Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System? - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 185

New Zealand's organic exports. 3 Organic standards in the kiwifruit industry are
recognized as meeting GLOBALGAP requirements.
One of the unintended consequences of the development of inspection and com-
pliance processes has been that one discourse of organic became institutionalized. 4
Despite the hegemony of the corporate actors through their alliance with BioGro,
the companies involved did not attempt to water down the standards partly because
they did not want to be involved in any hint of green protectionism. However, the
effect was to reduce the meaning of organics to a piece of text and the flexibility of
the past was lost and any contestation that occurred was over the meaning of that
text (Campbell and Liepins 2001 ).

10.3 The Meaning of What It Is to Be 'Organic'

Campbell and Liepins ( 2001 ) dispute that there ever has been a clear and fixed
understanding of what it means to be organic or to practice organics. They argue that
the flow of development from the social movement organics to industry, i.e., from
alternative agriculture to conventionalized agriculture, is not linear. It fails “to allow
enough space for the circular, contested and complex development and ongoing
negotiations around organics” (Campbell and Liepins 2001 , p. 24) The meaning of
organic and the development of organic standards are not necessarily fixed objects
but “derived from a plethora of social, scientific, economic and political contexts”
(Campbell and Liepins 2001 , p. 26). Seppänen and Helenius ( 2004 ) suggest that in
Finland compliance was negotiated rather than fixed. This negotiation around text is
illustrated internationally. IFOAM has produced a definition of organic agriculture
( 2009 ) that has been developed with extensive research and consultation since 2005:

Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and
people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions,
rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition,
innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and
a good quality of life for all involved (p. 1).

This development continues. IFOAM is now going through a period of consul-
tation over a draft of the standards and norms of organic agriculture so it is a very
pertinent time to be considering the issue of organic agriculture and how it fits in a
changing world. Campbell and Liepins ( 2001 , p. 32) suggest, “there is an ongoing

3 In 1998 MAF, as part of the government's user pays policy, spun off two companies Asure New
Zealand and AgriQuality, with AgriQuality having a specific company CERTENZ responsible for
organic certification. CERTENZ achieved ISO 65 certification in 2001 that gave entry into the
EU ( www.organic-register.com ) . In 2007 Asure New Zealand and AgriQuality merged to form
AsureQuality ( www.stuff.co.nz/business/38232 , “Food safety merger plan” will cost few jobs').
4 For examples from other countries see Seppänen and Helenius ( 2004 ) (Finland) and Guthman