Dr. Guntra Aistara of the Central European University's Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy has published a book through the University of Washington Press. It will be available for purchase in April 2018.
The book is entitled 'Organic Sovereignties: Struggles over Farming in an Age of Free Trade.
About the book:
"This first sustained ethnographic study of organic agriculture outside the United States traces its meanings, practices, and politics in two nations typically considered worlds apart: Latvia and Costa Rica. Situated on the frontiers of the European Union and the United States, these geopolitically and economically in-between places illustrate ways that international treaties have created contradictory pressures for organic farmers.
Organic farmers in both countries build multispecies networks of biological and social diversity and create spaces of sovereignty within state and suprastate governance bodies. Organic associations in Central America and Eastern Europe face parallel challenges in balancing multiple identities as social movements, market sectors, and NGOs while finding their place in regions and nations reshaped by world events."
Information about the publication and several reviews are available on the publishers website.
Guntra is Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. She holds a PhD from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment. She is co-founder of the Environmental and Social Justice Action Research Group, and a core member of the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative.