Disembedding food markets in Asia: private organizations, risk and the promotion of international food standards

Abstract

International organizations, both public and private, promote trade and market development based on rules and standards created primarily by developed countries in the West. This reflects historical legacies associated with the construction of the post-war order, the historical dominance of western economic powers, as well as specific conceptualizations of the role of states, markets and modes of regulation. Indeed, these manifest forms of regulation, conceptions of safety and risk and reflect specific socio-political contexts defined predominantly by western attitudes and social norms. Equally, private sector organizations have also transmitted regulatory norms, standards and risk perceptions into emerging market contexts, in part reflecting the end-consumer markets in which they operate and thus the need to instil within their value chains compliance standards in order to continue to operate within a specific regulatory context. In emerging regions such as Asia, however, different forms of political organization and socio-economic contexts experience predominantly western forms of regulation in manifestly different ways. In areas such as food safety and risk regulation, for example, the transmission of regulatory norms and standards across borders from developed to emerging economy contexts can have far-reaching and sometimes adverse consequences. Specifically, the transmission of western private regulatory norms have implications for Asian food producers, market access, the organization of food value chains, the costs imposed on food producers and farmers and the sustainability of farming practices. As this article seeks to demonstrate, the imposition of such regulatory norms and standards on Asian food producers may lead to the gradual ‘disembedding’ of Asian food markets and cause problems for compliance, distributional justice and social well-being.