Constructing common causes: justifications for and against organic agriculture in the Finnish media.

This article examines how organic agriculture has been justified as apublic issue. Using Boltanski’s and Thevenot’s pragmatic sociology, the articleexamines media discussions on organic agriculture in two Finnish newspapers.During the periods under examination (1982–1988, 1995–2000, 2008–2012), organicagriculture grew from a marginal movement into an established part of agriculturalpolicy. The results show that different justifications for organic and conventionalagriculture were connected to differing conceptions of collectivities and thecommon good. According to the analysis, issues related to the economic, environmentaland technical aspects of agriculture have been the most dominant ones.These different ‘orders of worth’ have provided differing possibilities for actors tomake connections between general principles and particular claims. In addition,a central way of structuring justifications has been a national conception of foodand production, which has influenced conceptions of common good. Whereasadvocates of organic agriculture constructed their justifications according to theopposition between organic and conventional, critiques conceptualized the issueas an opposition between organic and domestic production. This national frameworkhas both downplayed the relevance of organic agriculture and framed it asan economic issue. Therefore, the study concludes by suggesting elaborations forthe understanding of the organic–conventional dichotomy as well as on economicjustifications in the politics of organic agriculture, interpreting both through theconceptions of collectivity and the common good.