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Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have emerged as a leading institutional approach for advancing sustainability globally. This paper examines three prominent MSIs that have developed sustainability metrics and a standard for US agriculture: Field to Market, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops and the National Sustainable Agricultural Standard Initiative. Using data from interviews and content analysis of initiative reports, two sets of analyses are presented. First, building on Paul Thompson's tri-partite theorization of sustainability, how each initiative is conceptualizing agricultural sustainability is analyzed. We find that two contrasting visions of sustainable agriculture for the USA have emerged from the three MSIs. One vision is a resource sufficiency approach focused on eco-efficiencies and the other vision is a functional integrity approach that emphasizes the maintenance of resilient agricultural and ecological systems. Second, we examine the governance practices of the MSIs to explain why such divergent conceptualizations of sustainability have been mapped out. We find that far from being a neutral forum, the internal dynamics of MSIs often reflect and reproduce existing power relationships among stakeholders. In concluding, we suggest that incremental improvements in sustainability can be achieved using MSIs, but more transformative changes may require other forms of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to increase sustainability are increasingly being promulgated using non-state forms of governance. Currently, there are multiple multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs) working to develop sustainability standards and metrics for US agriculture. These include: LEO-4000, Field to Market, and the Sustainability Consortium. Using Paul Thompson's (2010) tripartite sustainability framework, the proposed sustainability standards and metrics of the three MSIs are assessed. Our findings indicate that the current political economic stakeholder nexus is producing incremental adjustments to the status quo of industrial agriculture. Put differently, the standards and metrics being produced by these initiatives are largely advancing programs of sustainable intensification in which sustainability is equated with increasing resource efficiencies. Hence, our research problematizes the efficacy of non-state governance approaches for transformative change in food and agriculture. The findings in this chapter are based on fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US poultry industry based on flexible accumulation has been advanced as the model of agro-industrial development for agrifood globalization. Similarly, Mexico has been presented as a noteworthy example of the negative effects of neoliberal restructuring associated with the globalization project. In this paper we use both of these assertions as points of departure to guide an investigation of the case of the restructuring of the Mexican poultry industry. Informed by a commodity systems analysis, archival data and key informant interviews are used to generate an overview of the history of the poultry industry in Mexico. A sociology of agrifood theoretical framework informed by regimes theory is employed to analyze the events of the case. We conclude that neoregulation related to the IMF and NAFTA restructuring in Mexico facilitated the diffusion of the US model of poultry production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the industrialization of the U.S. poultry industry, considering its diffusion worldwide and in Mexico. It states that the organizational structure of the U.S. South-developed poultry industry was advanced as the next generation's model of agro-industrial globalization and agriculture, in which the Southern Model has been applied. Meanwhile, the U.S.-based poultry firms, such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Pilgrim's Pride Inc., have expanded globally, particularly in Mexico.

Hazardous waste and environmental justice are important public issues as well as vital areas of academic discussion. The occurrence of hazardous waste sites in Texas and Louisiana is among the highest in the U.S. This study reexamines the claim that hazardous waste sites are disproportionately located in communities with higher percentages of minorities and poor in the population. Because of varying units of analysis and improper operationalization of variables, research based on this claim has produced inconsistent findings. This paper uses the case of Superfund hazardous waste site locations in Texas and Louisiana combined with a multi-dimensional conceptual frame to rectify weaknesses associated with conventional approaches to environmental justice issues. The goal of this analysis is to address two shortcomings in the environmental justice literature. First, we introduce the concept of relative deprivation and, second, we expand the traditional class focus of such research to include both status and power dimensions. The major hypothesis of this research is that environmental justice issues are better conceptualized as environmental classism rather than environmental racism. The results indicate that a multi-dimensional theoretical approach that includes class, status, and power indicators is superior to previous approaches. Furthermore, results indicate that race is not a significant correlate with the location of hazardous waste sites. We conclude that the operationalization of the concept of relative deprivation is valuable in sorting out the influence of race from other independent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The need to better understand landlord involvement in decision-making related to pesticide use and water quality issues is evidenced by several trends. These trends include the increasing documentation of water pollution by farm pesticides. the changing characteristics of farm ownership and operator tenure, and evolutions in resource policy and protection planing. This paper utilizes a theoretical approach to thy sociology of land tenure to interpret results from an investigation of landlord involvement in environmental decision making regarding pesticide selection on rented land. Eight counties with high susceptibility of water contamination by pesticides were selected for study. Structured, in-person interviews were administered to in-county landlords, and a mail survey was used to poll out-of-county landlords. Results indicate that participation is generation low with very little difference between landlords groups. Renters make most of the organizational and operational decisions on rented farmland. Landlord participation is predominantly based on economic, rather than on social or environmental, factors. Furthermore while economic variables are important predictors of participation for both groups gender and social ties to the renter tend to increase local landlord involvement, but not absentee involvement. These results have important implications for both federal programs and further research on land tenure anti environmental stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]