Fighting standards with standards: Harmonization, rents, and social accountability in certified agrofood networks

被引:150
作者
Mutersbaugh, T [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Kentucky, Dept Geog, Lexington, KY 40506 USA
来源
ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING A-ECONOMY AND SPACE | 2005年 / 37卷 / 11期
关键词
D O I
10.1068/a37369
中图分类号
X [环境科学、安全科学];
学科分类号
08 ; 0830 ;
摘要
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.
引用
收藏
页码:2033 / 2051
页数:19
相关论文
共 59 条
[21]  
GARZA VP, 2002, C EL GRUP CHORL CRIS
[22]   International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain [J].
Gereffi, G .
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS, 1999, 48 (01) :37-70
[23]  
GONZALEZ AA, WHO SAYS ITS ORGANIC
[24]   The quality 'turn' and alternative food practices: reflections and agenda [J].
Goodman, D .
JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES, 2003, 19 (01) :1-7
[25]   Reading fair trade: political ecological imaginary and the moral economy of fair trade foods [J].
Goodman, MK .
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY, 2004, 23 (07) :891-915
[26]   Back to the land: the paradox of organic food standards [J].
Guthman, J .
ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING A-ECONOMY AND SPACE, 2004, 36 (03) :511-528
[27]   Geography and development: critical ethnographies [J].
Hart, G .
PROGRESS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2004, 28 (01) :91-100
[28]  
HAWORTH N, 2005, ENVIRON PLANN A, P1939
[29]  
*IISD, 2003, UNCTAD UN C TRAD DEV
[30]  
*ISO, 2005, ISO WORLD TRAD