IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v6y2014i11p8092-8112d42345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

McSustainability and McJustice: Certification, Alternative Food and Agriculture, and Social Change

Author

Listed:
  • Maki Hatanaka

    (Department of Sociology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sam Houston State University, Campus Box 2446, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA)

Abstract

Alternative food and agriculture movements increasingly rely on market-based approaches, particularly voluntary standards and certification, to advance environmental sustainability and social justice. Using a case study of an ecological shrimp project in Indonesia that became certified organic, this paper raises concerns regarding the impacts of certification on alternative food and agriculture movements, and their aims of furthering sustainability and justice. Drawing on George Ritzer’s McDonaldization framework, I argue that the ecological shrimp project became McDonaldized with the introduction of voluntary standards and certification. Specifically, efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control became key characteristics of the shrimp project. While the introduction of such characteristics increased market access, it also entailed significant costs, including an erosion of trust and marginalization and alienation of farmers. Given such tradeoffs, in concluding I propose that certification is producing particular forms of environmental sustainability and social justice, what I term McSustainability and McJustice. While enabling the expansion of alternative food and agriculture, McSustainability and McJustice tend to allow little opportunity for farmer empowerment and food sovereignty, as well as exclude aspects of sustainable farming or ethical production that are not easily measured, standardized, and validated.

Suggested Citation

  • Maki Hatanaka, 2014. "McSustainability and McJustice: Certification, Alternative Food and Agriculture, and Social Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-21, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:11:p:8092-8112:d:42345
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/11/8092/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/11/8092/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hatanaka, Maki, 2010. "Certification, Partnership, and Morality in an Organic Shrimp Network: Rethinking Transnational Alternative Agrifood Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 706-716, May.
    2. Goss, Jasper & Burch, David & Rickson, Roy E., 2000. "Agri-Food Restructuring and Third World Transnationals: Thailand, the CP Group and the Global Shrimp Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 513-530, March.
    3. Rosamond L. Naylor & Rebecca J. Goldburg & Jurgenne H. Primavera & Nils Kautsky & Malcolm C. M. Beveridge & Jason Clay & Carl Folke & Jane Lubchenco & Harold Mooney & Max Troell, 2000. "Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies," Nature, Nature, vol. 405(6790), pages 1017-1024, June.
    4. Ponte, Stefano, 2008. "Greener than Thou: The Political Economy of Fish Ecolabeling and Its Local Manifestations in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 159-175, January.
    5. John McCarthy, 2012. "Certifying in Contested Spaces: private regulation in Indonesian forestry and palm oil," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(10), pages 1871-1888.
    6. John F. McCarthy, 2012. "Certifying in Contested Spaces: Private Regulation in Indonesian Forestry and Palm Oil," Crawford School Research Papers 1210, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    7. 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.
    8. Vandergeest, Peter, 2007. "Certification and Communities: Alternatives for Regulating the Environmental and Social Impacts of Shrimp Farming," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1152-1171, July.
    9. Laura DeLind & Philip Howard, 2008. "Safe at any scale? Food scares, food regulation, and scaled alternatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(3), pages 301-317, September.
    10. Edward B. Barbier & Mark Cox, 2003. "Does Economic Development Lead to Mangrove Loss? A Cross‐Country Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(4), pages 418-432, October.
    11. Freidberg, Susanne, 2004. "French Beans and Food Scares: Culture and Commerce in an Anxious Age," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195169614.
    12. Hatanaka, Maki & Bain, Carmen & Busch, Lawrence, 2005. "Third-party certification in the global agrifood system," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 354-369, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dina Kusnezowa & Jan Vang, 2021. "Creating Legitimacy in the ISO/CEN Standard for Sustainable and Traceable Cocoa: An Exploratory Case Study Integrating Normative and Empirical Legitimacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Zelený, Jiří & Plzáková, Lucie & Hán, Jan & Kašpar, Jan, 2020. "“Pale Lager and Double Carp Fries, Please”. The McDonaldization of the Culinary Culture in the Czech Republic," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 22(1), April.
    3. Maki Hatanaka, 2020. "Technocratic and deliberative governance for sustainability: rethinking the roles of experts, consumers, and producers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 793-804, September.
    4. Giovanna Sacchi & Vincenzina Caputo & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2015. "Alternative Labeling Programs and Purchasing Behavior toward Organic Foods: The Case of the Participatory Guarantee Systems in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-20, June.
    5. Jir? Zelen? & Lucie Plz?kov? & Jan H?n & Jan Ka?par, 2020. ""Pale Lager and Double Carp Fries, Please". The McDonaldization of the Culinary Culture in the Czech Republic," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 22(1), pages 1-26.
    6. Marta López Cifuentes & Christian Reinhard Vogl & Mamen Cuéllar Padilla, 2018. "Participatory Guarantee Systems in Spain: Motivations, Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement Based on Three Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hatanaka, Maki, 2014. "Standardized food governance? Reflections on the potential and limitations of chemical-free shrimp," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 138-145.
    2. Béné, Christophe & Arthur, Robert & Norbury, Hannah & Allison, Edward H. & Beveridge, Malcolm & Bush, Simon & Campling, Liam & Leschen, Will & Little, David & Squires, Dale & Thilsted, Shakuntala H. &, 2016. "Contribution of Fisheries and Aquaculture to Food Security and Poverty Reduction: Assessing the Current Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 177-196.
    3. Hatanaka, Maki, 2010. "Certification, Partnership, and Morality in an Organic Shrimp Network: Rethinking Transnational Alternative Agrifood Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 706-716, May.
    4. Belton, Ben & Haque, Mohammad Mahfujul & Little, David C. & Sinh, Le Xuan, 2011. "Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it matter?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 289-299, April.
    5. Islam, Md. Saidul, 2008. "From pond to plate: Towards a twin-driven commodity chain in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 209-223, June.
    6. Macdonald, Kate, 2020. "Private sustainability standards as tools for empowering southern pro-regulatory coalitions? Collaboration, conflict and the pursuit of sustainable palm oil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Rob Barlow, 2022. "Deliberation Without Democracy in Multi-stakeholder Initiatives: A Pragmatic Way Forward," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(3), pages 543-561, December.
    8. Tran, Nhuong & Bailey, Conner & Wilson, Norbert & Phillips, Michael, 2013. "Governance of Global Value Chains in Response to Food Safety and Certification Standards: The Case of Shrimp from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 325-336.
    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. Meadows, John & Annandale, Mark & Ota, Liz, 2019. "Indigenous Peoples’ participation in sustainability standards for extractives," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    11. George Halkos & Stylianos Nomikos & Antonis Skouloudis, 2021. "Revisiting ISO 14001 diffusion among national terrains: panel data evidence from OECD countries and the BRIICS," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 781-803, October.
    12. Stefan Ouma, 2010. "Global Standards, Local Realities: Private Agrifood Governance and the Restructuring of the Kenyan Horticulture Industry," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(2), pages 197-222, April.
    13. Janina Grabs & Graeme Auld & Benjamin Cashore, 2021. "Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1183-1208, October.
    14. Patrick Baur, 2020. "When farmers are pulled in too many directions: comparing institutional drivers of food safety and environmental sustainability in California agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1175-1194, December.
    15. Herzfeld, Thomas & Drescher, Larissa S. & Grebitus, Carola, 2011. "Cross-national adoption of private food quality standards," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 401-411.
    16. Allison Marie Loconto, 2017. "Models of Assurance," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 670(1), pages 112-132, March.
    17. Paul Foley & Karen Hébert, 2013. "Alternative Regimes of Transnational Environmental Certification: Governance, Marketization, and Place in Alaska's Salmon Fisheries," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2734-2751, November.
    18. Hutabarat, Sakti & Slingerland, Maja & Rietberg, Petra & Dries, Liesbeth, 2018. "Costs and benefits of certification of independent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(6), July.
    19. Astari, Annisa Joviani & Lovett, Jon C., 2019. "Does the rise of transnational governance ‘hollow-out’ the state? Discourse analysis of the mandatory Indonesian sustainable palm oil policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1-12.
    20. Gardner, T.A. & Benzie, M. & Börner, J. & Dawkins, E. & Fick, S. & Garrett, R. & Godar, J. & Grimard, A. & Lake, S. & Larsen, R.K. & Mardas, N. & McDermott, C.L. & Meyfroidt, P. & Osbeck, M. & Persson, 2019. "Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 163-177.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:11:p:8092-8112:d:42345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.