During the 1997–2000 period, the Confédération Paysanne (CP), a union of French family farmers, played a central role in politicizing the French debate over GM crops. This paper is broader than an analysis of the CP's fight against industrial and post-industrial agriculture. It also explores the ways in which French family farmers, disenfranchised for decades from industrial agriculture, have become key figures in defining new notions of agricultural quality in both a national and international context.

While the first part of the paper traces the rise of ‘quality agriculture discourse’ (QAD) as a form of governmentality that normalizes perceived environmental and social issues associated with industrial agriculture, the second half analyzes the way in which the CP utilizes QAD in developing and legitimizing their broader social and agricultural vision and agenda, both within and beyond the context of the French debate over GM crops. As I will illustrate, while the CP establishes GM crops as the symbol of industrialized and ‘place-less’ agriculture, they establish ‘quality’ as the symbol of agricultural place-attachment. By studying the CP's anti-GMO campaign, we may better appreciate the ways in which disenfranchised groups of family farmers are appropriating techniques of governance to promote their own post-industrial agendas.