Organic industry or organic movement? A case study of organic agriculture in Maine.

This paper investigates organic agriculture in Maine, with a comparative eye turned to the opposite coast. California's organic agriculture has been the subject of intense scrutiny (Guthman 2004; Mello 2006; Pollan 2006) and many have reached the conclusion that organic agriculture is bifurcated into an organic industry and an organic movement. Recent analyses have also shown how the organic industry has come to dominate organic agriculture and to replicate many of the undesirable features of conventional agriculture. The analysis of organic agriculture in Maine reveals that, at present, Maine has avoided many of the negative consquences of the organic industry, largely because of the smaller size and scale of the organic sector in Maine and through a deliberate (and state-supported) strategy of localization. Maine's organic agriculture remains closer to the organic ideal type and to its movement origins, and hence provides one model for an alternative and sustainable agriculture. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]