Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Competing food sovereignties: GMO-free activism, democracy and state preemptive laws in Southern Oregon

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Indicators of food sovereignty and food democracy center on people having the right and ability to define their food polices and strategies with respect to food culture, food security, sustainability and use of natural resources. Yet food sovereignty, like democracy, exists on multiple and competing scales, and policymakers and citizens often have different agendas and priorities. In passing a ban on the use of genetically-modified (GMO) seeds in agriculture, Jackson County, Oregon has obtained some measure of food sovereignty. Between 2016 and 2017 ethnographic research was undertaken in rural Southern Oregon where local community and State of Oregon priorities regarding the use of GMO crops are in conflict. This article presents ethnographic research findings about the expression and negotiation of multiple food sovereignties by civil society in rural southern Oregon and the State of Oregon via democratic processes. In particular, these findings illustrate the effects of socio-political power dynamics on local and state acts of food sovereignty, democracy and agrifood policy by analyzing what the different expressions of food sovereignty reveal for its implementation at the local level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

GMO:

Genetically-modified organisms

GMOFJC:

GMO-free Jackson County

GMOFJoCo:

GMO-free Josephine County

References

  • Agarwal, Bina. 2014. Food sovereignty, food security and democratic choice: Critical contradictions, difficult conciliations. Paper presented at the food sovereignty: A critical dialogue. New Haven: Yale University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alkon, Alison Hope, and Teresa Marie Mares. 2012. Food sovereignty in US food movements: Radical visions and neoliberal constraints. Agriculture and Human Values 29 (3): 347–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allison, Christine Rothmayr, and Frederic Varone. 2009. Direct legislation in North America and Europe: Promoting or restricting biotechnology. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 11 (4): 425–449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alonso-Fradejas, Alberto, Saturnino M. Borras, Todd Holmes, Eric Holt-Giménez, and Martha Jane Robbins. 2015. Food sovereignty: Convergence and contradictions, conditions and challenges. Third World Quarterly 36 (3): 431–448.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayres, Jeffrey, and Michael J. Bosia. 2011. Beyond global summitry: Food sovereignty as localized resistance to globalization. Globalizations 8 (1): 47–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • BallotPedia. 2015. Local GMO on the Ballot. In Local GMO on the Ballot: The Encyclopedia of American Politics. https://ballotpedia.org/Local_GMO_on_the_ballot. Accessed 16 Mar 2016

  • Bernard, H.Russell. 2006. Research Methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches, 4th ed. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brent, Zoe W., Christina M. Schiavoni, and Alberto Alonso-Fradejas. 2015. Contextualising food sovereignty: The politics of convergence among movements in the USA. Third World Quarterly 36 (3): 618–635.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buiatti, M., P. Christou, and G. Pastore. 2012. The application of GMOs in agriculture and in food production for a better nutrition: Two different scientific points of view. Genes Nutrition 8: 255–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, Jill, and M. Jahi Chappell. 2015. Deepening food democracy. Geneva: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clendenning, Jessica, Wolfram H. Dressler, and Carol Richards. 2016. Food justice or food sovereignty? Understanding the rise of urban food movements in the USA. Agriculture and Human Values 33 (1): 165–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conti, Mauro. 2016. Food sovereignty agenda of transnational social movements in the UN global goverance. Paper presented at the Global governance/politics, climate justice & agrarian justice: Linkages and challenges, The Hague, Netherlands February 2016.

  • Corbett, Alicia. 2016. Preemption—Lessons from the Federal GMO Disclosure Law. The Network for Public Health 2017.

  • Dekeyser, Koen, Lise Korsten, and Lorenzo Fioramonti. 2018. Food sovereignty: Shifting debates on democratic food governance. Food Security 10: 223–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, Marc. 2014. Food sovereignty: Forgotten genealogies and future regulatory challenges. Paper presented at the food sovereignty: A critical dialogue. New Haven: Yale University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairbairn, Madeleine. 2012. Framing transformation: The counter-hegemonic potential of food sovereignty in the US context. Agricultural and Human Values 29 (2): 217–230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falkner, Robert, and Aarti Gupta. 2009. The limits of regulatory convergence: Globalization and GMO politics in the south. International Environmental Agreements 9: 113–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • FIAN. 2005. Food sovereignty framework: Concept and historical context. Food Sovereignty Framework,1–23.

  • Fitting, Elizabeth. 2006. Importing corn, exporting labor: The neoliberal corn regime, GMOs, and the erosion of Mexican biodiversity. Agriculture and Human Values 23 (1): 15–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Sempere, Ana, Moisés Hidalgo, Helda Morales, Bruce G. Ferguson, Austreberta Nazar-Beutelspacher, and Peter Rosset. 2018. Urban transition toward food sovereignty. Globalizations 15 (3): 390–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glover, Dominic. 2010. The corporate shaping of GM crops as a technology for the poor. Journal of Peasant Studies 37 (1): 67–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • GMO-free Europe. 2019. European GMO-free regions conference. https://www.gmo-free-regions.org/. Accessed 12 June 2019.

  • Godfray, H.Charles, et al. 2010. Food security: The challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science 327: 812–818.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassanein, Neva. 2008. Locating food democracy: Theoretical and practical ingredients. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition 3 (2–3): 286–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320240802244215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbers, Greg. 2016. Ninth circuit holds anti-GMO regulations in Hawaii preempted by federal and state law. https://www.forbes.com/sites/wlf/people/gregherbers/. Accessed 2017.

  • Hospes, Otto. 2014. Food sovereignty: The debate, the deadlock, and a suggested detour. Agricultural and Human Values 31 (1): 119–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hospes, Otto, and Anke Brons. 2016. Food system governance: A systematic literature review. In Food systems governance: Challenges for justice, equality and human rights, ed. Amanda Kennedy and Jonathan Liljeblad, 13–42. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iles, Alastair, and Maywa Montenegro de Wit. 2015. Sovereignty at what scale? An inquiry into multiple dimensions of food sovereignty. Globalizations 12 (4): 481–497.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Amanda, and Jonathan Liljeblad. 2016. Introduction. In Food systems governance: Challenges for justice, equality and human rights, ed. Amanda Kennedy and Jonathan Liljeblad, 1–12. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kloppenburg, Jack. 2014. Re-purposing the master's tools: The open source seed initiative and the struggle for seed sovereignty. Paper presented at the food sovereignty: A critical dialogue. New Haven: Yale University.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaVia Campesina. 2007. Declaracion de Nyeleni. https://www.nyeleni2007. Accessed 2014.

  • Levinson, L. R. 2014. Taking back the commons: Motivating factors for the local control of GMOs. Master of community and regional planning graduate theses and dissertations. Paper 14065, Iowa State University.

  • Library of Congress. 2014. Restrictions on genetically modified organisms. Global Legal Research Center.

  • Lieberman, Sarah, and Tim Gray. 2008. GMOs and the developing world: A precautionary interpretation of biotechnology. British Journal of Politics and International Relations 10 (3): 395–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loew, Tracy. 2017. Oregon bill would restore local control over GMO crops. Statesman Journal. https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/08/oregon-bill-would-restore-local-control-over-gmo-crops/97643898/. Accessed 15 May 2019

  • MacRae, Graeme. 2016. Food sovereignty and the anthropology of food: Ethnographic approaches to policy and practice. Anthropological Forum 26 (3): 227–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCauley, Darren. 2015. Protest, politics and produce: A resource account of anti-genetically modified organism activism. Local Environment 20 (1): 34–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMichael, Philip. 2014. Historicizing food sovereignty: A food regime perspective. Paper presented at the food sovereignty: A critical dialogue. New Haven: Yale University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Navin, Mark Christopher, and J.M. Dieterle. 2018. Cooptation or solidarity: Food sovereignty in the developed world. Agricultural and Human Values 35: 319–329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell, Peter, and Dominique Glover. 2003. Business and biotechnology: Regulation and the politics of influence. In Biotechnology Policy Series. Sussex, England: Institute for Development Studies.

  • Nugent, David. 2008. Democracy otherwise: Struggles over popular rule in the Northern Andes. In Democracy: Anthropological approaches, ed. Julia Paley, 21–62. Santa Fe: The School for Advanced Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyéléni. 2007. Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni 2007. In Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni 2007. https://www.nyeleni.org/spip.php?article290. Accessed 29 June 2017.

  • Organic Consumers Association. 2005. US States Passing Laws to Block Local GMO-Free Ordinances. Organic Consumers Association.

  • Our Family Farms Coalition. https://www.ourfamilyfarms.org/. Accessed 2016.

  • Paley, Julia. 2002. Toward an anthropology of democracy. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 469–496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patel, Raj. 2010. What does food sovereignty look like? In Food sovereignty: Reconnecting food, nature and community, ed. Hannah Wittman, AnnetteAurelie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe. Oakland: Food First.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, Thomas W. 2012. Transgenic-free territories in Costa Rica: Networks, place, and the politics of life. American Ethnologist 39 (1): 90–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pechlaner, Gabriela, and H. Renting. 2012. GMO-free America? Mendocino County and the impact of local level resistance to the agricultural biotechnology paradigm. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture 19 (3): 445–464.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, Mark. 2016. Sustaining food production in the Anthropocene: Influences by regulation of crop biotechnology. In Food systems governance: Challenges for justice, equality and human rights, ed. Amanda Kennedy and Jonathan Liljeblad, 127–142. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, Matthew. 2013. State preemption law: The battle for local control of democracy. Pesticides and You 33 (3): 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prost, Sebastian, Clara Crivellaro, Andy Haddon, and Rob Comber. 2018. Food democracy in the making: Designing with local food networks. Paper presented at the proceedings of the 2018 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, Montreal QC, Canada.

  • Schiavoni, Christina M. 2015. Competing sovereignties, contested processes: Insights from the Venezuelan food sovereignty experiment. Globalizations 4: 466–480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiavoni, Christina M. 2016. The contested terrain of food sovereignty construction: Toward a historical, relational and interactive approach. The Journal of Peasant Studies 44: 1–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shattuck, Annie, Christina M. Schiavoni, and Zoe VanGelder. 2015. Translating the politics of food sovereignty: Digging into contradictions, uncovering new dimensions. Globalizations 12 (4): 421–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shawki, Noha. 2015. Transnationalism and diffusion: A study of the food sovereignty movements in the UK and Canada. Globalizations 12 (5): 758–773.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinelli, Margherita. 2013. The Policy Controversy of GMOs in Ecuador: Mechanisms of framing and polarization in coping with a wicked problem. Masters Thesis, Wageningen University.

  • State of Oregon. 2013. 77th Oregon Legislative Assembly 2013 1st Special Session Oct 2 2013. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/.

  • Stone, Glenn Davis. 2002. Both sides now: Fallacies in the genetic-modification wars, implications for developing countries, and anthropological perspectives. Current Anthropology 43 (4): 611–630. https://doi.org/10.1086/341532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, Glenn Davis. 2010. The Anthropology of genetically modified crops. Annual Review of Anthropology 39: 381–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiberghien, Yves. 2012. The global battle over the governance of agricultural biotechnology. In Regulating next generation agri-food biotechnologies: Lessons from European, North American, and Asian experiences, ed. Michael Howlett and David Laycock. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Census Bureau. 2015. QuickFacts, Jackson County, Oregon. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/41029. Accessed 29 June 2017.

  • USDA. 2012. Census of Agriculture: Jackson County Profile, ed. United States Census Bureau: https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Online_Resources/County_Profiles/Oregon/cp41029.pdf. Accessed 29 June 2017.

  • USDA. 2019. Agricultural Coexistence. https://www.usda.gov/topics/farming/coexistence. Accessed 3 July 2019.

  • Walsh-Dilley, Marygold. 2008. Localizing control: Mendocino County and the ban on GMOs. vol 26.

  • Wilce, Rebekah. 2014. Oregon's GMO Sellout. The progressive. https://progressive.org/magazine/oregon-s-gmo-sellout/. Accessed 24 Feb 2019.

  • Wittman, Hannah, Annette Aurelie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe (eds.). 2010. Food sovereignty: Reconnecting food, nature and community. Food First: Oakland.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Lisa Price, for her ongoing support, encouragement and feedback throughout all aspects of the research project. I would also like to give special thanks to Our Family Farms Coalition who granted access to study participants and archival records which made this study possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 203 Waldo Hall, 2250 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Rebecka Daye

Authors
  1. Rebecka Daye
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebecka Daye.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Oregon State University Institutional Review Board (7476) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Daye, R. Competing food sovereignties: GMO-free activism, democracy and state preemptive laws in Southern Oregon. Agric Hum Values 37, 1013–1025 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10034-8

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10034-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation