CRIC Project - Innovation and Organisation across
the Food Chain: The Tomato
(Project completed)
The Problems Addressed
The Tomato Project was developed over the course of two years and involves
some new methodological approaches which in turn have produced some interesting
insights into innovation processes. The problem was to devise an empirical
project which would enable the various themes of CRIC's research to be simultaneously
engaged within one shared empirical context. The 'tomato' was adopted as an
empirical probe to explore a number of interconnected innovation processes,
and was therefore able to contribute to the development of ideas in the changing
distributivity of innovation processes between different economic agents.
Broadly, as a probe the tomato was used as a device to explore innovations
in production processes, industrial organisation, markets, demand and consumption
historically and comparatively within Europe. There are major differences
in cultures of production as well as technologies of production for the tomato,
following different historical trajectories, across Europe, and these are
also expressed in terms of consumption patterns and trade flows, where there
are some reasonable comparative longitudinal datasets.
Empirical Work and Data Sources
In addition to this broad background analysis, the tomato project developed
what might be described as an integrated suite of case studies. Using the
tomato as a 'probe', and given the many shapes and forms tomatoes can take,
was developed as a method of controlled serendipity. For example, discovery
of the use of beneficial pest controls and bumble bee pollination in modern
glasshouse production systems led to a study of the innovations in pest control
and bumble bee production, and the actors, including major retailers, involved
in the development of these new systems of horticultural production. This
was pursued with interviews in Spain and The Netherlands to see how these
technologies were developed differently in different cultures of production.
The integrated suite of case studies can broadly be seen as attempting to
explore the dynamic interactions between innovations in four interconnected
areas, production, distribution (logistics, intermediate markets), retail
(end markets), and consumption. The underlying conception is that there have
been historical changes in the configured relationship between these four
areas, as well as comparative variability between different economies at different
scales.
The integrated suite of case studies that can be summarised as follows:
- The development of the North European Horticultural regime for the production
of fresh tomatoes in competition with South European open or semi-open agro-chemical
based production. The study of the development of the North European Horticultural
regime was one in which progressive and interlocking innovations have resulted
in a new horticultural eco-system, high technology and IT controlled. Many
diverse economic agents, from bio-technology companies, seed manufacturers,
through to growers, power generation companies, and retailers were involved
in this process. An aspect of this case study is highlighted below. One
of the central findings of this research was the way that different biological
varieties become socio-economically instituted in different market contexts.
- Changing forms of manufacturing processed tomato products over the course
of this century have revealed major changes in the four-faceted configuration
referred to above. The study compared the emergence of two major tomato
icons of the twentieth century from 1867 to today, Heinz tomato ketchup
and Campbell's Tomato Soup, with contemporary convenience food tomato related
products such as pizza, Mediterranean ready meals, or own-label chill-fresh
tomato soup. Both types of tomato product can be seen to be quite revolutionary
developments in food production and markets in their own times, but were
undertaken in different industrial and market organisations. They involved
different modes of production and marketing, the first developing mass production
technologies and brand marketing, the second product differentiation processes
and retail-driven marketing.
- A particular case study was made of the co-evolution of technologies and
markets in the production of the world first food- and process-oriented
example of genetic modification, the genetically modified tomato purée.
This was compared with agro-oriented GM, and the differences in market orientation
in the USA and Europe. The GM tomato purée was seen as a first generation
GM product, with the second generation being a further development towards
end-market oriented GM, with the development of lycopene enhanced tomatoes
for nutrient dense foods. Both first and second generations were seen to
be exemplars of new distributed innovation processes, but comparing first
and second generations enabled an analysis of the changing nature of distributivity.
This example will be highlighted below.
- A further case study explored the emergence and destruction of wholesale
markets and their replacement by the emergence of new distribution networks
controlled with information technology by supermarkets in the UK. The development
of wholesale markets was a long term historical process in which different
forms of intermediation between producers and consumers were instituted
and de-instituted. The market function of wholesale markets involved specific
norms of price formation and competition which were combined with modes
of distribution. These were replaced by integrated supply chains, and dedicated
logistics companies which were linked in networks centrally controlled by
supermarket headquarters. Organisational and technological innovations involved
new relations between new classes of economic agent, as well as the disappearance
of old ones, thus involving a reconfiguration of the relation between production,
distribution, and retail. It also involved the emergence of different forms
of tomato, related to different qualities, such as freshness, which could
be delivered under this new configuration, partly as a consequence of the
massive reduction in overall delivery times.
- The final main focus of a case study is the relationship between the organisation
of retail markets, the shaping of demand, and patterns of consumption. Again
the work has been comparative and historical, taking the tomato (its fresh
and manufactured varieties) as a litmus test for analysing changing economic
processes. Different models of retailing, from discounting through to product-market
segmentation and value differentiation are analysed in terms of the development
of retail outlets as shaping and aggregating demand in different ways. Information
technology, the use of Eftpos, and marketing intelligence result in new
patterns of interaction between retailers and consumers, and, as core suppliers
can also be granted access to real time sales information, integrated supply
chains alter supply-demand relationships. It is thus argued that new forms
of fresh tomato variety owe their socio-economic existence in part to the
supermarket shelves on which they briefly sit.
Key Results and Outcomes
Two highlights from these case studies can each be described
and graphically illustrated: the North European Horticultural Regime, and
two generations of GM tomato.
The North European Horticultural Regime.
Over several decades, a succession of innovations interlocked
to create an entirely new eco-system within which new varieties of tomato
were commercially produced. The novelty of this process lies in the way that
every element of the eco-system was successively subject to innovatory processes:
seed, growing substrate, atmosphere, nutrients, pollination. The diagram below
illustrates the main changes.
The main technologies subject to innovation can be summarised:
- The shift from soil to hydroponics involved both material technologies
of nutrient flows, and individual plant feeding systems, but also enabled
the application of information technology to control growth and absorption
rates.
- Seed technology has undergone successive transformations from classical
pollination techniques to the use of enzyme markers, and now using recombinant
DNA technologies and DNA markers to target particular traits and establish
new stable varieties. This has enabled biological controls to replace agro-chemicals
for many pests and diseases.
- CO2 enrichment of the atmosphere to enhance yield has also been subject
to successive innovation, and, with the development of Combined Heat and
Power systems, which involve the use of mini-combined cycle gas turbine
power stations, with heat, power, and gas exchanges a new set of economic
agents have been involved in the area of horticultural production. A separate
graphic illustrates the system below.
- Bumble bee pollination and the use of biological pest controls have led
to major innovations in the commercialised production of previously wild
natural species. This in turn required a succession of disparate innovation
processes, both in the production processes, such as altering bumble bee
reproduction, and in the creation of micro-eco-systems to enhance their
operation and efficiency.
But, as the diagram below suggests, these diverse technologies gain their
full effectiveness in combination: the overarching innovation is to consider
the eco-system as integrated in a way that delivers new patterns of growth
and varieties of economico-biological products.
- The Combined Heat and Power system. Initially, the effects of CO2 enhancement
in glasshouses was discovered almost accidentally during the use of kerosene
boiler systems. CO2 was then delivered systematically first in a liquid
gas form. A second stage involved the heat and gas exchange system, particularly
effective with heat storage by day during periods of CO2 intake, followed
by night release of heat. The Combined Heat and Power systems now close
the loop of wasted power, generating electricity for the national grid as
well as the production facility, whilst producing both gas and heat. These
systems developed in the UK after the privatisation of electricity supply,
the development of combined cycle gas turbine technology. Both power supply
and power generating companies, together with supermarket retailers were
involved in developing and financing the final stages of the innovation.
Two generations of GM tomato technology.
The two generations of GM analysed are distinguished both by the GM technologies
involved, and by the distributed nature of the innovation, regulatory environments,
and funding support. First generation GM, which resulted in the GM tomato
purée, involved a gene silencing technology, in which plant senescence was
suppressed in respect to the deterioration of cell walls in the fruit (the
pectin chain). The technique involves switching off naturally occurring processes
through insertion of cloned copies of tomato RNA into the nucleus. Second
generation GM enhances a natural property of the plant, in this case lycopene
which is an anti-oxidant beneficial for cardio-vascular systems and possibly
in reducing incidence of some forms of cancer. Gene enhancement requires insertion
of non-homologous genes and the manipulation of multi-gene complexes, affecting
gene functionality.
The two generations of GM have been generated from two very different configurations,
with Zeneca at the centre of each, thus demonstrating changes in the distributed
nature of innovation processes as they developed - and are developing. The
main distinguishing features represented in the graphics are as follows:
1st generation. Zeneca progressively developed
a cooperative relation with university based science, under government funding;
established links with seed, cultivation, and processing companies in the
US under the US regulatory system for GM; developed particular GM projects
for UK markets; co-operated closely with UK supermarkets in final product
design, establishing GM codes of practice over labelling with the retailing
industry.
2nd generation. Public-private co-operation was
intensified with 'open laboratory' arrangements between Zeneca and university
researchers; conflict and turbulence between US and European regulatory systems
made US production for European markets risky, so Zeneca shifted orientation
towards Europe, setting up partnerships with growers and producers; European
funding prescribed demonstrable health benefits from GM research; GM nutrient
dense foods enrolled new scientific and research partners in human physiology,
diet and epidemiology, and food psychology.
Significance of Results and
Outcomes
The integrated suite of case studies produced a large number
of detailed findings about innovation and competition processes. But two broad
research outcomes can encapsulate many of them
- Three levels of distributed innovation can be distinguished. There is
a first level where a single major innovation (GM tomato purée) are the
result of diverse innovatory inputs from different types of economic actors.
There is a second level where multiple, inter-related innovations are distributed
across many actors (e.g. the development of an integrated ecosystem each
element of which is the result of distinct innovation processes). There
is a third level, where relations between major economic classes of actors
become established as a production-retail-consumption configuration, across
which innovations are distributed through a normalised innovation
process.
- The analysis of the dynamic interactions between innovations in four interconnected
areas, production, distribution (logistics, intermediate markets), retail
(end markets), and consumption demonstrated the significance of changing
configurations of relationships between these four areas. The dynamics
of configurational change was shown to underpin both the nature of both
distributed innovation and competition processes. This provided a major
stimulation for the development of an 'instituted economic process' approach
('Instituted
Economic Processes' in Innovation and Competition).
Key Publications
Harvey. M. (1999a) 'Cultivation and Comprehension: How genetic
modification irreversibly alters the human engagement with nature.' Sociological
Research Online, October.
Harvey, M. (1999b) 'Genetic Modification as a bio-socio-economic
process: one case of tomato purée' CRIC
Discussion Paper No. 31.
Harvey, M. (2000) 'Genetically Modified Food: A suitable case
of an economic sociology treatment' in Economic Sociology Newsletter,
1/3, June, 6-11.
Harvey, M., Beynon, H., and Quilley, S. (2001) The
Human Tomato. Rivers Oram Press.
Harvey, M., Beynon, H., and Quilley, S. (2001) 'Processes of
Variation: How capitalism appropriated the tomato' in Harvey, M. and Beynon,
H., eds. Capitalism or capitalisms? Approaches to Varieties of Capitalism.
Manchester University Press.
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