Babin, Nicholas. Review of Organic Sovereignties: Struggles over Farming in an Age of Free Trade by Guntra A. Aistara. Conservation & Society 17, no. 1 (2019): 114-15. https://doi.org/10.4103/cs.cs_18_78.
The central aim of this book is to provide a nuanced picture of the barriers and opportunities for achieving food sovereignty in an age of globalisation and regional free trade agreements. It approaches this study from the compelling vantage point of organic farmers, markets, and social movements at the peripheries of global capitalism. This is a work of environmental anthropology and the author’s method is a multi-sited (Latvia and Costa Rica) and long-term (10 years plus of data from each site) ethnography. The choice of cases ensures differences in culture and environment to make interesting contrasts but enough similarities in their histories of economic integration and exclusion to make for compelling comparisons and credible conclusions as to the struggles and prospects for organic agriculture in achieving food sovereignty. (Excerpt from author’s book review)
© Nicholas Babin 2019. Conservation & Society is available online only and is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.5).