Organic Certification and the Rationalization of Alternative Food and Agriculture: Sustainable Shrimp Farming in Indonesia - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 45

(Miller and Rose 1997 ; Lockie 2009 ). In this way, alternative food and agriculture
often relies on what Micheletti ( 2003 ) terms “political consumerism.”
As alternative food and agriculture initiatives have proliferated, a need to regulate
them has become increasingly necessary. Regulatory needs include defining stan-
dards (e.g., organic, fair trade, and sustainable), standardizing standards, ensuring
product integrity, and designing effective conformity assessment processes. While
several approaches are used to govern alternative agrifood, certification has become
the most prominent approach (Cashore et al. 2004 ; Bartley 2007 ; Hatanaka 2010b ).
To date, SMOs, governments, and companies are increasingly using certification
to govern alternative agrifood initiatives (Mutersbaugh 2005 ; Mutersbaugh et al.
2005 ). A key factor that has driven the widespread adoption of certification is its
perceived objectivity, as a result of its scientific and technical practices (Power
1997 ; Tanner 2000 ; Dunn 2005 ; O'Rourke 2006 ; Konefal and Hatanaka 2011 ).
In particular, because of the disinterestedness of certifying bodies the product
conformity assessment practice of certification is considered to produce results that
are replicable and valid. Generally, the product conformity assessment practice
is conducted through the use of audits by independent actors based on tangible
evidence, and produces results that are independently verifiable. Thus, certification
is perceived to indicate compliance with impersonal rules and calculations that
exclude bias and personal preferences (Pentland 2000 ; Courville et al. 2003 ). As
such, it legitimates alternative agrifood initiatives in that it provides both the actors
in them and goods they produce with credibility (Hatanaka 2010a ).
However, as I have argued elsewhere, in practice, certification is often not
objective (Hatanaka et al. 2005 ; Hatanaka and Busch 2008 ; Hatanaka 2010c ). While
it consists of technical rules and procedures, which are based on scientific norms
and practices (e.g., disinterestedness, replicability, and validity), such rules and
procedures do not fully remove politics and particular interests from the practices of
certification (Hatanaka 2010a ). Rather, understandings of certification as a science-
based governance mechanism obscure the ways that the practices and procedures
of certification privilege some actors and forms of knowledge while marginalizing
others (Konefal and Hatanaka 2011 ).
While research on certification has proliferated, important questions remain
regarding the impacts of certification on the principles, practices, and goals of
alternative food and agriculture. In the sections below, using a case study of a
sustainable shrimp project in Indonesia, the ways that certification has affected an
alternative agrifood initiative are examined. Specifically, the focus is on the ways
that the practices and relationships change with the introduction of formal standards,
measures, and audits.

3.3 The Sustainable Shrimp Project in Bojokulu, Indonesia

The sustainable shrimp project is located on the eastern coast of the island of
Java, Bojokulu. Bojokulu is an area that has long been known as a milkfish and