Commodity organizations as drivers of sustainable agricultural transformation: a cross-cultural perspective

This study identified producer-led commodity organization initiatives and roles in advancing country sustainability missions and SDG 2: Zero hunger by promoting environmental, social and economic sustainable agriculture for food security and climate adaptability. The NVivo 14 content analysis of Corporación Arrocera Nacional and the Pennsylvania Soybean Board newsletters and social media posts from 2017 to 2020 identified motivation, innovation stage, and crop type influencing spatiotemporal unique initiatives and revealed context-independent initiatives in each sustainability dimension to guide the participatory development of organization sustainability indicators in other contexts. These organizations used effective communication strategies to support the development of local knowledge for targeted sustainability initiatives, but varied in actively inviting a participatory process through these communication platforms to address critical sustainability issues. Although sustainability advances were made by each organization, these key stakeholder communications lacked a unified vision of sustainability to support buy-in by not explicitly framing initiatives as sustainability strategies and not presenting indicators of success toward SMART sustainability goals. Eleven functional roles—liaison, steward, supporter, certifier, educator, trainer, recruiter, innovator, investor, advocate, negotiator—illustrate structural components of commodity organizations that facilitate adaptability to crises and are effective at developing sustainable agricultural infrastructure in local contexts.

本研究明确了以生产者为主导的商品组织举措及其在推进国家可持续发展使命与可持续发展目标（Sustainable Development Goals，SDG）2：零饥饿中的核心作用，具体路径为通过推广环境、社会与经济维度的可持续农业，保障粮食安全并提升气候适应能力。本研究针对国家稻米公司（Corporación Arrocera Nacional）与宾夕法尼亚大豆委员会（Pennsylvania Soybean Board）2017至2020年间的通讯稿及社交媒体帖文，采用NVivo 14开展质性内容分析，识别出影响时空特异性举措的三大关键因素——动机、创新阶段与作物类型，并揭示了各可持续发展维度下的普适性举措，旨在为其他情境下的组织可持续发展指标参与式制定提供参考范式。上述两类组织均借助高效的传播策略，支撑本地化知识体系的构建以推进针对性可持续发展举措，但在通过此类传播平台主动邀请参与式流程以解决关键可持续发展议题方面表现参差不齐。尽管两家组织均已取得一定的可持续发展进展，但其面向核心利益相关方的沟通缺乏统一的可持续发展愿景，既未将相关举措明确界定为可持续发展战略，也未展示面向SMART（具体、可衡量、可实现、相关联、有时限）可持续发展目标的成功衡量指标，因此难以获取各方的认同与支持。本研究归纳出11项核心功能角色——联络官、监管者、支持者、认证者、教育者、培训师、招募者、创新者、投资者、倡导者、谈判者——这些角色构成了商品组织的结构性要素，可助力组织提升危机应对适配能力，并在本地语境下有效搭建可持续农业基础设施。