Elsevier

World Development

Volume 32, Issue 5, May 2004, Pages 725-743
World Development

The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2003.11.008Get rights and content

Abstract

This article analyzes the booming world trade in organic agro-foods such as tropical products, counterseasonal fresh produce, and processed foods. Research focuses on expanding South–North networks linking major US and European markets with major production regions, particularly in Latin America. Employing a commodity network approach, I analyze organic production, distribution, and consumption patterns and the roles of social, political, and economic actors in consolidating international trade. Organic certification proves central to network governance, shaping product specifications, production parameters, and enterprise participation. My analysis identifies key contradictions between mainstream agro-industrial and alternative movement conventions in global organic networks.

Introduction

Over the past two decades the organic agro-food system has been transformed from a loosely coordinated local network of producers and consumers to a globalized system of formally regulated trade which links socially and spatially distant sites of production and consumption. Global organic sales are estimated at roughly US$20 billion per year and are growing at close to 20% annually in major North American and European markets (Yussefi & Willer, 2003). Though organic products make up a minor share of the world food market, the proliferation of certified commodities and their increasing availability in mainstream supermarkets have made organics the fastest growing segment of the food industry. Escalating demand for organic foods in the global North has fueled burgeoning imports of tropical products, counterseasonal fresh produce, and commodities produced locally but in insufficient quantities. Though scholars and policymakers have remarked on the rising international organic trade, it has to date received little academic analysis.

This article helps address this lacuna, analyzing the economic, social, and political globalization of organic agro-food networks. The new international organic trade has two central strands, both supplying key markets in the global North. The largest strand is characterized by inter-core country trade, dominated by US exports to Europe and Japan, trade between European countries, and exports from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa to the top markets. The second strand is comprised of periphery-core, or South–North, trade and involves a growing number of production sites, most importantly in Argentina, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and other Latin American countries which ship to major Northern organic markets. This article focuses on the understudied South–North trade, since this best captures the increasing social and spatial distance inherent in the global organic agro-food system.

This investigation utilizes a commodity network approach to unravel the multifaceted, uneven, and often contested dimensions of globalization within the organic agro-food sector. This approach follows the lead of commodity chain research in analyzing global commodity flows and firm relations linking production, distribution, and consumption. Yet it responds to recent calls for a more nuanced analysis of the institutions and relations of power, emphasizing the role of social and political, as well as economic, actors and actions in constructing, maintaining, and potentially transforming organic networks. Affirming the importance of this broadened approach, I find that social movements and state actors have been as important as economic firms in fueling and regulating the South–North organic trade. My analysis illuminates key contradictions within the global trade in “certified organic” commodities between mainstream market conventions––rooted in efficiency, standardization, and price competition––and alternative movement conventions––linked to personal relationships of trust, ecological diversity, and social justice. I conclude that while globalization has to date extended market conventions more rapidly than movement commitments, promising new initiatives are revitalizing movement norms and practices in global organic networks.

Given the relatively recent and rather unexpected growth in the organic trade, there are currently few sources of comparable international data upon which to base this analysis. National and international organizations responsible for collecting agricultural production, agro-food trade, and food consumption figures have traditionally not distinguished organic from conventional commodities. This analysis must thus piece together a wide range of data. While the paucity of crossnational data means that this should be viewed as an exploratory study, sufficient information is now available to permit analysis of the general parameters of production, distribution, and consumption in the South–North organic trade. Key sources used in this study include United Nations reports, national government documents from around the world, organic industry group and movement organization publications, and the growing secondary literature. Data from written sources are supported through the author's ongoing research on organic coffee and banana production in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Section snippets

Global organic commodity networks

A vibrant development studies literature pursues related, though somewhat varied, commodity frameworks which analyze the interconnected processes of raw material production, processing, shipping, distribution, marketing, and consumption embodied in a commodity or set of related commodities. There are four complementary traditions, each of which highlights critical facets of producer consumer networks: commodity systems analysis focuses on national labor organization and relations (Friedland,

The institutionalization and regulation of the global organic trade

The organic concept has hybrid international roots: its key principle––that healthy ecological systems promote agriculture––is often attributed to a British writer reflecting on Asian peasant farming. Yet organic meanings and practices have been defined largely in the global North. Methods of organic, or what the Europeans call ecological, farming were initially developed by isolated individuals and groups in Europe, North America, and Japan. Northern movements in the 1960s popularized organic

Organic distribution and consumption

The world market for certified organic foods is estimated to be worth US$23–25 billion in 2003 and is growing at roughly 19% per year (Kortbech-Olesen, 2003, p. 21). Though organic products make up a minor share of the world market, soaring sales particularly in the United States and Europe have made organics the fastest growing segment of the global food industry (FAO/ITC/CTA, 2001). The South–North trade in certified organic commodities is experiencing, and is projected to continue to

Organic production and trade

Over the past decade, production of certified organic commodities has grown rapidly throughout the global South, with 90 countries now producing organic goods in commercial quantities, the vast majority for export (ITC, 1999). Escalating organic demand, particularly in Europe and North America, has generated a dynamic South–North trade worth an estimated US$500 million in 1997 (Blowfield et al., 1999). The South–North organic trade is growing, and is expected to continue to grow, at over 20%

Conclusions

This study demonstrates the strength of a commodity network framework in analyzing the ideas, practices, and institutions which comprise and coordinate the increasingly global organic agro-food sector. This approach maintains the global commodity chain framework's traditional strength in analyzing commodity flows and firm relations across production, trade, and consumption (Gereffi, 1994), yet responds to recent calls for a more trenchant analysis of relations of governance (Dolan & Humphrey,

Acknowledgments

This article has benefited from the constructive comments of the editor and anonymous journal reviewers and from research funded by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Program on Global Security and Sustainability. The views presented here are the responsibility of the author alone.

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