Doctoral Dissertation Research: Happy Cows or Sweatshop Bovines: Constructing the Organic Dairy Commodity Chain

商品链将生产和消费特定商品的个人和机构联系在一起。从垂直维度分析商品链，从原材料生产到分销和营销再到最终消费，对于理解一个行业的结构方式非常有帮助。它还提供了关于成本和收益如何由链中不同点的参与者和环境不同地承担的见解。有机牛奶代表了一种特别有趣的商品链，因为这种“替代”商品链在许多方面比传统商品链更加工业化，拥有更广泛的分销链和更高水平的加工以延长保质期。本博士论文研究项目将采用半结构化访谈，与农民、消费者、公司和关键线人进行访谈，调查有机牛奶的生产、分销、营销和消费如何整合到商品链的空间和社会经济网络中。此外，推动连锁出现的经济力量和社会问题将在历史背景下进行研究。最后，本文将根据这条新商品链的结构和驱动因素，讨论这条新商品链对社会和生态可持续性的影响。需要探讨的关键问题包括有机牛奶帮助小型家庭奶农维持经营的潜力，营销修辞与生产和分销实践之间的矛盾，以及有机标准与分销地域分散之间的关系。该项目的理论目标是发展一种新的社会生态理论，解释替代或非传统商品链的出现和意义。这项研究应该表明有机生产如何开始改变美国的乳制品行业，这是产值最大的农业部门之一。联邦有机标准的实施会使乳制品生产更具可持续性吗？另外，随着越来越多的生产商进入这一领域，有机牛奶产量的增加是否会导致严格的有机标准被稀释，从而导致在市场上进一步努力实现差异化，并在有机牛奶变得不那么明显的时候增加价值？因此，有机乳制品可能同时提高了底部的标准，降低了顶部的标准。这些趋势对于评估有机乳制品等替代食品系统稳定小型农场抵御敌对经济力量的能力非常重要。同样的趋势应该表明，围绕有机生产的新的管理结构在多大程度上能够使农业生产更有利于环境，并有助于发展新的消费形式。这项研究将使消费者受益，既能提供更多的信息，使他们能够做出明智的消费决定，也能鼓励人们就有机食品在环境和经济方面应该意味着什么或需要什么进行辩论。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Commodity chains link the individuals and institutions that produce and consume particular goods. Analyzing commodity chains in their vertical dimensions, from raw material production through distribution and marketing to final consumption, is very helpful for understanding why an industry is structured the way it is. It also provides insights regarding how the costs and benefits are differentially borne by actors and environments at different points in the chain. Organic milk represents a particularly interesting commodity chain in so far as this "alternative" commodity chain in many ways is more industrialized than its conventional counterpart, with wider distribution chains and higher levels of processing to extend shelf life. This doctoral dissertation research project will use semi-structured interviews with farmers, consumers, firms and key informants to investigate how the production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of organic milk are integrated within the spatial and socioeconomic networks of commodity chains. In addition, the economic forces and social concerns driving the chain's emergence will be examined in a historical context. Finally, the implications for social and ecological sustainability of this new commodity chain will be discussed in light of findings concerning how the chain is structured and what is driving it. Key issues to be explored include the potential of organic milk to help small family dairy farmers stay in business, the contradictions between marketing rhetoric and production and distribution practices, and the relationship between organic standards and geographic dispersion of distribution. The theoretical aim of the project is to develop a new socio-ecological theory explaining the emergence and significance of alternative or nontraditional commodity chains.This research should suggest how organic production has begun to change the dairy sector in the United States, one of the largest agricultural sectors in terms of production value. Will the implementation of federal organic standards make dairy production more sustainable? Alternately, will increased organic milk production lead to a dilution of tough organic standards as more producers enter the field, leading to further efforts to differentiate in the marketplace and add value as organic becomes less distinct? Organic dairying therefore may be simultaneously raising the bar at the bottom and lowering the bar at the top. These trends are important in terms of assessing the capacity of alternative food systems such as organic dairying to stabilize small farms against hostile economic forces. The same trends should indicate the degree to which the new regulatory structures surrounding organic production can make agricultural production more environmentally benign and contribute to the development of new forms of consumption. This study should benefit consumers, both by making available more information upon which they can make informed consumption decisions, and by encouraging debate about what organic should imply or require, vis a vis the environment and the economy. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.