Recreating the Banana Grower: The Role of Private Certification Systems in the Windward Islands Banana Industry
Original version
Culture Unbound. Journal of Current Cultural Research 2012, 4:721-745Abstract
Private standards and certification schemes in agrifood networks tend to be described
as neoliberal, suggesting that they share a common understanding of that
which they seek to govern and the tools to be used. Although such certification
systems do have many features in common, this article argues that much is to be
learned by contrasting certification systems with regard to their ideational groundings.
Through a historically grounded discussion of the adoption and implementation
of two certification systems – GLOBALGAP and Fairtrade – in the Windward
Islands banana industry, it is argued that there are important differences with
regard to how the systems envision shared key concepts such as accountability,
adaptability, professionalism and not least sustainability. These differences permeate
the standards as well as their enforcement structures, demonstrating a flexibility
in certification as governmental technology which is often overlooked.
Moreover, the article explores how the certification systems’ governmental rationalities
articulate with local understandings of the role of farmers and agriculture
in the Windward Islands, arguing that the tension existing between the visions
embedded in the systems mirrors a tension within these islands societies.
This tension preceded the adoption of the certification systems and continues to
influence their implementation today.