Standards and Certification - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 38

Part II
Standards and Certification
Overview and Observations
The three chapters in this part examine organic ethical perspectives through
standards and certification processes: how the relationships between farmers and
consumers can change through the certification process in Indonesia; the under-
standing of the organic differentiation process in the production of selected products
in the UK and Tanzania; and the contribution of the IFOAM Principles to “feed the
world”.
In Hatanaka's 'Organic Certification and the Rationalization of Alternative Food
and Agriculture: Sustainable Shrimp Farming in Indonesia', certification processes
are examined as a means to change the relationship between farmers and consumers
of alternative food and agricultural systems. Using the case of a shrimp-farming
cooperative, the author described how both consumers and farmers lost control over
their product.
The personal relationships, shared governance, and trust that characterized the
early life of the food co-op were replaced by objectivity, calculability, and expert
knowledge (“science-based certification”). This created a feeling that what was
once a product “shared” between shrimp farmers and consumers, after certification
became a product of science. When responsibility was delegated to the certifiers, it
reduced the commitments from both farmers and co-op buyers.
Although this is only one example, the likelihood of declining commitments to
the purpose of alternative food and agriculture and the erosion of trust underlines
how certification per se embodies shallow forms of social justice and environmental
sustainability adopted to meet commercial needs.
The issues of trust and certification create an ethical tension concerning relation-
ships and power distribution among farmers, certifiers, scientists, and consumers.
The question arises: If an ethically based framework was attached to certification
and was more predominantly discussed or widely distributed among consumers,
farmers and certifiers alike, would certification create more trust and relationship
building?