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Exploring the conventionalization of organic dairy: trends and counter-trends in upstate New York

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  • Amy Guptill

Abstract

Stakeholders in traditional dairy-producing states in the upper Midwest and Northeast hope that the boom in the organic milk market will offer family-scale dairy farms a means to escape the cost-price squeeze of the conventional food system. However, recent trends in organic dairy raise questions about whether organic dairy is conventionalizing, which is to say it is coming to resemble the conventional sector as shown in disparities of power in the value chain that pressure all participants to adopt more industrial practices. This paper reports the results of an exploratory qualitative study of whether and how the organic milk value chain in upstate New York is conventionalizing . Findings lend some support to the conventionalization hypothesis in that organic milk from the beginning has been produced, processed, and marketed as a commodity, and the federal regulations governing organic dairy have facilitated the replication of this commodity-based system. However, there is also evidence that some producers are responding to these pressures not by intensifying, but by going deeper into the alternative organic model, forging more direct and local relationships along the value chain and embracing principles of the organic movement. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

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  • Amy Guptill, 2009. "Exploring the conventionalization of organic dairy: trends and counter-trends in upstate New York," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(1), pages 29-42, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:26:y:2009:i:1:p:29-42
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-008-9179-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dimitri, Carolyn & Greene, Catherine R., 2002. "Recent Growth Patterns In The U.S. Organic Foods Market," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33715, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Henning Best, 2008. "Organic agriculture and the conventionalization hypothesis: A case study from West Germany," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(1), pages 95-106, January.
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    1. Laurent Glin & Arthur Mol & Peter Oosterveer, 2013. "Conventionalization of the organic sesame network from Burkina Faso: shrinking into mainstream," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(4), pages 539-554, December.
    2. Pozner, Jo-Ellen & DeSoucey, Michaela & Sikavica, Katarina, 2015. "Bottle Revolution: Constructing Consumer and Producer Identities in the Craft Beer Industry," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt7t97v316, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    3. Mohamed Gafsi & Jean-Luc Favreau, 2014. "Diversity of operating logics and sustainability of organic farms [Diversité des logiques de fonctionnement et durabilité des exploitations en agriculture biologique]," Post-Print hal-02076167, HAL.
    4. Oscar José Rover & Adevan da Silva Pugas & Bernardo Corrado De Gennaro & Francesco Vittori & Luigi Roselli, 2020. "Conventionalization of Organic Agriculture: A Multiple Case Study Analysis in Brazil and Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Pantelis Zoiopoulos & Ioannis Hadjigeorgiou, 2013. "Critical Overview on Organic Legislation for Animal Production: Towards Conventionalization of the System?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(7), pages 1-18, July.
    6. Shawn A. Trivette, 2017. "Invoices on scraps of paper: trust and reciprocity in local food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 529-542, September.
    7. Le Velly, Ronan & Dufeu, Ivan & Le Grel, Laurent, 2016. "Les systèmes alimentaires alternatifs peuvent-ils se développer commercialement sans perdre leur âme ? Analyse de trois agencements marchands," Économie rurale, French Society of Rural Economics (SFER Société Française d'Economie Rurale), vol. 356(November-).
    8. Kaelyn Stiles & Özlem Altıok & Michael Bell, 2011. "The ghosts of taste: food and the cultural politics of authenticity," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(2), pages 225-236, June.
    9. Pozner, Jo-Ellen & De Soucey, Michaela & Sikavica, Katarina, 2014. "Bottle Revolution: Constructing Consumer and Producer Identities in the Craft Beer Industry?," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt92k6t4vt, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    10. Erin M. Silva & Virginia M. Moore, 2017. "Cover Crops as an Agroecological Practice on Organic Vegetable Farms in Wisconsin, USA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Lee-Ann Sutherland, 2013. "Can organic farmers be ‘good farmers’? Adding the ‘taste of necessity’ to the conventionalization debate," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 429-441, September.
    12. Meiling Wu, 2024. "Conventionalization of Alternative Agriculture and the Intervention of External Investors: Case Sharing Community-Supported Agriculture Farm, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-11, June.

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