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Cook et al. (2004, p. 642) explore a papaya supply chain stretching from UK supermarkets to

a Jamaican farm. They present a series of overlapping vignettes of people who were

unknowingly connected through the international trade, and they elaborate the economic,

political, socio-cultural and agricultural processes that shaped their connections (Cook et al.

2004, p. 642). Following stories can potentially render visible socio-cultural connections and

political issues that otherwise remain invisible but are nonetheless a part of supply chains. In

addition, due to their academic basis and interdisciplinary tendencies, following projects are

distinct from most traceability schemes. First, they tend to have an open research agenda.

Secondly, they attune to a range of socio-cultural and ecological issues. On the other hand,

eco certification as a traceability project sets out to track the ecological sustainability of a

product along its supply chain. In the case of certified seafood products the specific goal is to

trace the sustainability of the supply fishery. Moreover, following projects aim to render

social and environmental aspects of a supply chains transparent to the public. Some

traceability schemes, such as the eco certification, are consumer facing, which means they are

also directed towards the public. However, many traceability systems are for industry

purposes and not accessible to consumers.

Following stories tend to stretch from the local to the global, offering an additional

opportunity to deepen our understanding and to develop a theoretical framing of local/global

intersections and question such binaries. Indeed, following in the way that I employ it here is

more than a mode of researching discrete multiple sites. It is what Anna Tsing has called

‘ethnography of global connection’ (2005). An interest in local/global connections is a way to

understand the process by which big terms (in this case sustainability, culture and tradition)

and universalities (e.g. nature) become ‘charged and enacted in the sticky materiality of

practical encounters’ rather than simply imposed onto local settings (Tsing 2005, p. 1). As

Collier and Ong remind us, ‘global forms [similar to Tsing’s universalities] are articulated in

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