Behind certification and regulatory processes: Contributions to a political history of the Chilean salmon farming

Abstract

Abstract This text follows the public regulatory and the private certificatory paths undergone in the last decade by the widely criticized salmon industry in Chile, with the purpose of exploring the political process that underlies this path. The discussion focuses on the several instances in which both industrial actors and oppositional groups have stabilized those conflicts by sitting down at formally established dialogue tables, which, as we will see, have conducted public and private processes of regulation. In particular, we follow two paths: one promoted and overseen by the public sector and the other a process of self-organization and self-control of the industry at the national and global levels, which initially led to processes of self-certification and third-party certification. We argue that it cannot be reduced to an industrial learning due to the economic cost of disease outbreaks but rather that it is the outcome of a contested political process with interplay between global and local actors. This argument challenges the learning narratives espoused by the industry, contributing to a political ecology of certification processes. It analyzes the outcome of this process showing its contested political and social legitimacy, and the interplay between labor and environment within this regulatory path.