Contested terrain of the global fisheries: "Dolphin-safe" tuna, the PanamaDeclaration, and the Marine Stewardship Council

The globalization of socio-economic relations is a central topic of discuss ion in both the general literature on economy and society and in the area o f 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 cas e of two fisheries eco-labeling programs to inform discussions regarding th e emergence of stabilizing socio-economic mechanisms in the Global Post-For dist era. We argue that recent developments in the tuna-dolphin case, the f irst major experiment with eco-labeling a in the fisheries industries, comb ined with the Marine Stewardship Council, an initiative designed to regulat e and certify a system of global "sustainable fisheries" through an eco-lab eling program, provide valuable insights into the ideological and organizat ional structure of salient global actors in the Post-Fordist era. The discu ssion addresses (1) the contested terrain within the "North" and between th e "North" and the "South" regarding eco-legislation to regulate the global fisheries; (2) the fracturing of the environmental movement into "mainstrea m" and "grassroots" camps and the resulting inability to maintain a coordin ated agenda to counter the globalization project: and (3) the emergence of new forms of supranational state-like regulatory mechanisms that combine sc ience with free trade and environmental ideals and propose to resolve the g lobal fisheries crises by providing sustainable socio-economic coordination . We conclude that the emergence of these supra-national state-like NGOs ra ises important implications for the sovereignty of nation-states and democr atic action on the part of subordinate groups opposed to the globalization project.