Positioning Organic Ethics - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 303

positions. Actors all along the organic agrofood chain reflect varying relationships
with the IFOAM Principles. In short, the contemporary organic movement includes
considerable differentiation, including multiple approaches to, or interpretations of
the original organic values.

14.1.4 Structuring Ethics Through Typologies

In order to frame a new, value-centered discussion that is sensitive to the positions
of, and dynamics among all actors along the organic agrofood chain, we describe
and discuss our three part typology: Nature and Philosophy (Nature/Philo),
the Protest and Environment (Enviro/Protest) and Economics and Markets
(Econo/Market). In contrast to other discussions that use more limited typologies,
such as that used by Alrøe and Noe ( 2008 ), we apply ours to identify and review
the positions of all major actors—farmers, processors, consumers, as well as
wholesalers, suppliers, traders and grocery chains. We also identify where this
typology is reflected in several of the contributed chapters.
Without question, the Econo/Market type currently dominates all along the
organic agrofood chain. Nevertheless, we want to emphasize the importance of
considering the diversity in the organic movement. We understand the popularity
of looking at the juxtaposition of the Econo/Market and the Nature/Philo type.
While such a perspective can be easily popularized, we feel that our intellectual and
programmatic challenge resides in thinking more systematically about the multiple
dimensions of the Enviro/Protest type and other diverse hybrid formulations.
Bringing the holistic ethical approach of the IFOAM Principles back to the center
of our discussions represents a first step forward.

14.1.5 The Relevance of Ethics in IFOAM Norms

The IFOAM Norms for production and processing offer a basis for reviewing the
current status and relevance of ethics and the role of the IFOAM Principles in the
organic institutional environment.
Ethical concerns are clearly expressed in the IFOAM Standards and private
regulations with respect to ecological and health issues. But, with the exception of
some private regulations, social and economically relevant ethics lack expression.
Certification practices also reflect similar patterns of differentiation. Some certifi-
cation firms or organizations work primarily with larger farms or units whose size
generates more income from the certification process. Other forms of certification
(the PGS-approach) take a shared farmer-consumer approach that not only is more
affordable, but more open and democratic. Of course, in these diverse certification
approaches ethics play a different role. An issue to pursue involves whether there
could be a way of implementing more elements of the IFOAM Principles into stan-