Resistance, globalization and "conventionalization"

Summary

This paper is based on a research project under DARCOF II (Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming) and is at the same time a Ph.D. project in progress running from July 2002 – July 2005. The aim of the research/PhD. project is to analyze the future development of the Danish organic food sector with two agro-commodities as case studies:
- Organic vegetables
- Organic pork
Emphasis is placed on identifying the economic forces and changes within the chains in combination with the macro-social foundations, which sets the regulatory framework for the economic behaviour among individuals, firms and consumers along the network of the chosen chains.
The organic vegetable supply chain is so far the first chain under examination, and it is the present results from this research that will be presented in this paper.
The main conclusions are, that the values, rules and regulations, development of alternative transaction processes in organic food and farming are founded in social counter reactions toward mechanisms in the capitalistic market economy causing expulsion and marginalization among humans, animals and the environment. However, organic food and farming is are still part of the same market economy, and therefore will encounter some of the same problems facing conventional farmers of declining prices and concentration of production. This will lead to increasing conflicts between organic values and demand for subordination or “conventionalization” to market rule. These contrasting positions will be more severe for organic producers as supermarkets continue to merge and grow in market power under a more global food and trade regime.