It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Development of ‘Food Safety’ Practices in New Zealand’s Apple Industry
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Published
Jan 15, 2021
Megan McKenna
Hugh Campbell
Abstract
Through a discussion of 'industry greening' this paper reviews different attempts by New Zealand’s apple industry to address the issue of food safety and protect its global market niche in the fresh fruit and vegetables complex. Conceptually, we argue that agri-food research has too long neglected the importance of re-theorising 'scale' in explaining contemporary changes in food production and consumption. Recognising scale as something that is produced and non-hierarchical, this paper suggests that the manner in which 'green' food discourses are contested shapes regulatory industry structures, production practices and the ways we engage nature with bio-politics. Such processes are explored through an examination of the development of both Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) systems and organic production within New Zealand’s apple industry. The results display a complex interweaving of the politics of industry ‘greening’ with the politics of deregulation within the apple industry. The eventual structuring of IFP and organic practices clearly demonstrate the importance of scale as a dynamic rather than neutral aspect of the restructuring of food production sectors.
How to Cite
McKenna, M. . and Campbell, H. . (2021) “It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Development of ‘Food Safety’ Practices in New Zealand’s Apple Industry ”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 10(2), pp. 45–55. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v10i2.333.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
References
Anon. 1995. Nature’s Choice Code of Practice. UK: Tesco PLC.
Batchelor, T., J. Walker, D. Manktelow, N. Park and S. Johnson. 1997. “New Zealand Integrated Fruit Production for Pipfruit - Charting a New Course.” Proceedings 50th Plant Protection Conference:14-19.
Buck, Daniel, Christina Getz and Julie Guthman. 1997. “From Farm to Table: the organic vegetable commodity chain of Northern California.” Sociologia Ruralis 37 (1): 3-19.
Business and Economic Research Limited. 1999. Deregulating the Apple and Pear Marketing Board - Impacts and Costs. Draft analysis and report. Wellington, New Zealand.
Business and Economic Research Limited. 1998. Nelson Regional Economy Driver Clusters. Wellington, New Zealand.
Business and Economic Research Limited. 1997. Economic Driver Clusters of Hawkes Bay: A Working Paper. Wellington, New Zealand.
Campbell, Hugh, and Brad Coombes. 1999. “Green Protectionism and the Exporting of Organic Fresh Fruit and Vegetables from New Zealand: Crisis Experiments in the Breakdown of Fordist Trade and Agricultural Policies.” Rural Sociology 64(2): 302-319.
Campbell, Hugh, John Fairweather, and David Steven. 1997. Recent Developments in Organic Food Production in New Zealand: Part 2, Kiwifruit in the Bay of Plenty. Studies in Rural Sustainability Research Report No. 2, Department of Anthropology, University of Otago.
Campbell, Hugh and Ruth Fitzgerald. 2001. “Follow the Fear: A Multi-Sited Approach to GM.” Rural Society 11(3): 211-224.
Campbell, Hugh and Ruth Liepins. 2001. “Naming Organics: Understanding Organic Standards in New Zealand as a Discursive Field.” Sociologia Ruralis 41(1): 21-39
Cloke, Paul and Jo Little (eds). 1997. Contested Countryside Cultures: otherness, marginalisation and rurality. London: Routledge
Coombes, Brad and Hugh Campbell.1998. “Dependent Reproduction of Alternative Modes of Agriculture: Organic Farming in New Zealand.” Sociologia Ruralis 38(2):127-145.
ENZA 1999a. Initial Market Forecasts. Wellington: New Zealand.
------. 1999b. pers. comm. February 1999. Wellington, New Zealand.
------. 1998. Annual Report 1997. Wellington: New Zealand.
Friedmann, Harriet. 1993. “The Political Economy of Food: A Global Crisis.” New Left Review 197:29-57.
Friedmann, Harriet and Philip McMichael. 1989. “Agriculture and the State System.” Sociologia Ruralis 29:93-117.
Goodman, David. 1999. “Agrofood Studies in the ‘Age of Ecology’: Nature, Corporeality, Biopolitics.” Sociologia Ruralis 39:17-38.
Goodman, David and Michael Watts. 1994. “Reconfiguring the Rural or Fording the Divide? Capitalist Restructuring and the Global Agro-Food System.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 22 (1):1-49.
Goodman, David and Michael Watts (eds). 1997. Globalising Food: Agrarian Questions and Global Restructuring. London: Routledge.
Grosvenor, S., R. Le Heron and M. Roche. 1995. “Sustainability, Corporate Growers, Regionalisation and Pacific-Asia Links in the Tasmanian and Hawkes Bay Apple Industries.” Australian Geographer 26(2):163-172.
Howley, V. 1997. The Peak of Practices. Fresh September 1997.
Kearney, Mike. 1998. “Downside to Deregulation of Producer Boards: Pipfruit Perspective”. Briefing notes prepared for Pipfruit Growers of New Zealand Inc. by New Zealand Horticultural Economic Services 22 July 1998.
Le Heron, Richard and Michael M. Roche. 1996. “Globalisation, Sustainability, and Apple Orcharding, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.” Economic Geography 72(4): 416-432.
Le Heron, Richard and Michael M. Roche. 1995. “A Fresh Place in Food’s Space.” Area 27: 22-32.
Lockie, Stewart and Simon Kitto. 2000. “Beyond the Farm Gate: Production-Consumption Networks and Agri-Food Research.” Sociologia Ruralis 40(1):3-19.
Manktelow, D., R. Beresford, A. Hodson, J. Walker, T. Batchelor, H. Stiefel and I. Horner. 1997. “Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) for New Zealand Pipfruit: Evaluation of Disease Management in a Pilot Programme.” Proceedings 50th Plant Protection Conference:14-19.
Marsden, Terry, Jonathon Murdoch, Phillip Lowe, Richard Munton and Andrew Flynn. 1993. Constituting the Countryside. London: University College Press.
McKenna, Megan. 1998. “Growing Apples and the ‘Growing Pains’ of Restructuring for New Zealand’s Pipfruit Industry.” New Zealand Geographer 54(2):37-45.
------. 1999a. “The Economic Viability of Deregulation in New Zealand’s Pipfruit Industry.” Primary Industry Management 2(1):4-9. Wellington, New Zealand: Publishing Solutions.
------. 1999b. “The Emperor Has No Clothes - Geographies of Deregulation.” New Zealand Geographer 55(1):59-62.
McKenna, Megan, Michael M. Roche and Richard Le Heron. 1998. “Sustaining the Fruits of Labour: a Comparative Localities Analysis of the Integrated Fruit Production Programme in New Zealand’s Apple Industry.” Journal of Rural Studies 14(4): 393-409.
McKenna, Megan and Hugh Campbell. 1998. Strategies for ‘Greening’ the New Zealand Pipfruit Export Industry: The Development of IFP and Organic Systems. Studies in Rural Sustainability Research Report No. 6, Department of Anthropology, University of Otago.
McKenna, Megan and J. Roebuck. 2000. Global Market Research: New Zealand Pipfruit Industry Regulatory Issues. YAF Consulting Limited, July 2000.
McKenna, Megan, Michael. M. Roche and Richard Le Heron. 1999. “An Apple a Day: Renegotiating Concepts, Revisiting Context in New Zealand’s Pipfruit Industry.” Pp. 41-59 in Restructuring Global and Regional Agricultures, edited by David Burch, Jasper Goss and Geoffrey Lawrence. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
McKenna, Megan and Warwick Murray. Forthcoming. “Jungle Law in the Orchard: Comparing Globalisation in the New Zealand and Chilean Apple Industries.” Economic Geography.
McKenna, Megan, Michael M. Roche, Juliana Mansvelt and Lawrence Berg. Forthcoming. “Core Issues in New Zealand’s Apple Industry: Global-Local Challenges.” Geography.
McMichael, Philip. 1994. “Global Restructuring: Some Lines of Inquiry.” Pp. 277-300 in The Global Restructuring of Agro-Food Systems, edited by Philip McMichael. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
McMichael, Philip. 1996. “Globalisation: Myths and Realities.” Rural Sociology 61(1):25-55.
McMichael, Philip. 1999. “Virtual Capitalism and Agri-food Restructuring.” Pp. 3-22 in Restructuring Global and Regional Agricultures, edited by David Burch, Jasper Goss and Geoffrey Lawrence. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Moran, Warren, Greg Blunden and Adrian Bradley. 1996a. “Empowering Family Farms Through Cooperatives and Producer Marketing Boards.” Economic Geography 72 (2):161-177.
------. 1996b. “Family Farmers, Real Regulation, and the Experience of Food Regimes.” Journal of Rural Studies 12(3):245-258.
Murdoch, Jonathon and Terry Marsden. 1994. Reconstituting Rurality. London: University College Press.
New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board. 1999. Letter to Growers: Industry Reform. New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, 13 July 1999.
Peck, Jamie A. and Adam Tickell.. 1994a. “Jungle Law Breaks Out: Neoliberalism and Global-Local Disorder.” Area 26(4): 317-326.
------. 1994b. “Searching for a New Institutional Fix: the After-Fordist Crisis and the Global-local Disorder.” Pp.280-315. in Post-Fordism: a Reader, edited by A. Amin. Oxford: Blackwell.
Roche, Michael M. 1999. “International Food Regimes: New Zealand’s Place in the International Frozen Meat Trade, 1870-1935.” Historical Geography 27:129-151.
Roche, Michael M., Megan McKenna and Richard Le Heron. 1999. “Making Fruitful Comparisons: Southern Hemisphere Producers and the Global Apple Industry.” Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 90(4): 410-426.
Saunders, Caroline.1999. “Agenda 2000 and the Next WTO Round: the Implications for NZ Trade into the Next Millennium”. Paper presented to the 3rd Wellington Conference on World Affairs, 'New Perspectives for a New Millennium'. Hosted by European Studies Association and Political Studies Association, Victoria University of Wellington, Dec 1-3, 1999.
Solymar, Bernie. 1996. “The European Perspective: Integrated Fruit Production.” Compact Fruit Tree 29: 44-46.
Statistics New Zealand. 1997. New Zealand Official Yearbook 1997 – 100th Edition. Wellington, New Zealand: Statistics New Zealand.
Stiefel, H. and D. Lichtwark. 1998. “Techlink Feasibility Study for Organic Pipfruit Production.” Agriculture New Zealand Consultancy Report. Hastings, New Zealand: Agriculture New Zealand.
Swyngedouw, Erik. 1997. “Neither Global nor Local: ‘Glocalisation’ and the Politics of Scale.” Pp. 137-166 in Spaces of Globalisation: Reasserting the Power of the Local, edited by K. Cox. Guilford Press: New York.
Tovey, Hilary. 1997. “Food, Environmentalism and Rural Sociology: On the Organic Farming Movement in Ireland.” Sociologia Ruralis 37(1): 21-37.
Walker, J., A. Hodson, C. Wearing, S. Bradley, P. Shaw, A. Tomkins, G. Burnip, H. Stiefel and T. Batchelor. 1997. “Intergrated Fruit Production for New Zealand Pipfruit: Evaluation of Pest Management in a Pilot Programme.” Proceedings 50th Plant Protection Conference: 14-19.
Whatmore, Sarah. 1995. “From Farming to Agribusiness: the Global Agro-food System.” Pp. 36-49 in Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World in the Late Twentieth Century, edited by R. J. Johnston, Peter J. Taylor and Michael J. Watts. Oxford: Blackwell.
YAF Consulting Limited. 1998a. Supporting the Single Desk: A Preliminary Review of Economic and Community Issues. Discussion document prepared for United Fruit and submitted to Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, 25 September 1998.
------. 1998b. A Review of the Deregulation Debate: Analysing Industry-Community Viability and Risks for the Kiwifruit Industry. Discussion document prepared for United Kiwi and submitted to Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, 27 November 1998.
Batchelor, T., J. Walker, D. Manktelow, N. Park and S. Johnson. 1997. “New Zealand Integrated Fruit Production for Pipfruit - Charting a New Course.” Proceedings 50th Plant Protection Conference:14-19.
Buck, Daniel, Christina Getz and Julie Guthman. 1997. “From Farm to Table: the organic vegetable commodity chain of Northern California.” Sociologia Ruralis 37 (1): 3-19.
Business and Economic Research Limited. 1999. Deregulating the Apple and Pear Marketing Board - Impacts and Costs. Draft analysis and report. Wellington, New Zealand.
Business and Economic Research Limited. 1998. Nelson Regional Economy Driver Clusters. Wellington, New Zealand.
Business and Economic Research Limited. 1997. Economic Driver Clusters of Hawkes Bay: A Working Paper. Wellington, New Zealand.
Campbell, Hugh, and Brad Coombes. 1999. “Green Protectionism and the Exporting of Organic Fresh Fruit and Vegetables from New Zealand: Crisis Experiments in the Breakdown of Fordist Trade and Agricultural Policies.” Rural Sociology 64(2): 302-319.
Campbell, Hugh, John Fairweather, and David Steven. 1997. Recent Developments in Organic Food Production in New Zealand: Part 2, Kiwifruit in the Bay of Plenty. Studies in Rural Sustainability Research Report No. 2, Department of Anthropology, University of Otago.
Campbell, Hugh and Ruth Fitzgerald. 2001. “Follow the Fear: A Multi-Sited Approach to GM.” Rural Society 11(3): 211-224.
Campbell, Hugh and Ruth Liepins. 2001. “Naming Organics: Understanding Organic Standards in New Zealand as a Discursive Field.” Sociologia Ruralis 41(1): 21-39
Cloke, Paul and Jo Little (eds). 1997. Contested Countryside Cultures: otherness, marginalisation and rurality. London: Routledge
Coombes, Brad and Hugh Campbell.1998. “Dependent Reproduction of Alternative Modes of Agriculture: Organic Farming in New Zealand.” Sociologia Ruralis 38(2):127-145.
ENZA 1999a. Initial Market Forecasts. Wellington: New Zealand.
------. 1999b. pers. comm. February 1999. Wellington, New Zealand.
------. 1998. Annual Report 1997. Wellington: New Zealand.
Friedmann, Harriet. 1993. “The Political Economy of Food: A Global Crisis.” New Left Review 197:29-57.
Friedmann, Harriet and Philip McMichael. 1989. “Agriculture and the State System.” Sociologia Ruralis 29:93-117.
Goodman, David. 1999. “Agrofood Studies in the ‘Age of Ecology’: Nature, Corporeality, Biopolitics.” Sociologia Ruralis 39:17-38.
Goodman, David and Michael Watts. 1994. “Reconfiguring the Rural or Fording the Divide? Capitalist Restructuring and the Global Agro-Food System.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 22 (1):1-49.
Goodman, David and Michael Watts (eds). 1997. Globalising Food: Agrarian Questions and Global Restructuring. London: Routledge.
Grosvenor, S., R. Le Heron and M. Roche. 1995. “Sustainability, Corporate Growers, Regionalisation and Pacific-Asia Links in the Tasmanian and Hawkes Bay Apple Industries.” Australian Geographer 26(2):163-172.
Howley, V. 1997. The Peak of Practices. Fresh September 1997.
Kearney, Mike. 1998. “Downside to Deregulation of Producer Boards: Pipfruit Perspective”. Briefing notes prepared for Pipfruit Growers of New Zealand Inc. by New Zealand Horticultural Economic Services 22 July 1998.
Le Heron, Richard and Michael M. Roche. 1996. “Globalisation, Sustainability, and Apple Orcharding, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.” Economic Geography 72(4): 416-432.
Le Heron, Richard and Michael M. Roche. 1995. “A Fresh Place in Food’s Space.” Area 27: 22-32.
Lockie, Stewart and Simon Kitto. 2000. “Beyond the Farm Gate: Production-Consumption Networks and Agri-Food Research.” Sociologia Ruralis 40(1):3-19.
Manktelow, D., R. Beresford, A. Hodson, J. Walker, T. Batchelor, H. Stiefel and I. Horner. 1997. “Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) for New Zealand Pipfruit: Evaluation of Disease Management in a Pilot Programme.” Proceedings 50th Plant Protection Conference:14-19.
Marsden, Terry, Jonathon Murdoch, Phillip Lowe, Richard Munton and Andrew Flynn. 1993. Constituting the Countryside. London: University College Press.
McKenna, Megan. 1998. “Growing Apples and the ‘Growing Pains’ of Restructuring for New Zealand’s Pipfruit Industry.” New Zealand Geographer 54(2):37-45.
------. 1999a. “The Economic Viability of Deregulation in New Zealand’s Pipfruit Industry.” Primary Industry Management 2(1):4-9. Wellington, New Zealand: Publishing Solutions.
------. 1999b. “The Emperor Has No Clothes - Geographies of Deregulation.” New Zealand Geographer 55(1):59-62.
McKenna, Megan, Michael M. Roche and Richard Le Heron. 1998. “Sustaining the Fruits of Labour: a Comparative Localities Analysis of the Integrated Fruit Production Programme in New Zealand’s Apple Industry.” Journal of Rural Studies 14(4): 393-409.
McKenna, Megan and Hugh Campbell. 1998. Strategies for ‘Greening’ the New Zealand Pipfruit Export Industry: The Development of IFP and Organic Systems. Studies in Rural Sustainability Research Report No. 6, Department of Anthropology, University of Otago.
McKenna, Megan and J. Roebuck. 2000. Global Market Research: New Zealand Pipfruit Industry Regulatory Issues. YAF Consulting Limited, July 2000.
McKenna, Megan, Michael. M. Roche and Richard Le Heron. 1999. “An Apple a Day: Renegotiating Concepts, Revisiting Context in New Zealand’s Pipfruit Industry.” Pp. 41-59 in Restructuring Global and Regional Agricultures, edited by David Burch, Jasper Goss and Geoffrey Lawrence. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
McKenna, Megan and Warwick Murray. Forthcoming. “Jungle Law in the Orchard: Comparing Globalisation in the New Zealand and Chilean Apple Industries.” Economic Geography.
McKenna, Megan, Michael M. Roche, Juliana Mansvelt and Lawrence Berg. Forthcoming. “Core Issues in New Zealand’s Apple Industry: Global-Local Challenges.” Geography.
McMichael, Philip. 1994. “Global Restructuring: Some Lines of Inquiry.” Pp. 277-300 in The Global Restructuring of Agro-Food Systems, edited by Philip McMichael. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
McMichael, Philip. 1996. “Globalisation: Myths and Realities.” Rural Sociology 61(1):25-55.
McMichael, Philip. 1999. “Virtual Capitalism and Agri-food Restructuring.” Pp. 3-22 in Restructuring Global and Regional Agricultures, edited by David Burch, Jasper Goss and Geoffrey Lawrence. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Moran, Warren, Greg Blunden and Adrian Bradley. 1996a. “Empowering Family Farms Through Cooperatives and Producer Marketing Boards.” Economic Geography 72 (2):161-177.
------. 1996b. “Family Farmers, Real Regulation, and the Experience of Food Regimes.” Journal of Rural Studies 12(3):245-258.
Murdoch, Jonathon and Terry Marsden. 1994. Reconstituting Rurality. London: University College Press.
New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board. 1999. Letter to Growers: Industry Reform. New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, 13 July 1999.
Peck, Jamie A. and Adam Tickell.. 1994a. “Jungle Law Breaks Out: Neoliberalism and Global-Local Disorder.” Area 26(4): 317-326.
------. 1994b. “Searching for a New Institutional Fix: the After-Fordist Crisis and the Global-local Disorder.” Pp.280-315. in Post-Fordism: a Reader, edited by A. Amin. Oxford: Blackwell.
Roche, Michael M. 1999. “International Food Regimes: New Zealand’s Place in the International Frozen Meat Trade, 1870-1935.” Historical Geography 27:129-151.
Roche, Michael M., Megan McKenna and Richard Le Heron. 1999. “Making Fruitful Comparisons: Southern Hemisphere Producers and the Global Apple Industry.” Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 90(4): 410-426.
Saunders, Caroline.1999. “Agenda 2000 and the Next WTO Round: the Implications for NZ Trade into the Next Millennium”. Paper presented to the 3rd Wellington Conference on World Affairs, 'New Perspectives for a New Millennium'. Hosted by European Studies Association and Political Studies Association, Victoria University of Wellington, Dec 1-3, 1999.
Solymar, Bernie. 1996. “The European Perspective: Integrated Fruit Production.” Compact Fruit Tree 29: 44-46.
Statistics New Zealand. 1997. New Zealand Official Yearbook 1997 – 100th Edition. Wellington, New Zealand: Statistics New Zealand.
Stiefel, H. and D. Lichtwark. 1998. “Techlink Feasibility Study for Organic Pipfruit Production.” Agriculture New Zealand Consultancy Report. Hastings, New Zealand: Agriculture New Zealand.
Swyngedouw, Erik. 1997. “Neither Global nor Local: ‘Glocalisation’ and the Politics of Scale.” Pp. 137-166 in Spaces of Globalisation: Reasserting the Power of the Local, edited by K. Cox. Guilford Press: New York.
Tovey, Hilary. 1997. “Food, Environmentalism and Rural Sociology: On the Organic Farming Movement in Ireland.” Sociologia Ruralis 37(1): 21-37.
Walker, J., A. Hodson, C. Wearing, S. Bradley, P. Shaw, A. Tomkins, G. Burnip, H. Stiefel and T. Batchelor. 1997. “Intergrated Fruit Production for New Zealand Pipfruit: Evaluation of Pest Management in a Pilot Programme.” Proceedings 50th Plant Protection Conference: 14-19.
Whatmore, Sarah. 1995. “From Farming to Agribusiness: the Global Agro-food System.” Pp. 36-49 in Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World in the Late Twentieth Century, edited by R. J. Johnston, Peter J. Taylor and Michael J. Watts. Oxford: Blackwell.
YAF Consulting Limited. 1998a. Supporting the Single Desk: A Preliminary Review of Economic and Community Issues. Discussion document prepared for United Fruit and submitted to Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, 25 September 1998.
------. 1998b. A Review of the Deregulation Debate: Analysing Industry-Community Viability and Risks for the Kiwifruit Industry. Discussion document prepared for United Kiwi and submitted to Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, 27 November 1998.
Issue
Section
Articles
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.