Food, Farms, and Solidarity

Chaia Heller is Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of The Ecology of Everyday Life: Rethinking the Desire for Nature.

"Food, Farms, and Solidarity is an excellent study of one of the most fascinating social movements of the contemporary era and its struggle against GM crops. Academics and activists interested in agrarian, environmental, and food justice issues as well as (trans)national social movements should read this book."-Saturnino M. Borras Jr., coeditor of Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization "Food, Farms, and Solidarity is an excellent study of one of the most fascinating social movements of the contemporary era and its struggle against GM crops. Academics and activists interested in agrarian, environmental, and food justice issues, as well as transnational social movements, should read this book."-Saturnino M. Borras Jr., coeditor of Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization "Chaia Heller makes a compelling argument about a set of very important topics in the food/environment arena. Given the continued relevance of those topics, the prominence of the main protagonists of the story in the international scene, and the engaging writing style, the book should be of interest to a broad audience of students, academics, NGO people, and activists."-Arturo Escobar, author of Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes “[Heller’s] engaging book contains many insights into the surprisingly divergent fates of French and U.S. agricultural interest groups. . . . [H]er tale of earthy farmers becoming postmodern ideological entrepreneurs makes for fun reading.” - Andrew Moravcsik (Foreign Affairs) “Heller’s dramatic narrative tells a story filled with intimate anecdotes and colorful characters...making a rather complex history of farmers’ unions and French agricultural policy come alive while sustaining her readers’ interest.” - A. B. Audant (Choice) “This book presents a fascinating and in-depth case study of a French agricultural union, the Confederation paysanne, surveying its history, ideology, leadership, and political activism...this is a highly original, insightful, and exhaustively researched account that presents in fine detail one of the key battle lines of our time.” - Sarah Waters (French History) “Heller has written a wonderful ethnography that I find highly engaging in terms of the logic of capitalist food production under the political auspices of neoliberalism. Her book is an important contribution to food studies and anthropological theory.” - Robert C. Ulin (American Ethnologist) "Ultimately, Heller makes a significant contribution with this study to social movement discourses and union organization in addition to food justice and environmental issues." - Pamela Tudge (Left History) "Food, Farms, and Solidarity provides a deep and fascinating case study of ConfÉdÉration Paysanne and contemporary struggles over agricultural biotechnology and food sovereignty.... Heller’s ethnographic approach makes for a compelling and accessible read, and the book would be appropriate for a topical course on food studies or social movements at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level."   - Christopher R. Henke (Contemporary Sociology) "Food, Farms and Solidarity: French Farmers Challenge Industrial Agriculture and Genetically Modified Crops is an engaging ethnographic study…. The work stands as a valuable case study for social movement scholars and political ecology anthropologists." - Patricia A. Stapleton (Agriculture and Human Values)

• About the Series ixAcknowledgments xi1. Introduction: Creating a New Rationality of Agriculture in a Postindustrial World 1Part I. Toward a New Rationality of Agriculture2. The New Paysan Movements: French Industrialized Agriculture and the Rise of the Postindustrial Paysan 393. The ConfÉdÉration Paysanne: Philosophy, Structure, and Constituency 69Part II. The ConfÉdÉration Paysanne's Early Anti-GMO Campaign, from Risk to Globalization4. Union Activism and Programs: Early Campaigns and Paysan Agriculture 895. We Have Always Been Modern: Toward a Progressive Anti-GMO Campaign 1126. The Trial of the GMOs: Deploying Discourses from Risk to Globalization 137Part III. How France Grew Its Own Antiglobalization Movement7. Caravans, GMOs, and McDo: The Campaign Continues 1638. Operation Roquefort, Part I: Traveling to Washington, DC 1989. Operation Roquefort, Part II: The Battle of Seattle 22110. Postindustrial Paysans in a Post-Seattle World: New Movements, New Possibilities 24811. Conclusion: French Lessons; What's to Be Learned 291Notes 307Works Cited 311Index 323