Practices of knowledge pluralization: Knowing and doing organic agriculture in a participatory guarantee system

Participatory guarantee systems (PGS) are gaining increasing popularity as a form of organic certification, in part due to their potential to enhance knowledge exchange among farmers. However, the ways in which farmers produce and exchange knowledge in PGS has received limited attention. Gaining insight into these dynamics is essential to understanding PGS's potential to integrate farmers' knowledge into certification. In this paper, we apply a social practices lens to examine knowledge as fundamentally emergent and situated, and knowledge and practice as mutually constitutive. We analyze the case of Orgânicos Sul de Minas in southeast Brazil and identify a process of knowledge pluralization unfolding through three interrelated bundles of PGS assurance practices: building community, managing a PGS farm, and becoming a farmer-auditor. Through these practices, PGS members perform certification and thereby incorporate their knowledge into the very fabric of PGS. The plural nature of this knowledge reflects both members' varied backgrounds as well as the expertise required to run a PGS, challenging any singular characterization of PGS knowledge. Critically, we argue that Brazil's centralized organic standard does not hinder knowledge pluralization, as coordination and evaluation remain firmly in the hands of PGS members. This suggests that PGS's strength lies not in rejecting formal standards, but in democratizing the process of assessment.