The Political Economy of Organic Foods

Summary

From a political economy perspective organic farming can be regarded as a social countermovement born out of the crisis between the second food regime (1945-1970s), and the birth of a new and third food regime in the 1980’s. The rules and regulations of organic farming are alternative measures trying to combat the growing pressures for more capital accumulation received as:
1) Environmental and human health risks in relation to the use of pesticides, nitrate in the groundwater and escaling problems with animal welfare and food safety.
2) Expulsion and marginalization of farms, landscapes and rural production cultures.
The future development of organic farming, and its prospect of solving problems in relation to animal health and food safety, is therefore closely related to the development of the socio-economic frame of the third food regime. In relation to the development of the third food regime there is an ongoing struggle between a more democratic global regulated food regime with the right to protect certain regional and national differences; contra a more private global regulated food regime where food production is largely conditioned by the interests of Trans national Food corporations and their aspirations for de-regulation and global market growth. In the new food regime changing modes of food consumption will also be important in the creation of new social and economic spaces for organic food production.