Organic vs. conventional agriculture: knowledge, power and innovation in the food chain

In this paper we examine the way that knowledge is distributed within econo mic networks. Adopting a broad evolutionary approach we examine the distrib ution of economic knowledge within two food chains: the conventional food c hain, which relies on intensive inputs into the food production process, an d thus tends to distribute knowledge towards input suppliers, and the organ ic food supply chain, which distributes knowledge back towards the farm as farmers must relocalise their understandings of the production process. We present two stylised accounts of each chain and show that for farmers to mo ve from one to the other they must forget many of the practices so characte ristic of the conventional chain in order to (re)learn how to farm in an ec ologically benign fashion. In the organic chain, we argue, farmers can once again become "knowing agents". (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All fights r eserved.