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Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 GLOBALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY: SALIENT INTERPRETATIONS -- 2 ENVIRONMENTALISM, INDUSTRY RESTRUCTURING, AND GLOBAL REGULATION: THE TUNA-DOLPHIN CONTROVERSY -- 3 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND THEIR POWER OVER THE STATE: THE CASE OF FERRUZZI -- 4 CORPORATE POWER AND THE FREE GLOBAL MARKET: THE LYSINE PRICE-FIXING CASE OF ADM -- 5 GLOBALIZATION AND RESISTANCE FROM BELOW: INDUSTRIAL CHICKEN PRODUCTION IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS -- 6 TNCS' COLONIZATION OF THE LOCAL AND RESISTANCE: MEGA HOG FARMS IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE -- 7 OLD AND NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE GLOBAL ERA: THE CASE OF MAXXAM AND THE HEADWATERS FOREST REDWOODS -- 8 NGOS UNDER GLOBALIZATION: THE MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL -- 9 CHALLENGING THE GLOBALIZATION PROJECT: THE COLLAPSE OF THE MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- INDEX

Abstract  Employing the case of the expansion and regulation of hog confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) in Texas combined with the actions of the transnational agri‐food corporation Seaboard Farms, Inc., this paper probes the relationship between the state and corporations in the global era. It specifically investigates the ability of the state to control agri‐food corporations in a context in which the hyper‐mobility of capital has increasingly allowed corporations to by‐pass state regulations and requirements. Salient literature is reviewed by grouping it into three camps: the first views the state as largely controlled by corporations; the second stresses the powers left to the state and the fact that corporations need state assistance to successfully operate in the current global economy; and the third acknowledges the crisis of the nation‐state under globalization but maintains that the state has retained some ability to resist globalization forces. The case study documents the expansion of Seaboard Farms' hog operations in the Panhandle Region of Texas and nearby states and its interaction with local and state governments and agencies. The article indicates that the relationship between transnational corporations and the state is contradictory. Its source rests on the fracture between varying postures maintained by the state and the relatively homogenous behavior of the CAFO corporations. The case also reveals that the state's limited control of corporate actions is facilitated by state strategies; that corporate actions are successful if corporations enlist the cooperation of the state; and the state is able to control resistance and legitimize its actions to its constituencies. These conditions, however, do not prevent the emergence of anti‐corporate resistance at local and state levels. In the search for new forms of socioeconomic development, local residents and their leaders should be aware of corporations' ability to affect state action, state postures that favor corporate designs, and the fact that successful opposition to corporate designs can be, and is, carried out.

ABSTRACT The globalization of socio‐economic relations is a central topic of discussion in both the general literature on economy and society and in the area of food and agriculture. Many maintain that we are in a transition from one era, termed Fordism, to another, called Global Post‐Fordism. We use the case of two fisheries eco‐labeling programs to inform discussions regarding the emergence of stabilizing socio‐economic mechanisms in the Global Post‐Fordist era. We argue that recent developments in the tuna‐dolphin case, the first major experiment with eco‐labeling in the fisheries industries, combined with the Marine Stewardship Council, an initiative designed to regulate and certify a system of global "sustainable fisheries" through an eco‐labeling program, provide valuable insights into the ideological and organizational structure of salient global actors in the Post‐Fordist era. The discussion addresses (1) the contested terrain within the "North" and between the "North" and the "South" regarding eco‐legislation to regulate the global fisheries; (2) the fracturing of the environmental movement into "mainstream" and "grassroots" camps and the resulting inability to maintain a coordinated agenda to counter the globalization project; and (3) the emergence of new forms of supranational state‐like regulatory mechanisms that combine science with free trade and environmental ideals and propose to resolve the global fisheries crises by providing sustainable socio‐economic coordination. We conclude that the emergence of these supra‐national state‐like NGOs raises important implications for the sovereignty of nation‐states and democratic action on the part of subordinate groups opposed to the globalization project.

Contested sustainability discourses in the agrifood system : an overview / Douglas H. Constance -- Sustainable intensification: agroecological appropriation or contestation? / Les Levidow -- Sustainable intensification as a sociotechnical imaginary / Paul B. Thompson -- Agrifood discourses and feeding the world : unpacking sustainable intensification / Douglas H. Constance and Athena Moseley -- Sustainability as the civil commons : laying the groundwork for sustainable agriculture / Jennifer Sumner -- Zero hunger discourse : neoliberal, progressive, reformist or radical? / Kiah Smith -- Greenwashing the animal-industrial complex : sustainable intensification and the livestock revolution / Livia Boscardin -- Are food quality schemes an alternative to the conventional food system? : reflections on the EU metaphors on agrifood quality regulation / Josep Espluga-Trenc, Marina Di Masso, and Marta G. Rivera-Ferre and Arantxa Capdevila -- Discourses on sustainability in the French farming sector : the redefinition of a consensual and knowledge-intensive "agroecology" / Jessica Thomas -- Dueling discourses of sustainability : neo-conventional and organic farming on the Canadian prairies / Michael Gertler, JoAnn Jaffe, and Mary Beckie -- Contested sustainability discourses as lived experience : conflicted feelings towards meat in consumers' narratives and life stories / Robert M. Chiles -- Shifting visions of sustainability in the United States agriculture : a case study of the role of multi-stakeholder governance / Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka -- Understanding the challenge of problem fefinition in multistakeholder initiatives : lessons from sustainability policy frames in Canadian non-state food strategies / Margaret Bancerz -- Standardizing "unsused" land : the politics of indicators in land classification / Daniel Bornstein -- Justifying the standardization of sustainability impact / Allison Marie Loconto -- Fault lines in sustainability : contestation, cooptation, reform, and transformation / Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka

Abstract This analysis employs the case of lysine price fixing involving the food‐processing transnational corporation (TNC) Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Asian‐based firms. In an "economy and society" conceptual framework grounded in the sociology of agriculture and food, we investigate the powers and limits of TNCs in the global era. We argue that TNCs maintain significant powers which allow them to avoid the laws and regulations of nation‐states. ADM was able to organize an illegal global cartel to control the world production and price of the feed supplement lysine. In addition, TNCs' actions in the global arena are limited by their inability to trust business partners and to organize and maintain systems of social control; these roles historically have been played by the nation‐state. We conclude that despite their significant powers, TNCs' contradictory position in the global arena provides opportunities that can be used to democratize society.