Barriers to the Local Food Movement: Ontario’s Community Food Projects and the Capacity for Convergence
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First printed in Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. May 2013, Volume 18(Issue 5) pp. 592–605. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.788492 .
First printed in
Alternative Agrifood Movements: Patterns of Convergence and Divergence
ISBN: 978-1-78441-090-2, eISBN: 978-1-78441-089-6
Publication date: 3 December 2014
Abstract
This chapter explores the relationships between organisational type, rationales and the barriers that prevent community food projects from increasing the scale of their operations. From a broad survey of community food projects, organisations were divided according to their primary rationale (e.g. rural economic development and distribution), and then subdivided – by form – as a non-profit, private business, governmental agency or cooperative. Data from the interviews and surveys were coded using a qualitative grounded theory approach, to reveal the barriers experienced by each. Overall, access to long-term stable income is a recurrent theme across all types of projects. However, income sources dramatically change how these organisations prioritise barriers. Similarly, the organisation’s primary rationale and experiences influence the interpretation and approach to collaboration and education. Despite these differences, our results suggest a large degree of convergence that cuts across organisational forms and rationales, and offer a base for broader regional food system conversations.
Citation
Mount, P., Hazen, S., Holmes, S., Fraser, E., Winson, A., Knezevic, I., Nelson, E., Ohberg, L., Andrée, P. and Landman, K. (2014), "Barriers to the Local Food Movement: Ontario’s Community Food Projects and the Capacity for Convergence First printed in
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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