Engaging the Organic Conventionalization Debate

Abstract

Organic agriculture in the US emerged in California in the 1960s as part of the environmental social movement response to the negative externalities of industrialism (Belasco 1989). The first organic standard developed in California in 1990 is the model for the US standard (Guthman 2004a). Although opposed by conventional agriculture, organics is now part of the mainstream, available in the majority of supermarkets. The success of organics is a great victory for the environmental movement and other critics of conventional agriculture. Sociologically, the success is problematic due to conventionalization, or the process whereby organics takes on many of the characteristics of mainstream agriculture regarding scale and structure. The scholarly discussion regarding the extent and implications of conventionalization has generated a substantial literature in agrifood studies.