Class Politics and Agricultural Exceptionalism in California's Organic Agriculture Movement

Christy Getz, Sandy Brown and Aimee Shreck
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Christy Getz: Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, cgetz@nature.berkeley.edu
Sandy Brown: Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, sandybrown@berkeley.edu
Aimee Shreck: California State University, ashreck@mac.com

Politics & Society, 2008, vol. 36, issue 4, 478-507

Abstract: Opposition within the organic agriculture community to a state regulatory initiative intended to close a loophole on the prohibition of stoop labor in California agriculture illuminates critical tensions around the “labor question†underpinning California's rapidly expanding organic sector. Through an exploration of the contradictions between the political economic realities of organic agriculture, the lived realities of farm workers, and the ideological framework of “agricultural exceptionalism†espoused in the organic community, this article challenges widely held assumptions that organic agriculture embodies a more socially sustainable form of production. We conclude that these tensions must be confronted if any progress is to be made toward the incorporation of social justice into definitions of agro-food system sustainability.

Keywords: organic agriculture; farm labor; social sustainability; certification; governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:36:y:2008:i:4:p:478-507

DOI: 10.1177/0032329208324709

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