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 74

an external verification of compliance with the rules in the standards based on a
standardized and accredited certification process and hence becomes available in
the organic space that is thereby created. The uniformity of organic 'stuff' is not
located in the individual enactments through which it was produced, but in the way
these enactments are made commensurable. It is this particular uniformity, then, that
provides the basis on which goods can be singularized as products having certain
qualities (Callon et al. 2002 ) and which can be integrated in pre-existing practices
of consumption (e.g., Gronow and Warde 2001 ; Halkier 2009 ).
Therefore, in the light of our analysis we can contribute to the discussion of
an ontological shift in organics in the following way. Performativity analysis has
revealed a shift from ideas about holistic ideals to circumscription of practices, i.e.
from complete ways of life to a practical organization of markets. While this does
constitute a shift, we should not try to classify this in moral terms - especially since
what 'organic' (in the singularized version) means has changed as well. Rather,
the power of our argument is to show how the singularization of multiplicitously
produced products in the here and now (as the outcome of contingent, historical
processes involving many actors, not just the initiators of the organic movement)
allows markets for organic to function. We cannot support the claim that organic
has lost its way because the practice of certified organic varies so much from
place to place. But rather as we begin to see organic taking root in different
contexts we can reveal with performativity analysis that the standards have not
eroded the original concepts but are only performing different interpretations, and
simultaneously different realities, of them. We argued in this paper that despite
organizing (standardizing) practices, individual performances of organic result in
a multiplicity of organics that are necessary for dealing with the complexities of
farming. Simultaneously, the standardizing practices that result in singularization
are required for the trading and marketing of organic products.
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