Page 34 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Chapter 1

1.5.1 Deining the current and evolving efects of organic seed regulation

The methodology to address RQ1 was based on an in-depth case study of

governance processes and normalization of the organic seed regulation in

the US, using four principal methods: (1) preliminary analysis of stakeholder

categories in the organic seed value chain in the US, (2) interviews with selected

individuals and organizations in each of the identiied stakeholder categories,

(3) review of successive regulatory and policy documents and stakeholders’

written responses to these, and (4) participant observation at key policy

meetings related to the organic seed regulation over the study period from

mid-2007 to 2013. The case material was initiated by identiication, analysis

and categorisation of the stakeholders (i.e. the main public and private actors

in the sector in 2007) in terms of their stakes, and their levels of interest in

and inluence directly and indirectly on the evolving organic seed regulation.

Subsequently, semi-structured and structured interviews were conducted with

selected individuals/organizations in each stakeholder category, in order to

explore stakeholders’ perceptions of organic seed regulation in light of their

respective roles in the process and of the opportunities or barriers to regulatory

development, as well as to identify the actions they were taking to guide the

course of regulatory development and enforcement. Narrative analysis of

the unfolding perceptions and organizational developments was carried out

by: (1) mapping participants’ changing concerns, concepts and contexts, (2)

identifying key decision points in rule-setting and implementation processes

from the stakeholders’ perspectives, (3) mapping emergent networks and

coalitions of interest, and (4) by documenting how resources of various kinds

were mobilized by the stakeholders in response to the changing understanding

of the regulation.

To further address RQ1, the research built on the interviews, observations and

analyses performed for the US organic seed sector to include the governance

of the EU and Mexican organic seed regulatory systems. The EU was selected

due to the depth of its organic seed regulatory evolution, and because it is

also a primary organic market that is comparable to the US (the two regions

combined comprise 97% of global organic revenue). Mexico was selected

because its commercial agriculture system depends to a large extent on seed

imported from the US and EU; because over 80% of its certiied organic exports

are destined for the US, and because Mexico, while in the process of deining its

16