Books by Bradley R Wilson
In the early 2000s the coffee crisis emerged as a central object of study for commodity chain sch... more In the early 2000s the coffee crisis emerged as a central object of study for commodity chain scholars. In this paper I revisit the scene of the coffee crisis in Nicaragua to understand violent processes of devaluation and disinvestment that devas tated the countryside for more than five years (2000–05). Employing a commodity disarticulations approach, I argue that conventional explanations of the coffee crisis as one of overproduction and devaluation generally failed to unravel the layered spatiality of dispossession that enables coffee chain formations. Digging below the surface text of the crisis narrative, I illustrate how the coffee crisis in the central highlands was exacerbated by an aggressive land grab by a consortium of agroindustrial capitalists called CONSAGRA AGRESAMI that had dispossessed farmworkers of land rights and accumulated the spoils of the Sandinistaled agrarian reform over the previous decade. When CONSAGRA AGRESAMI folded in 2000, an unemployed farmworkers movement surged to reclaim land promised to farmworkers in the popular revolution. Using this alternative reading of the crisis in Nicaragua, I aim to bring into focus the ongoing processes of dispossession that render coffee workers vulnerable to hunger, exploitation, and abuse.
This special issue relates the key analytical constructs of environmental justice scholarship -di... more This special issue relates the key analytical constructs of environmental justice scholarship -distributive justice, procedural justice and environmental racism -to a series of Third World case studies. It calls attention to the need to theorize both distributive burdens and benefits; treat the relative salience of race as a category of differentiation as an empirical question; and examine new avenues of procedural justice that have opened up to transnational environmental justice activists. The basic position advanced in the collection is that the core issues at the heart of environmental justice struggles are universal. In this sense, the case studies presented here should be read not as though they were part of exceptional Third World circumstances, but instead as part of broader patterns of distributive, procedural and racial injustice with global significance.
Ethical labeling campaigns have become a central means for diffusing and negotiating conflicts be... more Ethical labeling campaigns have become a central means for diffusing and negotiating conflicts between social movements and market actors. Fair Trade was a pioneering ethical label and, by many accounts, a success. For nearly a decade, United Students for Fair Trade (USFT) activists worked to build the reputation of the Fair Trade Certified (FTC) label, but in Fall 2011 they withdrew their support and urged ethical consumers to do the same. This paper is an urgent reflection on USFT's trajectory from guerrilla marketing to boycotting FTC products. While their actions may appear shortsighted and contradictory, their decision to withdraw support from the FTC label has roots in a long struggle for control of Fair Trade. We argue that their actions signal a new stage in consumer action, as activists lose faith in the legitimacy of ethical labels and instead target the agencies that own the ethical brandscape.
This paper explores the following general question: Why are Fair Trade coffee farmers in Nicaragu... more This paper explores the following general question: Why are Fair Trade coffee farmers in Nicaragua burdened by debt? Nearly five years from ''the end " of the coffee crisis, peasant farming households committed to Fair Trade standards continue to struggle with a legacy of indebtedness caused by years of low farm-gate prices and declining productivity between 2000 and 2004. Through ethnographic observation and interviews with peasant farmers in Nicaragua, I explore how farmers experience a simple reproduction squeeze that hinders them from ''bootstrapping " their own economic development. I argue that the effort to raise the Fair Trade minimum price and premium for coffee through Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) in 2008 demonstrated a good first step toward improving farm-gate prices, however, these gains must be understood in the context of long-term indebtedness as well as rising production costs and household consumption costs.
This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the a... more This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright a b s t r a c t Coffee retailers often court discriminate consumers through the marketing of single origin coffees with distinct flavor attributes. The Cup of Excellence has become a key mechanism for locating and certifying single origin coffees. In this paper use hedonic regression analysis to examine the price premiums for farmers generated by the origin attributes of 607 Cup of Excellence certified coffees from Central America. We find that while the greatest impact on the price premiums for a pound of coffee is the jury score awarded by coffee cuppers, several geographic factors, including the altitude of the farm, coffee farm size, country of origin and even sub-region of origin have significant effects on price premiums. While the price premiums conferred represent opportunities for farmers who have access to such markets, we argue that the appetite for single origin coffees may also contribute to uneven development.
Madagascar has always held a special place on the bioprospecting map. Designated as one of the wo... more Madagascar has always held a special place on the bioprospecting map. Designated as one of the world's ''hottest " biodiversity hotspots, scientists believe the extremely high flora and faunal endemism contain unique potential for the commercialisation of natural products. Years of collections by bioprospectors in Madagascar are beginning to pay off, not necessarily from drug discovery, but through the biodata from their botanical collections. In the paper, we highlight the links between labour and value over time to illustrate the historical process of collecting inventories of biodata and calculating biodiversity metrics. As we demonstrate, biodata originally used for the purposes of drug discovery and scientific exploration are now being repurposed in biodiversity offsetting programs for multinational mining operations in Madagascar. This project of ''re-mining " biodata has reinforced the power of select research institutions which now service their expertise for biodiversity offsetting initiatives. In sum, botanical agencies are far from apolitical actors in these new iterations of market-conservation but active participants in a new age of green grabbing.
USA How, in the present, have the lands of no one emerged and normalized a mode of organizing the... more USA How, in the present, have the lands of no one emerged and normalized a mode of organizing the planet according to life and lifelessness? Katherine McKittrick (2013) He was staring out at the impounded waters of the Artibonite. They stretched off to the east and the west and out of sight among the mountains. From here the amount of land the dam had drowned seemed vast. Still gazing, [Paul] Farmer said, "To understand Russia, to understand Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Boston, identity politics, Sri Lanka and Life Savers, you have to be on top of this hill." The list was clearly jocular. So was his tone. But I had the feeling he had said something important. I thought I got it, generally. This view of drowned farmland, the result of a dam that had made his patients some of the poorest of the poor, was a lens on the world. His lens. Look through it and you'd begin to see all the world's impoverished in their billions and the many linked causes of their misery. Tracy Kidder (2004)
Papers by Bradley R Wilson
Applied Geography, 2012
ABSTRACT Coffee retailers often court discriminate consumers through the marketing of single orig... more ABSTRACT Coffee retailers often court discriminate consumers through the marketing of single origin coffees with distinct flavor attributes. The Cup of Excellence has become a key mechanism for locating and certifying single origin coffees. In this paper use hedonic regression analysis to examine the price premiums for farmers generated by the origin attributes of 607 Cup of Excellence certified coffees from Central America. We find that while the greatest impact on the price premiums for a pound of coffee is the jury score awarded by coffee cuppers, several geographic factors, including the altitude of the farm, coffee farm size, country of origin and even sub-region of origin have significant effects on price premiums. While the price premiums conferred represent opportunities for farmers who have access to such markets, we argue that the appetite for single origin coffees may also contribute to uneven development.
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Books by Bradley R Wilson
Papers by Bradley R Wilson