Framework for Re-thinking Ethics in the Organic Movement - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 285

ongoing societal trends toward individualization (see Bachmann-Medick 2006 ). 25
This is important to recognize when it comes to questions about the future of a
value driven organic agrofood system. It explains that the organic pathway is not
something independent from societal surroundings. In this context, much more can
be done to explore and make more explicit the broader societal relevance of the
Principles (Alrøe and Kristensen 2004 ).
Based on that and with reference to the discussions in this volume, and specifi-
cally in this chapter, we review perspectives for a value driven organic approach in
the future that also responds to societal realities.

13.3.1 Organic Driven by Industries

From the beginning of the organic movement, and despite the diversity of its
origins in different countries and specific societal conditions, it has always been
value driven. This value orientation, described with the IFOAM Principles offers an
ethical foundation for acting in the whole organic agrofood chain.
Several contributions in this volume demonstrate that these values are often
ignored, or at best incompletely translated into practice. They recognize that it
is challenging to bridge “theory (value as well as agreed structure) and practice
(implementing value and structure respectively)” (Padel et al. 2007b , p. 80). From
that perspective, it is not surprising that organic has become an instrumentalized
food system subordinated to the economic interests of global food chain actors and
the needs of a consumer elite interested in convenience and healthy food.
Within this context, the political and industrial influence on the definition of
organic is becoming increasingly significant and with that the power relations in the
system are shifting to more hierarchical and institutionalized bureaucratic structures.
Ownership and decision-making power in organic has been transferred from the
pioneers who acted in a regional context to large corporations (Aschemann et al.
2007 , pp. 134, 135). The increasing power of politics and industries in the organic
system is a critical development, because the original organic idea of growing
toward a social movement already becomes lost (Vogl et al. 2005 ).
This development, also described as “conventionalization” leads to the critique
that organic cannot hold its promise as an alternative to the neo-liberal economies
(Campbell and Coombes 1999 ; Guthman 2008 ) (see Constance et al., Chap. 9 ) .
Furthermore, commercial organic marketing commonly obscures the ethical founda-
tion of organic (“Counter-hegemony or bourgeois piggery”) (Johnston 2008 ). Even
more so, organic and related food movements, such as Slow Food, are criticized
as being no more than business strategies (Nosi and Zanni 2004 ; McMichael 2009 ).

25 Even in religious movements, we see this dichotomy between organic or non-organic agriculture
justified in different arguments. This explains that one common cultural and spiritual identity does