Brian Obach has written an important book for everyone who produces, buys, or considers buying organically produced foods. This is a well-researched and utterly riveting history of the issues that unite and divide organic farmers and consumers, firmly grounded in the political context of classic social movements. If you want to advocate for healthier and more sustainable food systems, you must read this book.
Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University; author of Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics
Organic Struggle is an in-depth examination of the US organic movement's evolution and pays especially close attention to the internal dilemmas and battles among advocates about what organic agriculture would be. Providing detail not published elsewhere, the book is a fine contribution to a growing body of scholarship on a phenomenon whose imprint on current day food politics is undeniable.
Julie Guthman, Professor of Social Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz; author of Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California, 2nd ed.
Organic Struggle provides an illuminating and historically informed account of how the tactical and strategic choices of competing interests interacted to produce an organic sector that is rapidly getting bigger and more lucrative but that is still neither sustainable nor fair. Understanding how and why these choices were made is essential for those who want to choose effective paths to a just and resilient food future.
Jack Kloppenburg, Professor Emeritus, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison; author of First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology
A fascinating and theoretically sophisticated analysis of the mainstreaming of organic food. This book makes important contributions to the burgeoning field of food studies, but also deserves to be read by those interested more broadly in reforming institutions.
Philip H. Howard, Associate Professor of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University
This accessible book will be of special interest to anyone interested in the politics of organic food, sustainable agriculture, and food movements more broadly, but also of interest to anyone interested in a well-written case study of a particular social movement.
Pamela Oliver, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison