Differentiating Organics: Performing Multiple Objects to Organize Singular Markets for Organic Tea and Biscuits in the UK - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 64

we should really be asking is not 'can the public afford organic food?' But 'can
our policy makers afford to carry on ignoring the potential of organic farming?'”
(Soil Association 2010 ). This is reinforced by the rather fragmentary associations
of organic with naturalness, health, various environmental benefits, animal welfare,
absence of pesticides or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and taste by
consumers (Soil Association 2010 ). Until the global economic downturn, this was
a successful strategy, with the UK organic market growing from £100 m in 1994
to £2.1b in 2008. However, with slumping sales in 2009 and 2010, various actors
active in the organic sector coordinated marketing campaigns in which the benefits
of organic production were simplified and harmonized.
A common technique is to pitch organic against 'conventional', often associating
it with the use of GMOs. For example, in 2009, organic farming was practiced on
37.2 million hectares worldwide, a 5.7 % increase from 2008 and a 150 % increase
since 2000. This includes land that is transitioning to organic production. The
organic area amounted to 0.85 % of global agricultural land in 2009 (by comparison,
producers seeded 2 % of agricultural land worldwide with genetically modified
crops) (Beck 2011 ). While this is in-line with criteria specific to the EU organic
standard, what is being capitalized on in these types of campaigns is the holistic
ontological assumption that organic is a way of life and moreover, a singular way of
farming (Guthman 2004 ).
We have taken the cases of tea and cereals as illustrative of the way through which
these processes of singularization and multiplicity are enacted as each of these
products are processed and blended to reach the state in which they appear in the
consumer market. They also represent core sectors of the organic market that reflect
the changes felt in sales in 2009. For example, organic tea consumption increased
by 1.2 % while those foods based on cereals (breakfast cereals, biscuits, bread and
bakery) declined by 8.9 %, 19 %, and 39.8 % respectively (Soil Association 2010 ).
In the next sections we explore how this singular notion of organic is enacted in the
production of tea and cereals.

4.5 Multiple Organics - The Case of Tanzanian Tea

Tanzanian tea is not the most easily recognized, nor the most sought after tea
available on the conventional market - much less on the organic market. However,
this relative obscurity has resulted in a rather self-contained industry and provided
a unique opportunity to gain access to the entire organic tea industry in the country.
This access has allowed exploration of the concept of organic amongst a very
committed network of actors - which is microcosmic of the larger tea industry. Tea
(black, green, white, and oolong) is made with the leaves of the Camelia Sinensis
tree, which is grown at high altitudes (800-2,200 m) in the tropical regions of the
world. The tea bush is a perennial crop with a productive life of at least 100 years
if 'properly' maintained. Tea is plucked every 7-20 days year round, providing
constant income and requiring constant labor. Tea is processed in geographically