The conventionalization of the organic sector has led many to be skeptical about the possibility of organic in and of itself promoting a meaningfully sustainable alternative to the modern agricultural paradigm. However, the bifurcation of the organic market into both mainstream and alternative spheres provides places within the food system where investigating the work involved in creating new economic and social relations of farming practice makes sense. We may very well have come to an era in which most organic products pass through the same types of industrial commodity chains as organic initially set out to challenge. But more and more people desire a new type of economy, one that fosters social connection, meaning, and new relationships of exchange (...
Rethinking governance and value in commodity chains through global recycling networks
