Labeling the good: alternative visions and organic branding in Sweden in the late twentieth century.
The past decade's rapid expansion of a global market for organic food has set powerful economic and political forces in motion. The most important dividing line is whether organic food production should be an alternative to or a niche within a capitalist mode of production. To explore this conflict the article analyzes the formation of a market for eco-labeled milk in Sweden. The analysis draws on three aspects: the strategy of agri-business, the role of eco-labeling, and the importance of inter-organizational dynamics. Based on archival studies, daily press, and interviews, three processes are emphasized: the formative years of the alternative movement in the 1970s, the founding of an independent eco-label (KRAV) in the 1980s, and a discursive shift from alternative visions to organic branding in the early 1990s following the entry of agri-business.
Gothenburg University.
Oskar
O
Broberg
D000818:Animals; D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D003611:Dairy Products / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D019649:Food Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005515:Food Labeling / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D059022:Food Safety; D058870:Food, Organic / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D040541:Marketing / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D008892:Milk / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D058871:Organic Agriculture / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D013548:Sweden / Q000208:ethnology