Differentiated Standardization, Standardized Differentiation: The Complexity of the Global Agrifood System

Abstract

In recent years the production and consumption of food have become both more transnational and diversified. Concurrent with these transformations has been the increasing use of standards to differentiate both agricultural products and processes. Historically standards were understood as “natural market lubricants,” but today they are increasingly viewed as tools for competitive advantage. As the use of standards has proliferated, the need to ensure compliance has also increased. Third-party certification (TPC) is one way to ensure compliance and it is becoming increasingly prominent in the global agrifood system. This chapter examines the complex effects that the widespread implementation of standards and TPC is having on the global agrifood system. What is occurring is not simple standardization and differentiation, but rather differentiated standardization and standardized differentiation. In the first instance, whereas we have standardization, it is differentiated, as multiple options remain. For example, while TPC for food safety and quality is becoming increasingly common, what such certification means continues to have considerable diversity. In the latter case, different kinds of agricultural practices are becoming standardized (i.e., organic). That is, difference (e.g., alternative agriculture) is becoming standardized, so that it is increasingly becoming the same globally. In concluding, we argue that standardization and differentiation are both taking place simultaneously in the global agrifood system, and that analyses of the globalization of food and agriculture must begin to recognize this.

Citation

Hatanaka, M., Bain, C. and Busch, L. (2006), "Differentiated Standardization, Standardized Differentiation: The Complexity of the Global Agrifood System", Marsden, T. and Jonathan Murdoch†, J. (Ed.) Between the Local and the Global (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 39-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(06)12003-X