Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System? - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 188

institutional interests that are primarily motivated by profit (Guthman 2000 ; Pollan
2001 ; Campbell et al. 2009 ). Pollan ( 2001 , p. 63) writes how he buys local food
which is not necessarily organically grown: “[ ::: ] I'm resolved to do it anyway.

Because organic is not the last word [ ]”. Similarly, it is assumed that any

research on agriculture tends to support the status quo and the dominance of
answers provided by science (especially the use of GM technology), which makes
organic agricultural practices invisible within mainstream agricultural science, 8

:::

as

is apparent in the Royal Society report referred to earlier.
One response to this is to question the either/or approach to organics as the
only pathway to sustainability (Campbell et al. 2009 ). The synthesis report of the
International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for
Development (IAASTD) supports the use of policies that facilitate and provide
“incentives for alternative markets such as certification for sustainable forests

and fisheries practices and organic agriculture” (McIntyre et al. 2009 , p. 6) which
suggests that there is fourth group to those mentioned above - the position that
we are advocating - that a diversity of approaches and practices is important for
resilience.
Commercial organic farming is part of a primary industry field (a complex
system) that has developed its own norms and rules about what it means to be a
farmer. The organic farming field intersects with this more dominant field (e.g.,
Carolan 2005 ) sharing a common body of knowledge with all producers of products
of the same type as their own, about the basic process used to produce their product
(Hunt et al. 2005 , 2006 ). 9 We represent this in Fig. 10.1 where the dotted lines
indicate that the boundaries are not distinct and ideas and practices are able to

:::

Fig. 10.1 Shared knowledge and practices between practitioners of different farming systems
(Source: Own development)

8 See a collection of responses to GM in farming provided by organizations such as the Soil
Association.
9 We have also demonstrated that practices and attitudes within a particular management system