Unpacking ‘Good Food’: Towards Understanding the Semantics of Organics

David. J. Connell
Geography Department, University of Guelph, dave@djconnell.ca

Dr. John Smithers
Geography Department, University of Guelph, jsmither@uoguelph.ca

Dr. Alun Joseph
Geography Department, University of Guelph, ajoseph@uoguelph.ca

Our project tests a long-standing contention that organic agriculture is somehow ‘good’ for community. For some, organic farming suggests small-scale non-intensive production with strong linkages to local food consumers through direct marketing.

However, the revealed diversity of the so-called `conventional’ sector, and the importance of this diversity for understanding linkages and interdependencies between farm, food, and community, suggests the value of a similar exploration in organic farming. Within sector differences are implicated in different relations between organic farms and rural settlements. A differentiated view of organics helps to explore linkages and to interpret its social importance.

One aspect of social importance is the variously defined and unevenly understood notion of ‘good food.’ As the organic food industry matures and diversifies, there is an appetite for more precise definitions of organics and a clearer understanding of how consumers associate organic production with notions of goodness and quality.

By unpacking its various meanings we observe how ‘good food’ gets bundled into a ‘local food systems’ package, wherein organic is good, family-scale farming is good, local is good, natural is good, and community is good. Understanding the diversity of organics is an important step to understanding the contributions of organics to rural sustainability.

Full Paper

Source
Presented at the Social Research in Organic Agriculture Symposium. Guelph, Ontario. January 2005


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