Tracing Legitimating Accounts During Times of Change: The Case of the Organic Food Certification Debate, 1990 to 2011

This study explores the dynamics of how organizations make appeals for legitimacy in unstable fields. Empirically, we investigate the debate surrounding U.S. Department of Agriculture organic food certification from 1990 to 2011, which took place as the field of organic food production was destabilized by the entrance of new market participants, as well as the effort by the federal government to regulate what constituted “organic” food. We argue that organizations alter appeals for legitimacy (legitimating accounts) when organization fields undergo change and existing or expected legitimating accounts are undermined by any number of forces, such as social movements, shifting markets, or new actors. Our results illustrate how actors strategically deploy rhetoric to appeal to different constituencies and audiences in an unstable field, and highlight how organizational actors in the organic certification debate sought to legitimate claims