Who Came First? The Egg or the Carton? An Analysis of Organic Packaging for Italian Retail Chain Esselunga - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 106

than informing consumers. Second, there is the underlined assumption, between
governmental agencies and corporations, that an economic market drives individual
lifestyle and not vice versa. For example, in 2009 former Monsanto lobbyist,
Michael R. Taylor, was appointed by the Obama's administration as FDA's deputy
commissioner for food safety (Carney 2010 ) - a clear example of the revolving
door. Taylor, before serving as the lobbyist for Monsanto, was an executive assistant
for the FDA, who contributed to the FDA approval of Monsanto's artificial growth
hormone (Smart Publications 2010 ). This hormone was found to be carcinogenic.
The case led to the infamous lawsuit of New World Communication of Tampa v.
Jane Akre, 2003. 1 It is only now, in 2010 that the “United States Federal Court
overturned a ban on labeling milk as artificial hormone free” (Pugliese 2010 ,p.5).
As a result, even the organic market becomes subject to the same capitalistic
maneuvers as conventional markets, where products are commoditized to maximize
the spirit of the term 'organic,' but in many cases do not fulfill the actions the phrases
connote (Polonsky 1994 ; Guthman 2002 ; Sassatelli 2006 ; Johnston 2008 ; Lockie
2009 ). In this way, the organic market that aims to make a difference in society,
counteracting corporate practices, seems to fall short on its cause. As a result,
concepts like the citizen-consumer hybrid, which “implies a social practice that can
satisfy competing ideologies of consumerism,” the self and the social (Johnston
2008 , p. 232) pose contradictions over consumer agency, leading scholars to raise
questions about consumers' power within the organic market. It is important to note,
in alignment with work by Lockie ( 2009 ) that there is a common understanding,
which places the government to create favorable conditions for both businesses and
consumers to exercise their rights. The tension rises when governmental policies
such as organic food labeling and/or other organic regulations leave the consumer
confused when attempting to shop consciously (Polonsky 1994 ; Peattie and Crane
2005 ; Hughner et al. 2007 ).
During the early 2000s, scholarship on the citizen consumer revolved around
the idea of an active buyer both at the societal and political level. The act of 'vote
with your dollars' supported the belief that consumers carried agency through their
action of shopping (Dickinson and Carsky 2005 ; Schor 2007 ). Thus, by consciously
choosing how to invest one's own money, alternative food production, distribution,
and consumption emerged (Baker 2004 ; Lockie 2009 ). Activities that epitomized on
the active shopper included community gardens, farmers' markets, co-ops, buying
green-products, boycotting of brands, recycling, and reducing consumption (Latta
2007 ; Lockie 2009 ). With regard to this new type of citizenship within a discourse
of consumerism Scammell ( 2000 ) states that “citizenship is not dead, or dying, but
found in new places, in life-politics [ ] and in consumption” (p. 351). Scammell

( 2000 ) argues for scholars to move from the pre-established notion that political
involvement rests in production; rather she calls for an understanding of how
consumption is becoming a way for consumers to become politically involved. She

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1 For more information about the case please refer to New World Communications of Tampa, INC,