Utopia, Food Sovereignty, and Ethical Fashion: The Narrative Power of anti-GMO Campaigns

ABSTRACT

The idea of utopia has become pervasive in the age of everyday humanitarianism. Digital media communicate utopian ideas that allow people to “do good” for vulnerable others and the environment. At the same time, campaigns mobilize citizens by invoking apocalyptic images, such as genetically modified (GM) “monster” foods. This article looks at the construction of utopian and apocalyptic narratives in social movement campaigns and how they contribute to the construction of identities in the campaigns against GM food and Bt cotton, especially in India. Based on an analysis of campaign material, we show that “organic food” and “ethical cotton” products would be less successful without the concurrent use of apocalyptic narratives. Narratives that are more radical enabled the anti-GM food movement to mobilize large resistance. By contrast, a more inclusive narrative approach in the cotton/textile sector risks supporting interests that are detrimental to social justice and environmental protection.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Michael Barnett, The International Humanitarian Order (London, UK: Routledge, 2010), p. 210.

² Bundesregierung, “Lebensmittel in Deutschland grundsätzlich gentechnikfrei,” Die Bundesregierung (December 15, 2017), available online at: https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2014/06/2013-06-12-lebensmittel-in-d-weitgehend-gentechnikfrei.html.

³ Steffi Ober, “Homepage,” NABU (December 15, 2017), available online at: www.nabu.de/natur-und-landschaft/landnutzung/landwirtschaft/gentechnik.

⁴ For example, Anja Nygren, “Governance and Images: Representations of Certified Southern Producers in High-Quality Design Markets,” Environmental Values 24:3 (2015), pp. 391–412.

⁵ Dominic Glover, “Exploring the Resilience of Bt Cotton’s ‘Pro-poor Success Story,’” Development and Change 41:6 (2010), pp. 955–81.

⁶ Thomas More, Utopia, George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams (eds) (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

⁷ Thomas Schölderle, Geschichte der Utopie (Cologne, DE: UTB, 2012).

⁸ Ralf Dahrendorf, Pfade aus Utopia: Arbeiten zur Theorie und Methode der Soziologie (München, DE: R. Piper, 1967).

⁹ Samuel J. Barkin, “Realist Constructivism,” International Studies Review 5:3 (2003), pp. 325–342.

¹⁰ Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change,” International Organization 52:4 (1998), pp. 887–917; Thomas Risse-Kappen, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Nicolas Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001).

¹¹ Barnett, International Humanitarian Order, p. 211.

¹² Alexander Wendt, “Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics,” International Organization 46:2 (1992), pp. 391–425.

¹³ Patrick Hayden and Chamsy el-Ojeili, “Introduction: Reflections on the Demise and Renewal of Utopia in a Global Age,” in Patrick Hayden and Chamsy el-Ojeili (eds), Globalization and Utopia: Critical Essays (London, UK: Routledge, 2009), pp. 1–9.

¹⁴ Lilie Chouliaraki, “Self-mediation: New Media and Citizenship,” Critical Discourse Studies 7:4 (2010), pp. 227–232.

¹⁵ Clifford Bob, The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

¹⁶ Mette Fog Olwig and Lene Bull Christiansen, “Irony and Politically Incorrect Humanitarianism,” in Lisa A. Richey (ed.), Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, Place and Power (New York, NY: Routledge, 2016), pp. 170–88; Ilan Kapoor, Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2013).

¹⁷ Nygren, “Governance and Images.”

¹⁸ Ibid, 403.

¹⁹ Hayden and el-Ojeili, “Introduction,” pp. 6–7.

²⁰ Robin Globus Veldman, “Narrating the Environmental Apocalypse. How Imagining the End facilitates Moral Reasoning among Environmental Activists,” Ethics and the Environment 17:1 (2012), pp. 1–24.

²¹ Chris Methmann and Detlef Rothe, “Politics for the Day after Tomorrow: The Logic of Apocalypse in Global Climate Politics,” Security Dialogue 43:4 (2012), p. 324.

²² Erik Swyngedouw, “Apocalypse Forever? Post-political Populism and the Spectre of Climate Change,” Theory Culture Society 27:2–3 (2010), pp. 213–232.

²³ Ibid., 219.

²⁴ Methmann and Rothe, “Politics for the Day after Tomorrow.”

²⁵ John Dryzek, The Politics of the Earth. Environmental Discourses (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 16.

²⁶ See Charlotte Epstein, The Power of Words in International Relations: Birth of an Anti-whaling Discourse (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008).

²⁷ Barnett, The International Humanitarian Order, p. 210.

²⁸ Clive Barnett, Paul Cloke, Nick Clarke, and Alice Malpass, “Consuming Ethics: Articulating the Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption,” Antipode 37:1 (2005), pp. 23–45.

²⁹ James G. Carrier, “Introduction,” in James G. Carrier and Peter G. Luetchford (eds), Ethical Consumption: Social Value and Economic Practice (New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2012), pp. 1–36.

³⁰ Wendt, “Anarchy is What States Make of It,” p. 418.

³¹ Colin Wight, “They Shoot Dead Horses Don’t They? Locating Agency in the Agent-Structure Problematique,” European Journal of International Relations 5:1 (1999), pp. 109–42.

³² Chouliaraki, “Self-mediation.”

³³ Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, “From Politics to Prophecy: Environmental Quiescence and the ‘Peak-oil’ Movement,” Environmental Politics 22:5 (2013), pp. 866–882.

³⁴ Veldman, “Narrating the Environmental Apocalypse.”

³⁵ Juha Vuori, “A Timely Prophet? The Doomsday Clock as a Visualization of Securitization Moves with a Global Referent Object,” Security Dialogue 41:3 (2010), pp. 255–277.

³⁶ Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World (New York, NY: The Breakthrough Institute, 2004), p. 30.

³⁷ Julia M. Wittmayer, Julia Backhaus, Flor Avelino, Bonno Pel, Tim Strasser and Iris Kunze, “Narratives of Change: How Social Innovation Initiatives Engage with their Transformative Ambitions,” TRANSIT Working Paper #4 (October 2015).

³⁸ Hanna F. Pitkin, Wittgenstein and Justice: On the Significance of Ludwig Wittgenstein for Social and Political Thought (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1972).

³⁹ Lena Partzsch, “‘Power with’ and ‘Power to’ in Environmental Politics and the Transition to Sustainability,” Environmental Politics 26:2 (2017), pp. 193–211.

⁴⁰ Erik Assadourian, “Transforming Corporations,” in Worldwatch Institute (ed.), State of the World 2006: Special Focus: India and China (London, UK: Earthscan, 2006), pp. 171–236; Frances Westley, Michael Q. Patton, and Brenda Zimmerman, Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed (Toronto, CA: Vintage Canada, 2007).

⁴¹ Christer Berglunda and Simon Matti, “Citizen and Consumer: The Dual Role of Individuals in Environmental Policy,” Environmental Politics 15:4 (2006), pp. 550–71.

⁴² Roland Roth, Florian Semle and Bernhard Pötter (eds), Vom David zum Goliath: NGOs im Wandel (München, DE: Oekom, 2001); Grant Jordan, Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar (New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2001).

⁴³ Jordan, Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar.

⁴⁴ Lisa A. Richey and Stefano Ponte, “Better (Red)™ than Dead? Celebrities, Consumption and International Aid,” Third World Quarterly 29:4 (2008), pp. 711–29.

⁴⁵ For instance, Ian Scoones, Science, Agriculture and the Politics of Policy: The Case of Biotechnology in India (New Delhi, IN: Orient Longman, 2006).

⁴⁶ Robert Falkner and Aarti Gupta, “The Limits of Regulatory Convergence: Globalization and GMO Politics in the South,” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 9:2 (2009), pp. 113–133.

⁴⁷ Doris Fuchs and Katharina Glaab, “Material Power and Normative Conflict in Global and Local Agrifood Governance: the Lessons of ‘Golden Rice’ in India,” Food Policy 36:6 (2011), pp. 729–735.

⁴⁸ Monsanto is the world’s leading producer of GM seeds and has its origins in the United States. Syngenta, another multinational company (MNC) with its headquarter in Switzerland, is Monsanto’s closest rival. In 2015, Monsanto tried to acquire Syngenta, but failed. Instead, both GM seed producers are now bought up themselves. In 2016, Bayer, a German multinational chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company, announced its acquisition of Monsanto. In April 2017, the European Commission has approved the acquisition of Syngenta by ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned (agro-) chemical company. The approval is conditional on the divestiture of significant parts of ChemChina’s European pesticide and plant growth regulator business (The Guardian 2016).

⁴⁹ Bt refers to a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, which – in this case – is supposed to make the plant resistant to damages such as the fruit and shoot borer. Brinjal is the Hindi word for eggplant.

⁵⁰ A more recent example is the controversy around the introduction of GM mustard in 2018, which would then be India’s first GM food crop.

⁵¹ Jairam Ramesh, Decision on Commercialisation of Bt-Brinjal (New Delhi, IN: Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2010).

⁵² Marc Williams, “Feeding the World? Transnational Corporations and the Promotion of Genetically Modified Food,” In Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs (eds), Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), pp. 155–86; Ronald J. Herring, “Why Did ’Operation Cremate Monsanto’ Fail? Science and Class in India’s Great Terminator-Technology Hoax,” Critical Asian Studies 38:4 (2006), pp. 467–93.

⁵³ Carl Death, “Disrupting Global Governance: Protest at Environmental Conferences from 1972 to 2012,” Global Governance 21:4 (2015), pp. 579–98.

⁵⁴ Navdanya, “Homepage,” (December 15, 2017), available online at: www.navdanya.org/campaigns/biopiracy.

⁵⁵ Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1999).

⁵⁶ Michael Specter, "Seeds of Doubt," New Yorker (August 25, 2014), available online at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/seeds-of-doubt.

⁵⁷ Gigesh Thomas and Johan De Tavernier, “Farmer-suicide in India: Debating the Role of Biotechnology,” Life Sciences, Society and Policy 13:8 (2017), pp. 1–21.

⁵⁸ Association for India’s Development, “Genetically Modified Foods – Stop Bt Brinjal,” (2012), available online at: http://aidindia.org/main/content/blogcategory/0/442/.

⁵⁹ Staff Reporter, "No to Bt Brinjal: Please," The Hindu (October 28, 2009), available online at: https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/lsquoNo-Bt-Brinjal-pleasersquo/article16503116.ece/amp/.

⁶⁰ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Anthony Parel,’ Hind Swaraj’ and Other Writings (Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997 [1909]).

⁶¹ Shaila Seshia and Ian Scoones, “Tracing Policy Connections: The Politics of Knowledge in the Green Revolution and Biotechnology Eras in India,” IDS Working Paper Biotechnology Policy Series 188 (2003), p. 4.

⁶² Association for India’s Development, “Genetically Modified Foods.”

⁶³ The slogan refers to the famous “Quit India” speech by Mahatma Ghandhi, which called for passive resistance against the British. (Video material of the Bt brinjal public consultation in Andrah Pradesh province).

⁶⁴ Shiva, Biopiracy, p. 126.

⁶⁵ Vandana Shiva, The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics (London, UK: Zed Books, 1991), p. 236.

⁶⁶ Shiva, The Violence of the Green Revolution; see also Whitney Sanford “Gandhi’s Agrarian Legacy: Practicing Food, Justice, and Sustainability in India,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 7:1 (2013), pp. 65–87.

⁶⁷ The Growing Club, “Saving Seeds at Home with Vandana Shiva,” Youtube (December 15, 2015), available online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xar4vixyzUs&t=208s.

⁶⁸ Birgit Peuker, “Community Supported Agriculture – Macht in und durch die Aushandlung alternativer Landwirtschaft,” In Lena Partzsch and Sabine Weiland (eds), Macht und Wandel in der Umweltpolitik: Sonderband der Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (Baden-Baden, DE: Nomos, 2015), pp. 137–60.

⁶⁹ Nabu, “Homepage,” (December 15, 2017), available online at: www.nabu.de/natur-und-landschaft/landnutzung/landwirtschaft/gentechnik.

⁷⁰ The Guardian Editorial, “The Guardian View on GM Cotton: Handle With Care,” (December 15, 2017), available online at: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/04/the-guardian-view-on-gm-cotton-handle-with-care.

⁷¹ See Vandana Shiva, “Monsanto Versus Indian Farmers,” (December 15, 2017).

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ Thomas and De Tavernier, “Farmer-suicide in India”; Natasha Gilbert, “Case Studies: A Hard Look at GM Crops,” Nature 497 (2013), pp. 24–26.

⁷⁴ The Guardian, “The Guardian View on GM Cotton.”

⁷⁵ Adam Sneyd, Governing Cotton: Globalization and Poverty in Africa (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011).

⁷⁶ Soil Association, “Homepage,” (28 June 2017), availabe online at: www.soilassociation.org/our-campaigns/stop-genetic-modification/.

⁷⁷ PAN UK, “Homepage: Pesticides Action Network,” Pesticide-Free Cotton in Ethiopia (October 15, 2017), available online at: www.pan-uk.org/pesticide-free-cotton/www.pan-uk.org/cotton/.

⁷⁸ OXFAM Briefing Paper, "Pricing Farmers Out of Cotton: The Costs of World Bank Reforms in Mali," OXFAM (March, 2007), available online at: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/pricing-farmers-out-of-cotton.pdf.

⁷⁹ Adam Sneyd, “When Governance gets Going: Certifying ‘Better Cotton’ and ‘Better Sugarcane,’” Development and Change 45:2 (2014), pp. 109–110. See also Lisa A. Richey and Stefano Ponte, “Better (Red)™ than Dead?”

⁸⁰ Bob, Marketing of Rebellion.

⁸¹ Adam Sneyd, Governing Cotton.

⁸² Ibid., 111–2.

⁸³ GOTS, “Homepage: Global Organic Textile Standard,” (May 15, 2017), available online at: www.global-standard.org.

⁸⁴ Sneyd, “When Governance gets Going.”

⁸⁵ John Vidal, “Why is the Gates Foundation Investing in GM Giant Monsanto?” The Guardian (May 10, 2010), available online at: www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto.

⁸⁶ BCI. “Homepage: Better Cotton Initiative,” (May 10, 2017), available online at: http://bettercotton.org/.

⁸⁷ Ibid.

⁸⁸ Steffi Ober, “Cotton Made in Africa,” Gen-ethisches Netzwerk (August 1, 2008), available online at: www.gen-ethisches-netzwerk.de/gid/191/ober/cotton-made-africa.

⁸⁹ Organic Trade Association, “Homepage,” (December 15, 2017), available online at: https://ota.com/sites/default/files/indexed_files/Organic-Cotton-Facts.pdf.

⁹⁰ Bundesregierung, “Lebensmittel in Deutschland Grundsätzlich Gentechnikfrei,” (December 15, 2017), available online at: https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2014/06/2013-06-12-lebensmittel-in-d-weitgehend-gentechnikfrei.html.

⁹¹ Nabu, “Homepage.”

⁹² Bob, The Marketing of Rebellion.

Additional information

Funding

Lena Partzsch’s work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (project no. 031B0235A).

Notes on contributors

Katharina Glaab

Katharina Glaab is associate professor of Global Change and International Relations at the Department of International Development and Environment Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. She received her PhD from the University of Muenster. Her fields of research are global environmental politics and International Relations theory.

Lena Partzsch

Lena Partzsch is professor of Environmental and Development Policy at the University of Freiburg. She holds a Diploma and PhD from the Freie Universitaet Berlin and received the venia legendi for political science from the University of Muenster. Her research interests lie in the fields of International Relations and sustainability governance.