IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v37y2005i11p2033-2051.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fighting Standards with Standards: Harmonization, Rents, and Social Accountability in Certified Agrofood Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Tad Mutersbaugh

    (Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

Abstract

In this paper I explore the remaking of globalized standards through harmonization, and its impact upon certified-organic and fair-trade agrofood networks. I focus on certification standards and discuss four shifts associated with globalized standards (an increased importance of multilateral institutions, changes to standards language, displacement of network-specific standards, and a shift away from relational standards). It is then argued, with reference to value-chain rent theory, that the shift to globalized standards has transformed rent relations in ways that benefit certain actors (that is, retailers) and imperil the earnings of others. In brief, globalized standards increase the costs of standards compliance, the full burden of which falls upon immiserated producers, to the point at which farmers see little economic advantage to certified-organic and fair-trade production. I then examine social-accountability standards that seek to ‘fight standards with standards’ by championing the consolidation of strong labor and environmental protections under a single label. The study suggests that a single-label strategy can be successful, yet must struggle to overcome a Polanyian double bind, for, in order to build broad coalitions necessary to extend the reach of protective standards, the coalitions must include corporate interests that prefer weaker, contract-based standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Tad Mutersbaugh, 2005. "Fighting Standards with Standards: Harmonization, Rents, and Social Accountability in Certified Agrofood Networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(11), pages 2033-2051, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:37:y:2005:i:11:p:2033-2051
    DOI: 10.1068/a37369
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a37369
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a37369?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tad Mutersbaugh, 2002. "The Number is the Beast: A Political Economy of Organic-Coffee Certification and Producer Unionism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(7), pages 1165-1184, July.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Nigel Haworth & Stephen Hughes & Rorden Wilkinson, 2005. "The International Labour Standards Regime: A Case Study in Global Regulation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(11), pages 1939-1953, November.
    5. Michael Burawoy, 2003. "For a Sociological Marxism: The Complementary Convergence of Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi," Politics & Society, , vol. 31(2), pages 193-261, June.
    6. Wade, Robert Hunter, 2003. "What strategies are viable for developing countries today? The World Trade Organization and the shrinking of ‘development space’," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28239, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Gereffi, Gary, 1999. "International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 37-70, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Erin Nelson & Laura Gómez Tovar & Rita Schwentesius Rindermann & Manuel Gómez Cruz, 2010. "Participatory organic certification in Mexico: an alternative approach to maintaining the integrity of the organic label," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(2), pages 227-237, June.
    2. Raynolds, Laura T., 2004. "The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 725-743, May.
    3. Seufert, Verena & Ramankutty, Navin & Mayerhofer, Tabea, 2017. "What is this thing called organic? – How organic farming is codified in regulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 10-20.
    4. Alessandra Arcuri, 2015. "The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 144-159, June.
    5. Carmen Bain & Theresa Selfa, 2017. "Non-GMO vs organic labels: purity or process guarantees in a GMO contaminated landscape," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(4), pages 805-818, December.
    6. Muradian, Roldan & Pelupessy, Wim, 2005. "Governing the coffee chain: The role of voluntary regulatory Systems," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2029-2044, December.
    7. Daniel Jaffee & Philip Howard, 2010. "Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 387-399, December.
    8. Mrill Ingram, 2007. "Disciplining Microbes in the Implementation of US Federal Organic Standards," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(12), pages 2866-2882, December.
    9. Rory Horner, 2022. "Global value chains, import orientation, and the state: South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 68-87, March.
    10. 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.
    11. Oddveig Storstad & Hilde Bjørkhaug, 2003. "Foundations of production and consumption of organic food in Norway: Common attitudes among farmers and consumers?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(2), pages 151-163, June.
    12. Behuria, Pritish, 2017. "The political economy of import substitution in the 21st century: the challenge of recapturing the domestic market in Rwanda," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69470, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Valentina De Marchi & Matthew Alford, 2022. "State policies and upgrading in global value chains: A systematic literature review," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 88-111, March.
    14. 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.
    15. David Goodman, 2000. "Organic and conventional agriculture: Materializing discourse and agro-ecological managerialism," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 215-219, September.
    16. Liam Campling & Elizabeth Havice, 2013. "Mainstreaming Environment and Development at the World Trade Organization? Fisheries Subsidies, the Politics of Rule-Making, and the Elusive ‘Triple Win’," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(4), pages 835-852, April.
    17. Camilla Jensen & Jie Zhang, 2013. "Trade in tourism services: Explaining tourism trade and the impact of the general agreement on trade in services on the gains from trade," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 398-429, April.
    18. David E. Winickoff & Kendra Klein, 2011. "Food Labels and the Environment: Towards Harmonization of EU and US Organic Standards," Chapters, in: David Vogel & Johan Swinnen (ed.), Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Jostein Hauge, 2020. "Industrial policy in the era of global value chains: Towards a developmentalist framework drawing on the industrialisation experiences of South Korea and Taiwan," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 2070-2092, August.
    20. Gary Gereffi, 2019. "Global value chains and international development policy: Bringing firms, networks and policy-engaged scholarship back in," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(3), pages 195-210, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:envira:v:37:y:2005:i:11:p:2033-2051. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.