Agriculture Reference
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in the sample recounted how they regularly tinkered with rotations to respond to
changing conditions and to address emergent problems. Thus, the growing practices
for cereal crop production are internally highly differentiated, requiring a rigidly
adhered to regime of flexible planning to ensure that the production is technically
and economically feasible while remaining within the limits set by the standards
and the material conditions of the farm site.
This means that each performance is different: no two farms (and even fields)
are ever the same. Yet, regardless of these differences in how organic is performed
on any particular farm, they are all governed by a single certification regime. In
contrast to the Tanzanian case, there is a single policy and regulatory context in
which certification bodies operate. Due to specific historic processes, there are seven
certification bodies
10
that offer organic certification. While these organizations
compete with each other over fees and additional certification services, for example,
the Farm Assurance scheme or the British Retail Consortium certification, their
organic certification is governed by the European Union regulation on organic
farming. This regulation is administered by the relevant ministry (DEFRA),
11
which has formally devolved the day-to-day certification of licensees to authorized
private certification bodies. To receive authorization, these bodies need to organize
themselves and their activities according to a standard for certification systems
(ISO65,
12
EN45011
13
), against which they are accredited by the independent UK
Accreditation Service. Moreover, these bodies are required to coordinate common
interpretations of the regulations so that each performance by a licensee is assessed
according to the same criteria, irrespective of which certification body they are
licensed with. Thus, this regulatory regime is aimed at harmonizing how the
differentiated growing practices of licensees are assessed and certified.
4.7
Conclusions on Differentiating Organics
In the beginning of this paper, we proposed the question of how a singular notion
can singularize products if its practice is multiplicitous. We argue that by concep-
tualizing standards as calculative devices in
agencements
, performativity analysis
allows us to answer this oxymoronic question. We have shown that despite the EU
regulation as an organizing device, we see a number of different practices around
singularization and homogenization that render the different organic characteristics
10
These are the Soil Association, Organic Farmers and Growers, the Organic Food Federation,
the Biodynamic Agricultural Association and Ascisco as national schemes, and Quality Welsh
Food Certification, the Scottish Organic Producer Association and the Irish Organic Farmers and
Growers Association as regional schemes.
11
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
12
See International Standardization Organization (
1996
).
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