An interesting book on the topic from University of California press:

Julie Guthman

Agrarian Dreams
The Paradox of Organic Farming in California

Published August 2004
California Studies in Critical Human Geography, 11

Brief reviews:

"Agrarian Dreams throws a cold shower of reality over the dream of organic
agriculture in California, demonstrating all that is lost when organic farming
goes industrial. This is a challenging book, and until we can answer the hard
questions Julie Guthman poses, a genuinely sustainable agriculture will elude
us."--Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the
World

"Agrarian Dreams puts organic agriculture in a broad intellectual, social, and
theoretical context in a readable way. Nobody has written at this scale and
scope about organics. The availability of this basic data and interpretation
will open discussion to a broad range of citizens, scholars, and decision
makers. This is an outstanding work."--Sally K. Fairfax, Henry J. Vaux
Distinguished Professor of Forest Policy, University of California, Berkeley

"Guthman takes on the sacred cow of organic agriculture: that farmers and
consumers can transform our food system simply through by adopting new
philosophies of eating, farming and nature. With an analysis that is at the
forefront of agrarian theory today, she shows that organic farmers, no matter
what their philosophy, have to work under the economic gun of markets and land
prices. As a result, organic growers in California are forced to become
increasingly industrialized, unjust and unhealthy. Her analysis is proof that
it will take more than new kinds of thinking to create sustainability in our
food system."--Melanie DuPuis, author of Nature's Perfect Food: How Milk Became
America's Drink

DESCRIPTION

In an era of escalating food politics, many believe organic farming to be the
agrarian answer. In this first comprehensive study of organic farming in
California, Julie Guthman casts doubt on the current wisdom about organic food
and agriculture, at least as it has evolved in the Golden State. Refuting
popular portrayals of organic agriculture as a small-scale family farm endeavor
in opposition to "industrial" agriculture, Guthman explains how organic farming
has replicated what it set out to oppose.

CONTENTS

Contents
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Maps

1. Agrarian Dreams
2. Finding the Way: Roads to Organic Production
3. Organic Farming: Ideal Practices and Practical Ideals
4. California Dreaming: California's Agro-Industrial Legacy
5. Organic Sediment: A Geography of Organic Production
6. Conventionalizing Organic: From Social Movement to Industry via Regulation
7. Organic Regulation Ramified
8. The Agrarian Answer?

Chapter 1 online, free, at:
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10112/10112.ch01.html

Tom Billings