organic nuts did not support any effort that could cut into demand for
their product. In addition, Blue Diamond represents about 1,300 grow-
ers (many of them large) and does not want to antagonize them, nor
expose them to any public perception that non-BIOS almonds cause
pollution. Blue Diamond growers generally have four of the ten votes on
the ABC board of directors.
