Serving Magically Perfect Fruit Globally: Local nesting in translating multiple standards

Abstract

Globally, standards govern and organise the production and exchange of food. This article uses insights from science and technology studies to study the translation of multiple standards in the Ghanaian pineapple industry. The data demonstrate a translation process that is best described as nesting. Nesting is the process through which producers translate multiple standards into a locally contingent network of human and non-human actors, which is represented materially by the perfect fruit. For nesting to take place, producers develop intra-organisational collective practices that we call: prioritising standards, enrolling additives, and creating residues. The concept of nesting explains how food producers translate multiple standards, while simultaneously regaining agency. While nesting enables us to speak about what it means to implement the multiple standards that materially embody the consumers’ vision of perfection, it also contributes to the sociology of standards, the literature on standards adoption, and organisation studies.

How to successfully compete in modern export fruit markets? Lessons from a leading export producer in Argentina

“…The first set comprises standards on measurable food properties (such as the OECD standards for the appearance of fruits and vegetables), which governed global supply networks in the 1980s. The second group – labeled as ethical standards by Arnold and Loconto (2021) – emerged on an international scale in the 1990s. These standards address safety and quality features in terms of the production process and specific quality characteristics (such as organic products or fair trade).…”

“…Furthermore, the heterogeneity and lack of harmonization that has characterized the proliferation of regulations has also contributed to the growing complexity of agri-food export chains, particularly affecting small producers who face increasingly demanding standards for traceability, safety, quality and special certifications (Gebrehiwet et al. , 2007; Jongwanich, 2009; Havinga, 2018; Arnold and Loconto, 2021; Qian et al. , 2020).…”

“…In terms of regulatory changes, increased consumer awareness of not only food quality and safety but also labor and environmental production conditions has encouraged the creation and strengthening of government and private standards for producers and exporters. It could be said that the food industry is governed by two main sets of standards (Arnold and Loconto, 2021). The first set comprises standards on measurable food properties (such as the OECD standards for the appearance of fruits and vegetables), which governed global supply networks in the 1980s.…”

“…As a result of these trends, international fruit trade is subject to growing public and private regulations that demand large investments and learning efforts from firms seeking to enter the market, and whose success is currently determined by their ability to meet increasingly stringent criteria. Furthermore, the heterogeneity and lack of harmonization that has characterized the proliferation of regulations has also contributed to the growing Modern export fruit markets complexity of agri-food export chains, particularly affecting small producers who face increasingly demanding standards for traceability, safety, quality and special certifications (Gebrehiwet et al, 2007;Jongwanich, 2009;Havinga, 2018;Arnold and Loconto, 2021;Qian et al, 2020).…”

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“…But, apart from these crises, the rest of the book instead paints a portrait of modern farms that, for better or worse, are able to master ecosystems. Nonetheless, modern agriculture is constantly inhibited by natural processes (Arnold & Loconto, 2020;Dwiartama & Rosin, 2014). Symmetrically, although agro-ecological farms derive their agency from a form of collaboration with natural entities, this does not mean that for farmers, these natural entities are easily mobilised collaborators.…”