Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Lyons ( 2007 , p. 12) characterizes the growing number of conventional supermarkets
that handle organic as a type of “colonization of
”. In doing so,
he suggests that this marketing strategy could de-politicize organic. It might be
good for promoting organic sales, but participating in conventional or mainstream
marketing also distances the critique of the conventional food systems that organic
implicitly represents. Thus, the more that organic products are concentrated in
supermarkets, the fewer the opportunities for policies or consumers to actively
shape relationships with the farmer as they might in regional markets. However,
international fair trade marketing represents a hybrid approach since it does appeal
to bringing farmers, processors, traders and consumers together around defined
values, as well as a political message, even in the absence of close physical
proximity.
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organic
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13.3.2
Organic as a Socio-ecological Movement
With the exception of neo-liberal influences, organic has become a social movement
with a well-identified and consistent set of values that includes food safety issues
(seasonal and regional food consumption), human health and strict environmen-
tal standards (Hess 2004 ). These values are shared with several other societal
movements, and therefore organic has become more than a niche. Organic has
become a lifestyle that includes a fundamental and reflexive re-orientation of
individual, collaborative, cultural and societal goals and practices (cf. Bachmann-
Medick 2006 ). There is a growing trend in Western society that crosses most
political boundaries (conservatives, liberals, and green) that calls into question
the current, dominate model of agriculture and seeks a new orientation that often
includes organic (UNCTAD 2013 ). In general, more people are more sensitive
to the importance of global solidarity (Hechter 1990 ), e.g., through Fair Trade
(Raynolds 2000 ), new ideas for a holistic and ecological oriented economy in
intentional communities (transition towns and urban farming) (Grundmann et al.
2006 ; Grundmann and Kunze 2012 ), and in new types of political consumerism
(Jacobsen and Dulsrud 2007 ). Organic is integrated in these new movements and
debates over values are critical to on-going reviews of its goals and practices.
Organic agriculture has become a catalyst for sustainable lifestyles (Gilg et al.
2005 ) and for some, organic represents a vision of social ecological change for
society as a whole that includes much more than food and agricultural production.
Organic has become a counter-culture that contradicts elements of the neo-liberal
system such as WTO inspired agricultural liberalization (see McMichael 2009 ,
p. 142). However organic is still a minority movement. Therefore, the growth of the
organic movement is dependent on the collaboration of other societal movements
with similar value orientations.
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