Alternative Food Networks: Knowledge, Practice, and Politics

321 Pages·2011·2.36 MB·English

by  David Goodman

Alternative Food Networks
Knowledge, practice, and politics
David Goodman, E. Melanie DuPuis,
and Michael K. Goodman
Alternative Food Networks
Farmers’ markets, veggie boxes, local foods, organic products, and Fair Trade
goods – how have these once novel, “alt ern ative” foods and the people and net-
works supporting them become increasingly familiar features of every day con-
sumption? Are the visions of “alt ern ative worlds” built on ethics of
sustain ability, social justice, animal wel fare, and the esthetic values of local food
cultures and traditional crafts still credi ble now that these foods crowd super-
market shelves and other “mainstream” shopping outlets?
This timely book provides a criti cal review of the growth of alt ern ative food
networks and their struggle to defend their ethical and esthetic values against the
stand ardizing pressures of the corporate mainstream with its “placeless and
nameless” global supply networks. It ex plores how these alt ern ative movements
are “making a dif fer ence” and their pos sible role as fears of global climate
change and food in sec ur ity intensify. It assesses the different positions around
these networks from three major arenas of food activism and pol itics: the UK
and Western Europe, the USA, and the global Fair Trade eco nomy. This com-
parative per spect ive runs throughout the book to fully ex plore the pro gressive
erosion of the interface between alt ern ative and mainstream food pro vi sioning.
As the era of “cheap food” draws to a close, ana lysis of the limi ta tions of
market-b ased social change and the future of alt ern ative food eco nom ies and
localist food poli tics place this book at the cutting edge of the field.
The book is thoroughly informed by cont empor ary social theory and interdis-
ciplinary social sci ent ific scholarship, formulating an orig inal integ rat ive frame-
work to understand alt ern ative food production–consumption and offers a unique
geographical reach in its case studies.
David Goodman is Visiting Professor, De part ment of Geo graphy, King’s
College London, UK, and Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa
Cruz, USA.
E. Melanie DuPuis is Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa
Cruz, USA.
Michael K. Goodman is a Senior Lecturer in Geo graphy at King’s College
London, UK.

Alternative Food Networks
Knowledge, practice, and politics
David Goodman, E. Melanie DuPuis,
and Michael K. Goodman
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 David Goodman, E. Melanie DuPuis and Michael K. Goodman
The right of David Goodman, E. Melanie DuPuis and Michael K.
Goodman to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by
them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Goodman, David, 1938–
Alternative food networks : knowledge, place and politics / David
Goodman, E. Melanie DuPuis, and Michael K. Goodman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Food industry and trade. 2. Food industry and trade–Moral and
ethical aspects. 3. Food supply–Moral and ethical aspects. 4.
Consumption (Economics). I. DuPuis, E. Melanie (Erna Melanie),
1957– II. Goodman, Michael K., 1969– III. Title.
HD9000.5.G658 2011
381'.41–dc22
2011009477
ISBN: 978-0-415-67146-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-80452-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
We dedicate this book to the memory of
Fred Buttel, Tom Lyson, and Jon Murdoch

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of abbreviations xi
PART I 1
Alternative food networks: reflexivity and shared
knowledge practice
1 Introducing alternative food networks, fair trade circuits
and the politics of food 3
2 Coming home to eat? Reflexive localism and just food 11
3 Bridging production and consumption: alternative food
networks as shared knowledge practice 33
PART II
Alternative food provisioning in the UK and Western
Europe: introduction and antecedents 55
4 Rural Europe redux? The new territoriality and rural
development 65
5 Into the mainstream: the politics of quality 85
6 Changing paradigms? Food security debates and
grassroots food re- localization movements in the UK and
Western Europe 105
viii Contents
PART III
Alternative food movements in the USA: formative years,
mainstreaming, civic governance, and knowing
sustainability 129
7 Broken promises? US alternative food movements,
origins, and debates 131
8 Resisting mainstreaming, maintaining alterity 155
9 Sustainable agriculture as knowing and growing 174
PART IV
Globalizing alternative food movements: the cultural
material politics of fair trade 195
10 The shifting cultural politics of fair trade: from transparent
to virtual livelihoods 203
11 The price and practices of quality: the shifting
materialities of fair trade networks 222
12 The practices and politics of a globalized AFN: whither
the possibilities and problematics of fair trade? 234
13 Concluding thoughts 245
Notes 250
References 259
Index 298
Acknowledgments
This book has its origins in the informal debates and work- in-pro gress sessions
of the Agro- Food Studies Research Group (AFSRG) at the University of Cali-
fornia, Santa Cruz. Since disbanded, the AFSRG provided one of those moments
rarely and fleetingly encountered in acad emic life: a group of colleagues com-
mitted to open, at times fierce, debate in an envir on ment of trust. We are grateful
to all who locked horns in those meetings, part icu larly Patricia Allen, Margaret
FitzSimmons, Bill Friedland, Sean Gillon, Julie Guthman, Jill Harrison, Philip
Howard, Katie Monsen, Amy Morris, Dustin Mulvaney, Jan Perez, Tara Pisani-
Gareau, Tim Vos, and Keith Warner. Themes and ideas that first emerged in
AFSRG sessions and subsequently published in acad emic journals are further
elaborated in the main sections of the book. More conventionally, we have all
bene fited from a wider “in vis ible college” of scholars who came forward to help
us in the course of our research and writing.
David would like to thank Henry Buller, Maria Fonte, Clare Hinrichs, Philip
Howard, Moya Kneafsey, Kevin Morgan, Dustin Mulvaney, Michael Redclift,
Matthew Reed, Roberta Sassatelli, and Angela Tregear for their advice and help
in tracking down research papers. Thanks also to Pierre Stassart for his invita-
tion to attend two stimulating workshops on the Arlon campus of the University
of Liege and the opport un ity to meet Euro pean scholars working on alt ern ative
food systems and related topics. David is part icu larly grateful to Dan Keech,
Tim Lang, and John Wilkinson for their valua ble suggestions and fresh pers pect-
ives.
Melanie presented draft chapters in various aca demic venues, including
CSPACE at the University of Otago, the Dep art ment of Geo graphy at the Uni-
versity of Arizona, the Mellon gradua te workshop in Food Studies at Brown
University, and the Enviro n mental Pol itics Colloquium at UC Berkeley. She
would like to thank all those who invited her to share this work in these con texts,
including Hugh Campbell, Nancy Campbell, and Heather Lee. Melanie is par-
ticu larly grateful to J. P. Jones and Sally Marston at the University of Arizona,
who spent a whole morning arguing against her ideas of bound ar ies and scale
and helped her to reach a better understanding of how al tern ative eco nom ies get
made. Finally, she wishes to thank Carl Pechman and Christine Williams for
reading and commenting on various draft chapters.