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2 Responses to What is the difference Industriaization/consolidation/corporatization of agriculture Vs. Organic agriculture?

1. You are comparing several very different things here.

   Industrialization refers to the buildup of an infrastructure to support the agriculture industry. For instance the development of the railroad allowed ag products to be shipped farther for a reasonable cost.

   Now Industrialization did lead to Consolidation which is the increase in the size and scope of the operations. As you get bigger, you can take advantage of economy of scale. Walmart, for instance can buy TVs in such a huge quantity that they can negotiate a much lower cost per unit then a local appliance store. In much the same way, a large farm can leverage their buying power to get fertilizer, seed, and other materials at a savings. Lowering costs can lead to increased profits allowing these farms to become even bigger.

   Now there’s a second part to consolidation – vertical consolidation. This occurs when a company takes control of a commodity for several steps up and down the supply chain. In the old days, butchers would buy their meat from packing houses who would buy from small farmers. Today, the farm, slaughter house, and packaging plant may be owned by the same company. This allowed the company to control production and stabilize prices for their commodities. This sometimes has the effect of pushing the small producers out of the market.

   Corporations are simply the financial mechanism that companies use as they get larger

   Now, Organic Agriculture is a production system. Many people have the picture in their heads that organic means produce grown on a small, local family farm or free range chickens. The movement started that way, but corporations saw the value added potential in organic production and have strongly moved into that sector of agriculture. Organic simply means that the food was produced without the use of manmade chemicals like fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, etc. The USDA set the definitions for organic and determined what can and can’t be used for certified organic production and they did it with the “assistance” of several of the big corporations. As a result, to be “certified organic” a farm has to go though a lengthy and expensive certification process. I can produce organic eggs by taking a chicken and putting her in the same cage and just changing the feed. Makes it organic, but not necessarily sustainable or better. In fact organic doesn’t really mean sustainable or better or healthier or a lower carbon footprint. It just means that fewer chemicals where used.

   I think rather then using “Organic Agriculture” a better contrast to Industrialized Ag would be something like “Slow Food”, “Sustainable Ag”, or “Locally sourced”

   

   ejb190
   November 16, 2012 at 4:18 am
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2. Traditionally, organic agriculture is run by small, family-owned farms to cater for a small, niche market. However, organic agriculture is growing at a rapid pace today all over the world. Typically, as a country grows wealthier, demand for organic food increases as people become increasingly concern over health and environmental issues (whether organic agriculture allays these fears is a separate issue).

   Inevitably, organic agriculture is increasingly being run by large corporations, following intensive and large scale agriculture practices. Organic produce are also marketed in the same was conventional food. In other words, organic agriculture is increasingly becoming industrialized and run by large corporations, just like conventional food.

   

   cbsteh
   November 16, 2012 at 4:43 am
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