TABLE 3 - uploaded by Douglas H. Constance
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Organic agriculture has been advanced as a production system that improves environmental quality and supports rural community development. Recent developments in or ganics h ave called into question both assertions. Researchers have argued that the advent of national-level organic standards has contributed to the conventionalization and bifurcation...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... use gross farming income as our measure of size (see Lockie and Halpin 2005). Table 3 shows statistically significant differences between certified and non-certified organic producers regarding gross farm income and organics as a percentage of total household income. Certified organic farmers often make more money from organic farming, as well as rely on organic farming for a larger percentage of their household income. ...
Citations
... Consequently, organic nutrient sources act as CO 2 sources in an aerobic environment and as CH 4 sources in an anaerobic environment. In contrast, many studies depicted that the growth of certified organic agriculture is positively correlated with total agricultural GHG emissions, not with reductions in GHG emissions directly caused by agricultural production (Constance et al., 2008;Guthman, 2004;McGee, 2015;Venkat, 2012;Williams, 2006). Williams (2006) found that because of lower yields, tomatoes cultivated organically emit 30% more greenhouse gases than tomatoes grown conventionally. ...
In this chapter, the potential of organic agriculture for climate change mitigation and adaptation is addressed. Through soil carbon sequestration, organic agriculture has a great potential to lower atmospheric carbon. According to various studies, the potential to reduce emissions by eliminating chemical fertilizers is about 20% and the potential to sequester carbon is around 40–72% of present yearly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture worldwide. Organically managed systems can help to mitigate climate change through careful regulation of soil nutrients, resulting in reduced nitrous oxide emissions from soils. Organic agriculture offers many opportunities to develop sustainable systems of food production for climate change adaptation uncertainties because it diversifies farms and enriches soils with organic matter. In addition, organic farming offers an alternative to energy-intensive inputs such as synthetic fertilizers, whose use by the rural poor is likely to be further restricted as energy prices rise. Organic farming systems provide yields that are comparable to or even higher than those produced by conventional agricultural systems in underdeveloped nations, making it a potentially critical option for sustainable livelihoods and food security of the rural poor in the context of climate change. Authorized organically produced products offer farmers more income opportunities and can thus support climate-friendly farming methods worldwide.
... In various parts of the world, especially in the United States and Europe, there has been considerable debate about the implications of organic certification systems for agriculture. This includes considering how conventionalization of the organic verification system has led to a bifurcation of organic farmers, with some large-scale producers becoming more mainstream, while a smaller group maintains a more ideological and less commercial stance regarding organic agriculture (DeLind 2000;Guthman 2004a, b;Constance et al. 2008;Dabbert et al. 2014;Fouilleux and Loconto 2017). This paper builds on these previous debates by addressing the implications of two quite different approaches to environmental verification, and in the context of Southeast Asia rather than the United States and Europe. ...
... Apart from this work on credence values, various authors have considered the limitations of environmental certification systems, both richer and poorer countries. In the United States and Europe, for example, there have been criticisms for years about how organic certification has tended to advantage larger and more commercial producers (DeLind 2000;Guthman 2004a;Constance et al. 2008). Moreover, Durst et al. (2006) pointed out various challenges facing eco-labeling and forest certification in developing countries. ...
... According to one board member of the farmer network in Amnat Charoen that sells organic rice to FTS, only about 30% of those farmers who join their network end up staying with it, as many find it difficult to follow the required rules to be certified as organic, something that has also been the case in other parts of the world (DeLind 2000; Constance et al. 2008;Fouilleux and Laconto 2017). For example, farmers sometimes have to build substantial bunds to separate their fields from those of non-organic farmers. ...
Approaches to environmental verification, broadly defined, including varieties of certification and testing, is always intended to change production processes, and cause structural changes. However, sometimes these approaches can differ substantially based on values and objectives-and thus structure farming processes in varied ways. They can also affect nature-society relations, by determining what differences matter, emphasizing ways of assessing standards that are deemed important , and deciding whether those standards have been met. Here, I compare two types of environmental verification systems for organic and "safe" or "clean" rice, one in northeastern Thailand and the other in southern Laos. The approach used in northeastern Thailand is designed predominantly to gain access to Europe and the United States markets, and is dependent on regular and detailed farm documentation, inspections, and interviews. The other is more of a residue testing and marketing system, one that also has important environmental implications and is being applied for rice from southern Laos. I call the first process-based verification, and the second product-based verification. It is contended here that we need to consider how environmental verification in different forms variously structures production systems, although there are also other important factors, such as China-Laos relations. Crucially, these practices variously affect cultivation and production practices, and thus have important environmental implications, whether fully intended or not.
... The California case sparked much international research investigating conventionalization processes in other contexts (Best, 2008;Dantsis et al., 2009;DeWit and Verhoog, 2007;Flaten et al., 2006;Guptill, 2009;Hall and Mogyorody, 2001;Seidel et al., 2019). Some locales showed evidence of bifurcation, where a relatively small number of organic farms scaled up, intensified, or otherwise conventionalized, while others maintained characteristics that contraindicate conventionalization, such as small scales, direct markets, and diversified production (Constance et al., 2008;Coombes and Campbell, 1998;Lockie and Halpin, 2005). ...
... This leads organic farmers to rely on premium prices (Klonsky and Greene 2005). As a result, the dominant way that organic agriculture has been enacted in policy (Constance et al. 2008;Tomlinson 2008) risks that organic agriculture becomes a niche-market with premium prices, available by choice to predominantly middle-upper class consumers (Adasme-Berríos et al. 2015;FIA 2017;Nikol and Jansen 2021). ...
... Second, while the state is the only one able to institutionalize transformative food systems in public policies (Bendjebbar and Fouilleux 2022), commited non-public field actors can be critical in supporting and advancing transformative food policies (Campbell and Liepins 2001;Constance et al. 2008;Arcuri 2015;Haedicke 2016;Niederle et al. 2020). Committed actors to food system transformation are key in resisting the public sector´s tendency to depoliticize food systems transformative pathways and policy debates. ...
Food systems transformations require coherent policies and improved understandings of the drivers and institutional dynamics that shape (un)sustainable food systems outcomes. In this paper, we introduce the Chilean National Organic Agriculture Law as a case of a policy process seeking to institutionalize a recognized pathway towards more sustainable food systems. Drawing from institutional theory we make visible multiple, and at times competing, logics (i.e., values, assumptions and practices) of different actors implicated in organic agriculture in Chile. More specifically, our findings identify five main institutional transformative logics underpinning the interests and actions of organic actors. However, we find that the Law was not motivated by these logics and did not advance them. Rather, the Law was designed to support a market niche targeted to elite consumers and to reinforce agricultural exports. As a result, the Law constrains rather than enables the practice of organic agriculture and access to organic food by consumers, especially at the domestic level. We note that attention to institutional logics in the analysis of food systems, and specifically food system transformation, is relevant to more comprehensive assessments of the transformational potential of food systems policies. We conclude that there is a need to further consider and make visible the way in which different drivers (i.e., laws) are constituted through and by diverse, and often competing, institutional logics.
... This provides the broadest definition of organic, including small-scale farms that may not have the resources to become certified, as well as farms that may have ideological reasons for not becoming certified (i.e. Constance et al. 2008). ...
The population of women farm operators continues to increase in the U.S. That growth, however, is mediated by research showing that women in agriculture experience persistent barriers to equality with men. The Feminist Agriculture Food Theory (FAST) developed by Sach et al. (The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, (Sachs et al., The rise of women farmers and sustainable agriculture, University of Iowa Press, 2016) posits that in the face of these barriers, women farmers in the Northeast are engaging in six strategies to increase their success. These include (1) increasing gender equality on their farms, (2) asserting an identity as a farmer, (3) gaining greater access to resources, (4) shaping new food and farming systems, (5) negotiating roles in agricultural organizations, and (6) forming women-centered farming organizations. While researchers have applied FAST to Michigan, it has not been examined at a national level. In this paper, then, we use the 2017 Census of Agriculture Data to measure how women in agriculture in the U.S. are faring on each aspect of FAST we can measure (strategies 1–5). We compare women to men farmers across these FAST strategies and across three different farm types: Non-Organic Non-Value-Added Farms, Organic Farms, and Value-Added Farms. Our findings suggest for FAST strategies 1 and 2 there is an increase in equity and ability to identify as a farmer for women on organic and value-added farms. However, our findings also suggest that for FAST strategies that require more institutional and structural resources (I.e. strategies 3–5), inequities persist across farm types.
... The conventionalization process is characterized by larger farm sizes, simplified agroecosystems, greater mechanization, standardized crop production and a reliance on input substitution (that is, replacing a prohibited input with an NOP-approved input) 38,39 . Social, economic and political consequences of conventionalization include the use of more non-family labour, less full-time farmworker employment, increased contract growing, a decline in direct marketing, vertical integration and a weakening of organic standards 40,41 . ...
Organic agriculture outperforms conventional agriculture across several sustainability metrics due, in part, to more widespread use of agroecological practices. However, increased entry of large-scale farms into the organic sector has prompted concerns about ‘conventionalization’ through input substitution, agroecosystem simplification and other changes. We examined this shift in organic agriculture by estimating the use of agroecological practices across farm size and comparing indicators of conventionalization. Results from our national survey of 542 organic fruit and vegetable farmers show that fewer agroecological practices were used on large farms, which also exhibited the greatest degree of conventionalization. Intercropping, insectary plantings and border plantings were at least 1.4 times more likely to be used on small (0.4–39 cropland ha) compared with large (≥405 cropland ha) farms, whereas reduced tillage was less likely and riparian buffers were more likely on small compared with medium (40–404 cropland ha) farms. Because decisions about management practices can drive environmental sustainability outcomes, policy should support small and medium farms that already use agroecological practices while encouraging increased use of agroecological practices on larger farms.
... Demographic conditions are conducive to the production and development of organic farming [40,41]. The demographic factors studied in this paper are percent white, percent Hispanic, percent noncitizen, male farmers' ratio, mean farmer age, and total population. ...
As the demand for organic products quickly grows in the U.S., the domestic supply of organic commodities has stagnated and failed to meet the increasing needs. To expand the organic supply capacity in the country, it is crucial to identify the key factors that could effectively promote the scale of organic farming in the U.S. Using a multivariate analytic model and state level data from multiple sources and years, this study examines a wide range of determinants that could affect organic agriculture. The results show that research funding would significantly increase organic vegetable production and the number of organic farms. The development of organic farming could be greatly encouraged by the support of research institutions. In addition, the evidence shows that abundant farm workers are essential for the organic farming sector, which is labor-intensive. Finally, a large population base could create a more stable consumer group that would promote the development of organic agriculture. These results suggest the importance of exploring and expanding consumer groups for organic commodities. These findings provide insightful implications that research support, labor availability, and a solid consumer base are crucial to boost the organic sector in the U.S. and other countries.
... Il ne s'agit pas de nier cette tendance, mais de penser -au regard de la diversité observée dans le 1.2. -que le phénomène inverse peut aussi arriver.Ho-Gland, 2008 ;Oelofse et al., 2011 ;Schafer, Nolting et Engel, 2009 ;Goldberger, 2011 ;Dinis et al., 2015 ;Constance, Choi et Lara, 2015). Constance et son équipe constatent en 2015 que les agriculteurs texans ayant le profil de Pragmatic Conventionnaldes exploitations ayant l'essentiel de leur revenu en conventionnel mais qui convertissent une part d ...
Depuis la fin des années 2000, l’agriculture biologique a connu un essor considérable en France, avec un doublement de la production comme de la consommation tous les cinq ans. La thèse, au croisement de la sociologie rurale et de la sociologie économique, contribue au débat académique sur la conventionnalisation de l’agriculture biologique en mobilisant les outils de la sociologie des agencements marchands. Elle s’appuie sur des enquêtes qualitatives menées auprès des acteurs des circuits longs de légumes biologiques, principalement en région Hauts-de-France et Centre-Val-de-Loire. Des observations et des entretiens ont été menés auprès de producteurs de légumes, d’opérateurs économiques de mise en marché (une coopérative et un négociant) et d’organismes de développement agricole agissant à une échelle régionale ou nationale. L’auteur relate tout d’abord comment le changement d’échelle de l’agriculture biologique est devenu un objet de préoccupations pour les professionnels en prise avec ces bouleversements. En changeant d’échelle, l’agriculture biologique se transforme, ses filières incluent de nouveaux acteurs, des craintes apparaissent et font du maintien de l’altérité de l’agriculture biologique un enjeu. Il montre ensuite comment ces acteurs cherchent à maîtriser le développement des circuits longs de l’agriculture biologique et à favoriser l’établissement de relations marchandes durables, équitables et solidaires. Il détaille pour cela le travail marchand que recouvre ce que les professionnels du secteur nomment la structuration de filières. Il montre que ce processus implique la mise en œuvre d’un travail d’éducation des acteurs aux spécificités de l’agriculture biologique, la prise en compte des contraintes respectives des différents maillons des filières, ainsi que de l’instauration de dispositifs d’engagement dans la durée et d’arbitrages collectifs entre ces maillons.
... Según varios observatorios, la alternativa a una "asimilación" gradual de los productos orgánicos dentro del sistema agroalimentario principal podría ser una "bifurcación" del mercado (Guthman 2004;Constance et al. 2008). En este escenario, el sector adoptaría una estructura doble que correspondería a canales de distribución y estrategias de producción y venta claramente diversificados: a los actores más grandes, que trabajarían en un mercado de masas, prefiriendo los canales de distribución convencionales y de gran escala, se contrapondrían una serie de productores más pequeños y más comprometidos que preferirían canales especializados y/o directos. ...
This essay aims to investigate the development of the organic agriculture movement and the evolution over time of its movement and consumer culture. The analysis is especially focused on the most recent evolution of the sector in the Italian context, which is characterized by a consumerist inflection and an institutionalization of the sector that, in parallel with its growth, leads to talk of a possible “conventionalization” of organic agriculture.
The discussion, therefore, takes up the hypothesis of a “post-organic movement”, which is considered as a reaction to the above-mentioned processes and especially characterized also as a consumerist movement, identifiable in Italy in those alternative food networks characterized by the so-called solidarity economy.
The post-organic hypothesis is therefore mainly presented as an analytical perspective that allows to shed light on some fundamental aspects of the recent evolution of the organic movement, as well as on the organic sector in general.
... The bifurcation phenomenon is also observed in the organic sector. Two models appeared: organic agriculture realised by historic actors and the other driven by the agribusiness to answer to a increasing organic demand [32][33][34]. ...
Dairy farming systems are evolving. This study presents dairy producers’ perceptions of their ideal future farm ( IFF ) to ensure revenue, and attempts to determine the reasons for this choice, the environmental aspects related to this choice, the proximity between the current farm and the IFF and the requirements for reaching this IFF. Just before the end of the European milk quota, a total of 245 Walloon dairy producers answered a survey about the characteristics of their IFF and other socio-environmental-economic information. A multiple correspondence analysis ( MCA ) was carried out using seven characteristics of the IFF (intensive vs . extensive, specialised vs . diversified, strongly vs . weakly based on new technologies, managed by a group of managers vs . an independent farmer, employed vs . familial workforce, local vs . global market, standard vs . quality-differentiated production) to observe the relationships between them. Based on the main contributors to the second dimension of the MCA, this axis was defined as an IFF gradient between the local-based extensive ( LBE ) producers (26%) and the global-based intensive ( GBI ) producers (46%). The differences of IFF gradient between modalities of categorical variables were estimated using generalised linear models. Pearson correlations were calculated between the scores on the IFF gradient and quantitative variables. Finally, frequencies of IFF characteristics and the corresponding characteristic for the current situation were calculated to determine the percentages of “unhappy” producers. Some reasons for the choice of IFF by the producers have been highlighted in this study. Environmental initiatives were more valued by LBE than GBI producers. Low similarity was observed between the current farm situation of the respondents and their IFF choice. LBE and GBI producers differed significantly regarding domains of formation (technical and bureaucratic vs . transformation and diversification respectively) and paths of formation (non-market vs . market respectively). Two kinds of farming systems were considered by dairy producers and some socioeconomic and environmental components differed between them.
