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 108

and disadvantages for activists and citizens to position themselves as citizen-
consumers. The advantage of defining citizens in terms of consumers lies in its
economic-political influence. Livingstone and colleagues point at the importance
of discourse in advancing the interests of the 'citizen-consumer' for the media
and communications environment. In their interview, the Chairman of Voice of the
Listener and Viewer, notes that,
It is much easier to regulate consumer issues, which are basically economic issues and
redress and fair representation and so on than citizenship issues which involve social, cul-
tural, democratic issues which are far more difficult to quantify and measure (Livingstone
et al. 2007 , p. 72).

This statement illustrates that when working within a neoliberal regulatory market,
the most efficient way to empower citizens is through shopping. Livingstone et al.
( 2007 ) note the outcome of this emphasis on consumers, rather than citizens:
The outcome is a conception of the citizen as a vulnerable minority, leaving the majority
to express their citizen interest primarily through their active role as consumers in the
marketplace. But this is a conception that critics would question, because it does not offer
citizens a route to represent themselves directly, and because it concentrates the citizen
interest on the vulnerable few rather than the public as a whole (p. 85).

On one hand, the citizen is encouraged to shop (whether locally, or to boycott certain
brands) to assert his/her political voice. On the other hand, the environment in
which this concept originates lies on an economic agenda of market regulations,
problematizing the concept of consumers and agency.

6.2 Green Marketing and Organic Foods

As the consumer-citizen established its position in society, green marketing emerged
during the late 1980s early 1990s and has promulgated into a variety of definitions
ranging from environmental to ecological marketing at a point that there is not one
definition that connotes the term. A broad concept of green marketing encompasses
consumers' goods, services and industrial goods (Polonsky 1994 ; Peattie and Crane
2005 ), including tourism, food, automobile, etc. The term relies on marketing
products that are safe for the environment and for the health of the population.
Thus, these elements are based on the processes of production, distribution, and
consumption (Polonsky 1994 ; Peattie and Crane 2005 ), from packing goods, to
waste disposal, to modifying advertisement to appeal to green consumers. Accord-
ing to Marketing for Food ( 2011 ), “They are all diverse names (terms referring to
green marketing) but they respond to a common objective: satisfying the needs
of a consumer concerned with the environment whilst simultaneously favoring
sustainable development” (“Green Marketing” 2012 , pp. 2-5).
In late 1980s and early 1990s, corporations responded to an increase in con-
sumers' demand for green products (Hume 1991 ; Peattie and Crane 2005 ), charac-
terized by a willingness to pay more (Mintel 1991 ; Coddington 1993 ; Peattie and
Crane 2005 ). According to Peattie and Crane ( 2005 ) during the 1990s, “the volume