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Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards

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Listed author(s):
  • Daniel Jaffee

    ()

  • Philip Howard
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    Abstract

    Recent years have seen a substantial increase in alternative agrifood initiatives that attempt to use the market to curtail the negative social and environmental effects of production and trade in a globalized food system. These alternatives pose a challenge to capital accumulation and the externalization of environmental costs by large agribusiness, trading and retail firms. Yet the success of these alternatives also makes them an inviting target for corporate participation. This article examines these dynamics through a case study of the two most significant such food system alternatives—organics and fair trade—focusing on corporate involvement in establishing and renegotiating the standards undergirding these initiatives. We compare the development of and contestation over the standards for both certified organic and certified fair trade, with particular attention to the U.S. context. We provide a brief history of their parallel processes of rapid growth and market mainstreaming. We examine claims of cooptation by movement participants, as well as the divergences and similarities between the organic and fair trade cases. Analyzing these two cases provides useful insights into the strategic approaches that corporate firms have deployed to further capital accumulation and to defuse threats to their profit margins and to status quo production, pricing, labor, trading and retailing practices. It can also offer valuable lessons regarding the most effective means of responding to such counter-reforms and of protecting or reasserting the more transformative elements at the heart of these alternative systems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-009-9231-8
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    Article provided by Springer & The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS) in its journal Agriculture and Human Values.

    Volume (Year): 27 (2010)
    Issue (Month): 4 (December)
    Pages: 387-399

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    Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:27:y:2010:i:4:p:387-399
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-009-9231-8
    Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.springer.com

    Web page: https://afhvs.wildapricot.org/

    Order Information: Web: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10460

    Keywords: Certification; Cooptation; Corporations; Fair trade; Organic; Social justice; Social movements; Standards;

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    1. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring.
    2. T. Robert Fetter & Julie A. Caswell, 2002. "Variation in Organic Standards Prior to the National Organic Program," Food Marketing Policy Center Research Reports 072, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    3. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1991. "The Politics of Government Decision-Making: A Theory of Regulatory Capture," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 106(4), pages 1089-1127.
    4. Conner, David S., 2004. "Beyond Organic: Information Provision For Sustainable Agriculture In A Changing Market," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 35(01), March.
    5. Stuart Shulman, 2003. "An experiment in digital government at the United States National Organic Program," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(3), pages 253-265, September.
    6. Timothy Vos, 2000. "Visions of the middle landscape: Organic farming and the politics of nature," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 245-256, September.
    7. Tad Mutersbaugh, 2005. "Fighting standards with standards: harmonization, rents, and social accountability in certified agrofood networks," Environment and Planning A, Pion Ltd, London, vol. 37(11), pages 2033-2051, November.
    8. E. DuPuis & Sean Gillon, 2009. "Alternative modes of governance: organic as civic engagement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(1), pages 43-56, March.
    9. Laura Raynolds, 2000. "Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 297-309, September.
    10. Patricia Allen & Martin Kovach, 2000. "The capitalist composition of organic: The potential of markets in fulfilling the promise of organic agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 221-232, September.
    11. David Campbell, 2001. "Conviction seeking efficacy: Sustainable agriculture and the politics of co-optation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 18(4), pages 353-363, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Julius McGee, 2015. "Does certified organic farming reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 255-263, June.
    2. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    3. McCaffrey Sara Jane & Kurland Nancy, 2014. "Who defines “local”? Resistance to harmonizing standards in ethical markets," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 191-219, April.
    4. Maki Hatanaka & Jason Konefal & Douglas Constance, 2012. "A tripartite standards regime analysis of the contested development of a sustainable agriculture standard," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 65-78, March.
    5. Rylea Johnson & Evan D. G. Fraser & Roberta Hawkins, 2016. "Overcoming Barriers to Scaling Up Sustainable Alternative Food Systems: A Comparative Case Study of Two Ontario-Based Wholesale Produce Auctions," Sustainability, MDPI, Open Access Journal, vol. 8(4), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Pugliese, Patrizia & Zanasi, Cesare & Atallah, Oussama & Cosimo, Rota, 2013. "Investigating the interaction between organic and local foods in the Mediterranean: The Lebanese organic consumer’s perspective," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-12.
    7. repec:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:328:d:67375 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Daniel Jaffee & Philip H. Howard, 2016. "Who’s the fairest of them all? The fractured landscape of U.S. fair trade certification," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 813-826, December.
    9. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    10. Kazumi Kondoh, 2015. "The alternative food movement in Japan: Challenges, limits, and resilience of the teikei system," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 143-153, March.
    11. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.
    12. Sarah Bowen & Kathryn Master, 2014. "Wisconsin’s “Happy Cows”? Articulating heritage and territory as new dimensions of locality," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(4), pages 549-562, December.
    13. Adanella Rossi, 2017. "Beyond Food Provisioning: The Transformative Potential of Grassroots Innovation around Food," Agriculture, MDPI, Open Access Journal, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, January.
    14. Amaranta Herrero & Fern Wickson & Rosa Binimelis, 2015. "Seeing GMOs from a Systems Perspective: The Need for Comparative Cartographies of Agri/Cultures for Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, Open Access Journal, vol. 7(8), pages 1-24, August.
    15. Laura Raynolds, 2014. "Fairtrade, certification, and labor: global and local tensions in improving conditions for agricultural workers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(3), pages 499-511, September.

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