Organic Sovereignties

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Typically considered worlds apart, both Latvia and Costa Rica are geopolitically and economically in-between places. Situated on the frontiers of the European Union and the United States, they illustrate how international treaties have brought contradictory pressures for organic movements. Organic farmers in both countries build multispecies networks of biological and social diversity yet struggle to create spaces of sovereignty within state and suprastate governance bodies. Organic associations in Central America and Eastern Europe face parallel challenges in balancing multiple identities a social movements, market sectors, and NGOs, while negotiating their place in nations and regions reshaped by global transformations. This is the first ethnographic study to trace the meanings, practices, and politics of organic agriculture outside the United States, shedding light on issues critical for farmers on the margins of world powers. Book jacket.