Engaging the Organic Conventionalization Debate - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 174

(see Friedmann and McMichael 1989 ; McMichael 2009 ). Organics fits well with
Friedmann's ( 2005 ) “corporate-environmental regime.” At various levels, countries
and companies are mobilizing to enter the growing organics market and capture the
green premium. The corporate greening referred to by Lyons in Australia fits this
perspective, as does the acquisition and development of green labels and companies
reported by Howard. From the perspective of McMichael's ( 2005 ) “corporate food
regime,” conventionalization is replacing “Food from Somewhere” (read “deep
organic”) grounded in indigenous and local relations of production with “Food From
Nowhere” (read “organic lite”) organized around global value chains and regulated
by the WTO and other supra-national forms of the state. In general, these global
value chains organized by TNCs link producers in the global South to consumers in
the global North.
From Burch and Lawrence's “financialization regime” ( 2009 ) approach, conven-
tionalization is indicated by the growth of the major agrifood retailers that drive
the global value chains and develop their own organic store brands. Evidence by
Smith and Marsden in the UK supports this position as retailers compete for the
organic market by rationalizing the supply chain and pushing the cost-price squeeze
down to the farm gate. Eventually, the global comparative advantage will obtain
at the production and retailing levels as organics is incorporated into the global
agrifood system. Following the bifurcation thesis, inefficient producers and regions
will leave the market and/or be relegated to marginal direct markets. From Pechlaner
and Otero's “neo-liberal regime” ( 2010 ) view, conventionalization points to the
role of the state in facilitating a neo-regulation process that favors the interests
of capital over subordinate groups as part of globalization, including a focus on
supporting the use of genetically-modified organisms. Several organic scholars have
invoked the crucial role the state plays in the structure and development of organics.
In the US, while the state's support for organics was initially limited due to the
power of agribusiness, in 2008 the Farm Bill corrected this mistake. Additionally,
conventional agriculture's unsuccessful attempt, with the help of the USDA, to
include GMOs in the national organic standard and the social movement resistance
that thwarted this effort, fit well with this perspective.

9.7 The Future of Organics

Agricultural philosopher Paul Thompson ( 2010 ) describes the two contrasting
viewpoints of agriculture as the industrial and agrarian perspectives. The industrial
perspective views agriculture as just another part of industrial society where
commodities are produced at the lowest cost possible. The agrarian perspective,
sometimes called alternative, views agriculture as having important social functions
beyond its efficient production of commodities. From this view, a major departure
from the conventional agriculture model is needed because it is not sustainable.
Similarly, the National Research Council ( 2010 ) calls for moving beyond an
incremental approach to improving agricultural sustainability to a transformative