The interpersonal world of direct marketing: Examining conventions of quality at UK farmers’ markets

Inherent within emerging new food supply chains (FSCs) in the UK in recent years, and in particular those based upon direct marketing, is the (re)connection of production–consumption processes and concomitantly producers and consumers. New forms of connection are apparent, as food produce is differentiated on the basis of quality constructs which are often linked both to the place and nature of its production, but also to the exchange context. As a result, quality evaluation has become increasingly complex and heterogeneous, necessitating context-specific examinations of its mediation. This paper seeks to do this through its examination of producers and consumers at farmers’ markets (FMs). Utilising the framework of Conventions Theory, it assesses how producers and consumers coordinate their mutual expectations in order to circumvent the uniform standards of ‘conventionally’ produced food and create new production–consumption spaces. In so doing, the notion of a Regard Convention is suggested as a means of acknowledging the non-economic benefits of FSCs that are underpinned by direct marketing and, in particular, those that involve face-to-face interaction between the participants concerned.     

Farmer share and fair distribution in food chains from a consumer’s perspective

Discussions about fair revenue distribution in food supply chains gained importance in 2008 when European milk producers entered a strike against dairy processing companies (EU milk strike). A broad discussion in the media emerged, provoking civil society as well as politics to get involved in a debate over fair prices for farmers. During the milk strike, consumers in Germany were to a large extent sympathetic with the farmers, while food retailers were seen as the main cause of the problem. However, the question what fairness and a fair revenue distribution in food production meant remained unanswered. Hence, this study aims to analyze consumer perceptions of what a fair revenue distribution is in food chains and to determine what factors contribute to fairness perceptions of the farmers’ share. Through an online survey conducted in November 2012, German consumers were asked to estimate the distribution of the food dollar among different supply chain partners and to indicate what a fair distribution should look like. This paper contributes to the literature of the perceived unfair compensation of farmers and provides empirical examples of the concepts of distributive, procedural and interactional fairness. The findings of the survey showed that farmers are mainly perceived as being treated unfairly in supply chains and should get more compensation from a consumer’s point of view. Food retailing should mainly lose shares in this context. A fair distribution of revenues is influenced by distributive considerations, process control and interactional fairness, revealing that non-monetary aspects are also influencing fairness perceptions of revenue distribution in food chains.     

Linking Local Food Systems and the Social Economy? Future Roles for Farmers' Markets in Alberta and British Columbia*

Often organized as grassroots, nonprofit organizations, many farmers' markets serve as strategic venues linking producers and consumers of local food while fulfilling multiple social, economic, and environmental objectives. This article examines the potential of farmers' markets to play a catalyst role in linking local food systems to the social economy in western Canada. We used the Delphi method of inquiry to solicit and synthesize perspectives on the future role of farmers' markets within local food systems and the social economy from farmers' market vendors, market managers, and policy and government representatives in each province. We found that negotiations over the definition of local food systems, the dynamics of supply and demand relationships, and perceptions of “authenticity” affect the positionality of farmers' markets in relation to other marketing channels within regional food systems. Stakeholders engaged in this Delphi inquiry strategized ways to scale up local food systems beyond current limits while also maintaining the “authentic experience” offered by farmers' markets that has helped to fuel increased consumer interest, demand, and growth. Results confirm the need for further investigation of the relationship between the social economy, infrastructure, and authenticity in the development of local food systems.     

Local Food and Civic Engagement: Do Farmers Who Market Local Food Feel More Responsible for Their Communities?

Do farmers who participate in local food systems attach greater importance to civic engagement than farmers whose livelihood is not tied to the vitality of local markets? The literature on local food as a social movement continues to paint a picture of local food systems as contributing to, and benefiting from, rich networks of civil society groups. Yet to date, few studies have directly addressed the question of whether marketing local food is actually associated with higher levels of civic engagement among farmers. In this paper, I draw on local capitalism theory to identify two different mechanisms—depth of economic reliance on local markets, and breadth of social networks related to local food sales—that might spur farmers who market local food to feel more responsible for their communities. Then, using data from a large-scale survey of specialty crop growers, I explore whether a relationship exists between farmer involvement with local food markets and attitudes toward civic engagement. Results suggest that while farmers strongly committed to local food markets attach greater importance to civic engagement, participation in multiple categories or kinds of local food supply chains is not necessarily associated with stronger civic values.     

Norwegian salmon goes to market: The case of the Austevoll seafood cluster

This paper examines the impact of the globalisation of the farmed salmon commodity chain upon farmed salmon production in the western Norwegian municipality of Austevoll. On the basis of field research conducted in 2002 and 2003, we conclude that salmon farming in Austevoll has responded to the challenges of ‘buyer-driven’ food chains by virtue of its history as a seafood cluster. Despite the vertical relations assumed in the literature on ‘buyer-driven’ food chains, the horizontal relations in Austevoll have proven resilient in this era of ‘homogenised globalisation’. Nevertheless, recent changes in the global farmed salmon supply chain may result in the imposition of vertical relations in the Austevoll cluster. We conclude with suggestions for incorporating the literatures on global food chains and industrial clusters in the study of seafood production and global markets.     

Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market

Direct agricultural markets, predicated on face-to-face ties between producers and consumers, are often seen as central components of local food systems. Activists and academic analysts often assume that trust and social connection characterize direct agricultural markets, distinguishing local food systems from the “global food system”. This article examines that premise about direct agricultural markets, using the concept of social embeddedness from economic sociology to analyze the interplay of the economic and the social. Specifically, it draws on Block's (1990) elaboration of the concepts of marketness and instrumentalism to qualify the concept of social embeddedness. Taken together, and augmented by consideration of how they relate to power and privilege, these concepts provide an analytical framework that more accurately describes the social relations of two types of direct agricultural markets — the farmers’ market and community supported agriculture. In providing an alternative market, farmers’ markets create a context for closer social ties between farmers and consumers, but remain fundamentally rooted in commodity relations. In attempting to construct an alternative to the market, as reflected in an explicit emphasis on community and in the distinctive “share” relationship, community supported agriculture moves closer towards the decommodification of food. Nonetheless, in both types of direct markets, tensions between embeddedness, on the one hand, and marketness and instrumentalism, on the other, suggest how power and privilege may sometimes rest more with educated, middle-class consumers than with farmers or less-advantaged consumers. Recognizing how marketness and instrumentalism complicate social embeddedness is critical for understanding the viability, development and prospects of local food systems.     

Big Food,Nutritionism, and Corporate Power

Big Food corporations have capitalized on nutritionism—the reduction of food’s nutritional value to its individual nutrients—as a means by which to enhance their power and position in global processed and packaged food markets. Drawing on the literatures on nutrition and corporate power, we show that Big Food companies have used nutritional positioning to bolster their power and influence in the sector. Through lobbying and participation in nutritionally focused public–private partnerships, they have directly sought to influence policy and governance. Through market dominance in the nutritionally enhanced foods sector, and participation in nutrition-focused rule-setting activities in agrifood supply chains, they have gained power to influence policy agendas. And they have used public outreach and the media to present their views on the nutritional aspects of their products, which shapes public perceptions and the broader regulatory environment. Together, these strategies have enhanced the power of Big Food firms to influence policies in the food sector.     

Understanding and (dis)trusting food assurance schemes: Consumer confidence and the ‘knowledge fix’

This paper uses evidence from focus groups with consumers in England to consider how consumers understand and evaluate a range of proxies or intermediary organisations that offer assurance about food and consumer products, particularly voluntary certification schemes. This addresses the current concern in developed economies about providing information in order to reconnect consumers with food producers and to support moves towards more local, fairly traded and sustainable production. However, we show that such a ‘knowledge fix’ approach of providing information may not reconnect consumers so easily. Participants found it particularly difficult to work out what certification involved and what kinds of organisations were providing assurance. They built vernacular typologies and comparative judgements that did not necessarily identify or prioritise ‘independent’ third-party certification as the gold standard, not least because of the practical difficulties of monitoring complex supply chains, and expressed confusion and scepticism about how well food assurance schemes could work in practice. Our results therefore problematise the knowledge fix urged in the literature and emphasise instead the need to better understand how consumers make sense of assurance information in different contexts.     

Individual consumer food localism: A review anchored in Canadian farmwomen’s reflections

Local food movements have emerged in many parts of Canada to support local farmers, sustain the regional food supply, encourage the consumption of healthier foods, and address environmental concerns associated with conventional agriculture. The implementation of food localism to date, however, has remained primarily the responsibility of consumers. This paper seeks to examine the practical realities of individual consumer localism in order to understand how food localism operates at the household level. Local food scholarship and empirical data from a recent study of Canadian farmwomen’s food provisioning practices are used to assess the feasibility and implications of buy local and eat local messages for consumers. In particular, physical access to local food markets, financial constraints to buying local and food self-provisioning, and (gendered) labor requirements are examined in detail. Findings suggest that encouragement by local food advocates to ‘buy local’ and ‘grow food’ are not simple transactions for households; rather, such practices must be considered within the broader food provisioning context and the structural constraints therein. Although well-intentioned, these urgings delegitimize real constraints that exist for many individuals and households, in particular those outside of well-serviced urban areas, those who are food insecure, and those without the necessary resources (time, labor, skill, and expertise) to engage in local food provisioning. The ability of consumers to engage in individual localism will be limited as long as the broader context in which food provisioning activities are undertaken is ignored.     

Policy Sequencing and the Development of Rice Value Chains in Senegal

In response to the world food crisis in 2008, Senegal developed a productivist national food self‐sufficiency programme. However, the critical question is not whether the programme can meet its ambitious target of self‐sufficiency in rice production by 2015, but, if it does, how will domestic rice reach urban markets, where consumers generally prefer imported rice for its superior grain quality. Information collected through interviews and a stakeholder workshop advances the argument that policy sequencing will be crucial in order to upgrade Senegalese rice value chains progressively. Any large‐scale investments in productivity will need to be preceded by investments in post‐harvest grain‐quality infrastructure before sector‐wide marketing strategies can be adopted that enhance the chain competitiveness of domestic relative to imported rice.     

Squaring Farm Security and Food Security in Two Types of Alternative Food Institutions*

Abstract Even though both farmers' markets and community supported agriculture were first developed to provide markets for farmers, recently the goals of food security have been attached to these market‐based alternative food institutions, based on their potential to be 'win‐win” economic solutions for both small‐scale farmers and low‐income consumers. This article reports on survey and interview research conducted in California during 2004–2005 designed to examine to what extent CSAs and farmers' markets are addressing food security in both concept and practice. Findings show that managers of these institutions generally support the idea of improving the affordability of the food they provide, and most have made an effort to do so, although these efforts vary with institutional capacity. Still, some hedged their interest in supporting food security goals with countervailing concerns such as the need to support farmers first. It is ironic, then, that the way that private CSAs and farmers' markets achieve some elements of food security is by virtue of the support of public food assistance programs.     

New rural territories: Regulating the differentiated rural spaces

Taking the differentiating countryside as a major feature of rural spatial change, this paper explores some of the key development spheres which are influencing the process of differentiation with reference to the British case. Combinations of local and non-local networks, supply chains and regulatory systems incorporate different rural spaces. Four particular development spheres: mass food markets, quality food markets, agriculturally related changes and rural restructuring implicate, in their different combinations, the different rural spaces. This analytical framework raises some important concerns for the governance of differentiating rural space in its regional context. In particular, it suggests that notions of integration and holism of rural spaces will be difficult to achieve; and that governance and regulation becomes highly variable according to the relative significance of local/non-local networks. In conclusion, the implications of the analysis are examined in relation to the growing rural development policy discourse. This suggests the need for more regionally and spatially orientated policy which is more customized to the internal and external conditions different regional-rural spaces experience.     

Bread in the Economy of Qualities: The Creative Reconstitution of the Canada‐UK Commodity Chain for Wheat

This article traces the creative reconstitution of the Canada‐UK wheat‐bread commodity chain since the 1990s. In the mid‐1990s, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and a British bakery, Warburtons, pioneered an innovative identity‐preserved sourcing relationship that ties contracted prairie wheat growers to consumers of premium bread in the United Kingdom. The CWB‐Warburtons contract is emblematic of the increasing importance of quality claims, traceability, and private standards in the reorganization of agrifood supply chains. Yet the case is unique in two important ways. First, in the context of supermarket leadership in the coordination of quality chains, the program was established by two unlikely actors—a state marketing agency and a branded food manufacturer. Second, the quality chain centers on a semifresh, manufactured food staple (bread), whereas most quality chains are organized around fresh produce, meat, and dairy products. The CWB‐Warburtons story thus provides evidence of diversity and complexity in the shift toward the supermarket‐driven “economy of qualities.” I interpret these changes by locating them in broader processes of historical change. Led by the CWB and Warburtons, the shift toward quality in commodity chains for wheat bread is reconfiguring relations among key social actors in the prairie wheat economy as well as the UK bread market.     

Pockets of opportunity: multicultural marketing strategies for BEP growth

Ranked among the 50 largest food service corporations in America, the Randolph-Sheppard Business Enterprise Program (BEP) represents a challenging and rewarding career opportunity for Americans who are legally blind. In recent years, however, the number of facilities and facility managers has declined. Multicultural consumers represent a major emerging growth market. The multicultural market is one of the most overlooked retail markets in the United States--and the one with the most buying power and growth potential. Multicultural marketing is among the least understood strategies available to facility managers, vocational rehabilitation counselors and BEP directors. Four major minority markets are discussed and marketing strategies are offered to help BEPs target and serve these unique consumers.     

Institutions and Policies for Pro‐poor Agricultural Growth

Global experience with pro‐poor growth and empirical work spanning India, Malawi and Zimbabwe demonstrates the importance of agricultural growth for poverty reduction in poor rural areas, while also pointing to the need for complementary non‐farm sector growth. Theoretical arguments, historical evidence and livelihoods modelling in poor medium‐potential rural economies suggest that, contrary to thinking dominating much of current development policy, subsidies to relieve critical seasonal credit and cash restraints and reduce market and input supply uncertainties need to help in ‘kick‐starting’ agricultural markets if increased smallholder productivity in food‐grains is to drive rural non‐farm growth. Establishing the base conditions for these to work, designing and implementing them to be effective, and then phasing them out are major challenges facing policymakers.     

Innovations to Make Markets More Inclusive for the Poor

Market failures, government failures and some of the characteristics of both the poor and business actors as well as their environment can act as barriers preventing the poor from participating more actively in markets, both as consumers and as producers. Private actors ‐ including for‐profit and not‐for‐profit entities, often in partnership with the public sector ‐ have been able to mitigate some of these constraints through innovations that have helped to make markets more inclusive for the poor, enabling them not just to gain access, but also to participate in ways that enhance their economic empowerment and human development. This article identifies the strategies and innovations used and devises a possible typology for them.     

Getting Real About Food Prices

The 2008 spike in world grain prices is widely recognised to have had serious impacts on food security and poverty, but these high grain prices are commonly described as low in historical terms – an inconsistency resulting from the use of advanced‐ and global‐economy price indices in calculating real prices. This ignores the high share of food in poor people's expenditures and the indirect effects of income growth on expenditure patterns of rich consumers. Poor consumers have not experienced the same falls in real food prices and are more vulnerable to price shocks. Different price indices must be developed to take account of differences between consumer groups.     

Modern Food Supply Chains and Development: Evidence from Horticulture Export Sectors in Sub‐Saharan Africa

The global food system is undergoing rapid processes of transformation and modernisation. This is causing important changes in developing‐country food supply chains, particularly in supermarket‐driven and high‐value export chains, but the welfare implications of these changes are poorly understood. This article analyses and compares the welfare effects in different horticulture export chains in sub‐Saharan Africa, disentangling different types of effects and the channels through which rural households are affected. Its main conclusion is that increased high‐value exports and the modernisation of export supply chains can bring about important positive welfare effects, which can occur in various ways through product‐ or labour‐market effects and through direct and indirect effects.     

Reflexive Accumulation and Global Restructuring: Retailers and Cultural Processes in the Australian Poultry Industry1

Abstract Chicken consumption in Australia resembles that in the U.S., but a comparison of the restructuring of poultry production in both countries shows some significant differences. This finding raises the question of what lies behind the emergence of similar consumption norms when consumption is often explained in terms of production regimes. The article explores the success of Australian producers in rejecting global free trade pressures while acquiescing to supply chain arrangements introduced by supermarkets. It describes how Australian producers have benefitted from two cultural phenomena: the arrival of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a dietary low fat regimen. It argues that an internationalized food service sector—including supermarket and fast-food chains—and western dietary advice are responsible for chicken's popularity in Australia. The theory of reflexive accumulation is used to explain the power of retailers and cultural producers in a food system increasingly dominated by “high value foods.” Further, reflexive accumulation can help to explain both the present restructuring of the Australian poultry complex and the unevenness of agri-food restructuring in general.     

Black–White Earnings Gap among Restaurant Servers: A Replication,Extension, and Exploration of Consumer Racial Discrimination in Tipping

There is a rich history of social science research centering on racial inequalities that continue to be observed across various markets (e.g., labor, housing, and credit markets) and social milieus. Existing research on racial discrimination in consumer markets is, however, relatively scarce and that which has been done has disproportionately focused on consumers as the victims of race‐based mistreatment. As such, we know relatively little about how consumers contribute to inequalities in their roles as perpetrators of racial discrimination. In response, in this article, we elaborate on a line of research that is only in its infancy stages of development and yet is ripe with opportunities to advance the literature on consumer racial discrimination and racial earnings inequities among tip‐dependent employees in the United States. Specifically, we analyze data derived from an exit survey of restaurant consumers (N = 394) in an attempt to replicate, extend, and further explore the recently documented effect of service providers’ race on restaurant consumers’ tipping decisions. Our results indicate that both white and black restaurant customers discriminate against black servers by tipping them less than their white co‐workers. Importantly, we find no evidence that this black tip penalty is the result of inter‐racial differences in service skills possessed by black and white servers. We conclude by delineating directions for future research in this neglected but salient area of study.