"The Historical Paradoxes of Agrifood Standards"

Although paradox studies has been influential in recent work in management and organization studies, it has not been a core theme business history. Paradoxes are situational and contingent, suggesting the value of historical methodologies for understanding why some strategic contexts are more prone to paradox than others. Agrifood standards provide a particularly rich context for exploring the historical development of strategic paradoxes. Agrifood standards—for quality, safety, and socio-ecological sustainability—are exemplars of the sorts of “grand challenges” to which paradox studies are particularly well suited, as they are products of complex multistakeholder initiatives that seek to combine both market and social goals. Quality and food safety standards were first introduced to mass markets in the early twentieth century to smooth market transactions. Standards reduced market uncertainties by establishing clear (and increasingly, government-mandated) standards to minimize costly debates over pricing. By the end of the twentieth century, new non-governmental forms of voluntary, private standards (e.g., GlobalGAP, Sedex, Fairtrade) increasingly structured the agrifood marketplace, creating paradoxical tensions between competitive and collaborative strategies within the industry. Sustainability standards such as Fairtrade or GlobalGAP certification, for instance, produce irresolvable, illogical, and persistent tensions between farmers, food processors, retailers, and consumers. Various stakeholders often perceive the standards as lacking in credibility, as contradictory definitions of “quality,” “fairness,” and “sustainability” are often fundamentally irreconcilable.
Our paper will draw on a range of primary and secondary sources to comparatively explore three case studies in agrifood standards implementation: government-enforced fresh fruit and vegetable standards in the 1920s United States, private industry-led poultry standards in 1960s Great Britain, and global multistakeholder sustainability standards under GlobalGAP in the 1990s-2000s.