Rebels for the soil : the rise of the global organic food and farming movement / / by Matthew Reed

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910459555003321
• Autore: Reed Matthew
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Boca Raton, FL : , : Routledge, an imprint of Taylor and Francis, , 2010
• ISBN: 1-136-53187-4; 1-282-78983-X; 9786612789830; 1-84977-647-4
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (179 p.)
• Disciplina: 363.19/2
• Soggetti: Organic farming - Social aspects; Social movements; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; Rebels for the Soil; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Tables and Boxes; Acronyms and Abbreviations; Chapter 1 Introduction; Organic farming 101; Key arguments; Organization of the book; Identifying organics; Note; Chapter 2 Social Movements; Introduction; Why social movements?; Defining a social movement; Critical communities and discourse; Phases of the movement; Discourse and diffusion; Roles in the movement; Working utopias; Commerce and the movement; Mobilization, protest and framing; A planetary movement?; Those who walked with Martin; Notes; Chapter 3 Saving the Soil; Outside the empireFood, empire and reform; The doctors; The Peckham Experiment; Agricultural scientists; The agrarian far right; Eve Balfour; Notes; Chapter 4 Poisonous Elixirs; The war years; The Kinship in Husbandry; Balfour and the book; Forming the Soil Association; Foundation; The green revolution; Advancing via Haughley; The Soil and Health Foundation; Pesticides and engagement; Harassment; Barren years?; Notes; Chapter 5 Small, Beautiful and Reorganized, 1960s and 1970s; Introduction; Rise of environmentalism; Counterculture; The Soil Association; Emergence; Swiss developments; ; IFOAM; A new discourseNotes; Chapter 6 The Rise of Organic Food Retailing, 1980s; Introduction; The first standards; Legislation; Legislation in the US; Market growth; Converting farmers; Is it local?; Multiple retailers - a Faustian pact?; Past its shelf life?; Knowing the market/movement; Notes; Chapter 7 Fighting the future - against GM crops; Context; Roots of the opposition; The Monsanto Files; Action against the trials; The French connection; The battle for Seattle; GM on trial; Learning from the mobilization; Notes; Chapter 8 Peak Organics?; Summiting the peaks; Cuba; Transition Towns; The ends of natureFrom pukka to policy; New definitions; Stalled by the critics?; The fourth phase and three directions; Come so far, still so far to go; Bibliography; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This book investigates the emergence of organic food and farming as a social movement. Using the tools of political sociology it analyzes and explains how both people and ideas have shaped a movement that from its inception aimed to change global agriculture. Starting from the British Empire in the 1930's, where the first trans-national roots of organic farming took hold, through to the internet-mediated social protests against genetically modified crops at the end of the twentieth century, the author traces the rise to prominence of the movement. As well as providing a historical account, the book explains the movement's on-going role in fostering and organising alternatives to the dominant intensive and industrial forms of agriculture, such as promoting local food produce and animal welfare. By considering it as a trans-national movement from its inception, aiming at cultural and social change, the book highlights what is unique about the organic movement and why it has risen only relatively recently to public attention. The author reports original research findings, focusing largely on the English-speaking world. The work is grounded in academic enquiry and theory, but also provides a narrative through which the movement can be understood by the more general interested reader.