Global Networks 12, 3 (2012) 333–354. ISSN 1470–2266. © 2011 The Author(s) Journal compilation © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd & Global Networks Partnership 333 Governing the transnational organic cotton network from Benin LAURENT C. GLIN, * ARTHUR P. J. MOL, † PETER OOSTERVEER ‡ AND SIMPLICE D. VODOUHÊ § Environmental Policy Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningnen University, PO Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands. * (corresponding author) laurent.glin@wur.nl, glinlaurent@gmail.com † arthur.mol@wur.nl ‡ peter.oosterveer@wur.nl § Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, 01 BP 526, Cotonou, Benin. dsvodouhe@yahoo.com Abstract In this article, we attempt to conceptualize the historical development and the governance structure of the transnational organic cotton network from Benin. We aim to discover how the organic cotton production–consumption network is governed locally and internationally. Existing bodies of literature on international agricultural production networks, in particular the Global Value Chains (GVC) perspective, focus on economic dimensions, but find it difficult to incorporate the sustainability dimension. We favour widening the concept of GVCs beyond economics by acknowledging and including environmental rationalities and the representatives of their interests, not as external elements, but rather as co-governing or co-structuring factors (or actors) of sustainable value chains. Our findings reveal that beyond the traditional producer versus buyer dualism, intermediate stakeholders, namely transnational and local environmental NGO networks, are instrumental in the construction, maintenance and transformation of the organic cotton network. It is also apparent that farmers’ leaders play an important role in mediating and (re)building trust among organic farmers, though they exert insufficient vertical power in the organic cotton network to control it. Keywords ORGANIC COTTON, GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN (GVC), TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS GOVERNANCE, TRUST, BENIN In recent decades modern agriculture has engendered significant externalities, affecting natural capital and human health, as well as the production base of agriculture per se (Pretty and Hine 2001). As Mol and Bulkeley (2002) suggest,