Organizing organic : conflict and compromise in an emerging market / Michael A. Haedicke.

Stakeholders in the organic food movement agree that it has the potential to transform our food system, and yet there is little consensus about what this transformation should look like. Tracing the history of the organic food sector, Michael A. Haedicke charts the development of two narratives that do more than simply polarize the organic debate, they give way to competing institutional logics. On the one hand, social activists contend that organics can break up the concentration of power that rests in the hands of a big, traditional agribusiness. Alternatively, professionals who are steeped in the culture of business emphasize the potential for market growth, for fostering better behemoths. Independent food store owners are then left to reconcile these ideas as they construct their professional identities and hone their business strategies. Drawing on extensive interviews and unique archival sources, Haedicke looks at how these groups make sense of their everyday work. He pays particular attention to instances in which individuals overcome the conflicting narratives of industry transformation and market expansion by creating new cultural concepts and organizational forms. At once an account of the sector's development and an analysis of individual choices within it, Organizing Organic provides a nuanced account of the way the organic movement continues to negotiate ethical values and economic productivity.

Drawing on extensive interviews and archival sources, Growing Markets, Cultivating Change tells a new story about the organic foods sector. Michael A. Haedicke shows how the development of this market was spurred on by attempts to reconcile diverging goals of expansion and social transformation.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-212) and index.

Introduction : visions of transformation and growth -- Breaking ground for a new agriculture : transformation and expansion during the organic sector's early years -- Stabilizing the market, dividing the field : federal regulation, field settlement, and the emergence of conflict -- The rise of big organic : market convergence and the elaboration of the expansionary vision -- The politics of organic integrity : reasserting transformative ideals from the margins -- Caught in the middle : negotiating compromise in organic co-op stores -- Institutional logics and social processes revisited : insights from the organic sector.

English.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on February 05, 2020).

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