Organic Foods on the Public Plate: Technical Challenge or Organizational Change?

Policies for public procurement of organic foods have become a commonly used instrument to increase sales of organic products in many countries. However, unlike processes related to organic consumption in private households, the implementation of organic foods in public food systems is hindered by constraints and barriers. This article explores the effects related to the introduction of organic foods in institutional foodservice and uses three different theoretical frameworks from organizational sociology to understand the implementation. The article draws on data collected for the evaluation of the Danish organic public procurement funding scheme. Results show that putting organic foods on the public plate seems to be a lot more than a technical foodservice challenge that can be met by a technical "fix" approach. Instead, the data show that organic conversion involves important elements of organizational changes.