Overview

The Confederation Paysanne, one of France's largest farmers' unions, has successfully fought against genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but unlike other allied movements, theirs has been led by producers rather than consumers. In Food, Farms, and Solidarity, Chaia Heller analyzes the group's complex strategies and campaigns, including a call for a Europe-wide ban on GM crops and hormone-treated beef, and a protest staged at a McDonald's. Her study of the Confederation Paysanne shows the challenges small farms face in a postindustrial agricultural world. Heller also reveals how the language the union uses to argue against GMOs encompasses more than the risks they pose; emphasizing solidarity has allowed farmers to focus on food as a cultural practice and align themselves with other workers. Heller's examination of the Confederation Paysanne's commitment to a vision of alter-globalization, the idea of substantive alternatives to neoliberal globalization, demonstrates how ecological and social justice can be restored in the world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Chaia Heller
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.490kg
ISBN:  

9780822351276

ISBN 10:   0822351277
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   28 January 2013
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

About the Series ix Acknowledgments xi 1. Introduction: Creating a New Rationality of Agriculture in a Postindustrial World 1 Part I. Toward a New Rationality of Agriculture 2. The New Paysan Movements: French Industrialized Agriculture and the Rise of the Postindustrial Paysan 39 3. The Confédération Paysanne: Philosophy, Structure, and Constituency 69 Part II. The Confédération Paysanne's Early Anti-GMO Campaign, from Risk to Globalization 4. Union Activism and Programs: Early Campaigns and Paysan Agriculture 89 5. We Have Always Been Modern: Toward a Progressive Anti-GMO Campaign 112 6. The Trial of the GMOs: Deploying Discourses from Risk to Globalization 137 Part III. How France Grew Its Own Antiglobalization Movement 7. Caravans, GMOs, and McDo: The Campaign Continues 163 8. Operation Roquefort, Part I: Traveling to Washington, DC 198 9. Operation Roquefort, Part II: The Battle of Seattle 221 10. Postindustrial Paysans in a Post-Seattle World: New Movements, New Possibilities 248 11. Conclusion: French Lessons; What's to Be Learned 291 Notes 307 Works Cited 311 Index 323

Reviews

Chaia Heller makes a compelling argument about a set of very important topics in the food/environment arena. Given the continued relevance of those topics, the prominence of the main protagonists of the story in the international scene, and the engaging writing style, the book should be of interest to a broad audience of students, academics, NGO people, and activists. Arturo Escobar, author of Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes

Author Information

Chaia Heller is Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of The Ecology of Everyday Life: Rethinking the Desire for Nature.

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