Creating Organic Standards in U.S. States

The Diffusion of State Organic Food and Agriculture Legislation, 19762010

By (author) Samantha L. Mosier

Publication date:

02 June 2017

Length of book:

226 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498554404

The organic food and agriculture market has greatly expanded over the course of the past forty years. Once considered a fringe practice and market, organic food and agriculture now receives mainstream acceptance and political support in the United States. The USDA’s National Organic Program regulates the current U.S. market, but organic regulations were originally developed in the states starting in the 1970s. From 1976-2010, thirty-eight states adopted organic food and agriculture regulatory legislation. A majority of state legislatures adopted initial legislation in 1989 and 1990, the same year as Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act that effective began the development of national level standards. Grounded in the policy diffusion and diffusion of innovation literature, Creating Organic examines why and how state legislatures decide to adopt legislation that regulate the organic food and agriculture market. The consequences for early and continual state involvement in this policy domain impact national policy trajectories and reshape the sustainable agriculture market. The evidence from this evaluation demonstrates a host of conditions led to the diffusion and evolution of organic regulatory legislation in the U.S. California, Vermont, and Georgia are case studies that illuminate the complexities of adoption decisions and evolution of state regulations over time. In turn, there are a number of lessons to be derived for how state regulatory design has influenced today’s organic market and federal policy development.

List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Approaching the Study of Organic Policy Diffusion
Chapter 2: Revolutionary Idea: Organic as an Innovation
Chapter 3: Organic Policy in the States
Chapter 4: Organic in California: A Leading Innovator
Chapter 5: Organic in Vermont: A Critical Mass Adopter
Chapter 6: Organic in Georgia: A Laggard
Chapter 7: Creating Organic
Appendices
About the Author

Mosier’s book takes a public policy perspective on the history and development of organic food governance in the U.S. In doing so, it convincingly illustrates the various political, economic, and social influences that shaped organic policy across regions and over time, and how these forces contribute to the promises and challenges of the contemporary organic industry.