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Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2022

Chika Kondo and Atsushi Suzuki

This chapter provides insights into the distribution challenges faced by alternative food networks (AFNs) in Japan. Consumers in Japan are showing increasing interest in…

Abstract

This chapter provides insights into the distribution challenges faced by alternative food networks (AFNs) in Japan. Consumers in Japan are showing increasing interest in supporting and buying directly from farmers, reflecting a growing demand for local food production and consumption. This trend parallels the increasing popularity of AFNs which are often touted as distribution models that seek to reconfigure the relationship between producers and consumers. Although AFNs are defined as a bottom-up response to the unsustainable nature of the industrial food system and the exploitative trade relations that are embedded within global food supply chains, there is little in the literature regarding challenges that emerge when scaling AFNs. This chapter focuses on the distribution challenges that emerge for AFN models that exist outside of direct market transactions, by comparing AFN models in Japan with a local wholesale market system that exists within the conventional, mainstream food system. Based on an analysis of the nuances and complexities that AFNs face in coordinating aggregation and distribution, we argue that the promotion of local food systems can also benefit existing conventional food systems, by leveraging the infrastructure of local wholesale markets. The distribution logistics and fundamentals of parity pricing from the wholesale market system would enable AFNs in Japan to establish a more accessible and sustainable food system. Using four case studies, including a local wholesale-market and three AFN models that distribute agricultural products from rural to rural, and rural to urban areas located in the Kansai region of Japan, we deepen the discussion of how small-scale farmers and their involvement in AFNs can better support sustainable food system transformation.

Details

How Alternative is Alternative? The Role of Entrepreneurial Development, Form, and Function in the Emergence of Alternative Marketscapes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-773-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 April 2020

Paola De Bernardi, Alberto Bertello, Francesco Venuti and Enrico Foscolo

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have recently emerged in the food landscape as new ways of food production, distribution and consumption which are alternatives to the traditional…

Abstract

Purpose

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have recently emerged in the food landscape as new ways of food production, distribution and consumption which are alternatives to the traditional food system. Drawing on the tragedy of the commons, this paper aims to test the role played by social capital and transparency in reducing customer's lethargy and thus enhancing AFN performance in terms of frequency and quantity of purchases made by customers.

Design/methodology/approach

An ordered probit model was used to analyse data from a strong database of 2,115 Italian AFN customers. Given the novelty of the topic, the quantitative survey was anticipated by a preliminary qualitative study based on in-depth interviews, focus groups and participant observation.

Findings

Customers play an active role in AFN communities, co-creating value together with the other actors of the network. The two independent variables tested in this model, social capital and transparency, positively and significantly affect customers' quantity and frequency of purchases within AFNs, reducing the occurrence of the tragedy of commons.

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge, this study represents one of the first attempts to measure, through a quantitative method, the effect of performance drivers (i.e. social capital and transparency) on AFN performance. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications will be thoroughly presented and discussed along the paper.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 122 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 July 2019

Luigi Mastronardi, Luca Romagnoli, Giampiero Mazzocchi, Vincenzo Giaccio and Davide Marino

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships in alternative food networks (AFNs) between the purchase of food, the motivations of consumers and their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships in alternative food networks (AFNs) between the purchase of food, the motivations of consumers and their socio-demographic profiles.

Design/methodology/approach

The study includes a total sample of 1,200 individual questionnaires, administered to the customers of 34 AFNs in different urban areas. The methodology employed is multilevel regression analysis, which is useful for dealing with data with a nested structure.

Findings

The results allowed us to depict some findings: the most important motivations in purchasing decisions are the perceived quality as well as comfort with the location of the markets, shopping experience, variety of offered products and delivery methods. Other interesting results relate to the presence of children in the families and the role of women in the choice of quality food.

Practical implications

The observations could represent a basis for thinking about how to improve consumers’ behaviour and, at the same time, try to remove the obstacles to a greater recognition of the importance of AFNs by consumers.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the debate on food policies. Indeed, the integration of the results into food policies could help to intercept the consumers’ trends and promote a transition of the food system towards a path of sustainability, in which the AFNs are the organisational expression of a change that concerns a wide geography and a large number of social and economic actors.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 121 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 July 2023

Birgit Teufer, Martin K.J. Waiguny and Sonja Grabner-Kräuter

Sustainability labels play a crucial role in providing consumers with quick and easily accessible information to assess the environmental, social and economic impacts of products…

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Abstract

Purpose

Sustainability labels play a crucial role in providing consumers with quick and easily accessible information to assess the environmental, social and economic impacts of products. This research examines how different sustainability labels influence consumer perceptions and assessments of alternative food networks (AFNs).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted three cross-sectional studies to explore consumer perceptions of sustainability labels for AFNs. The authors tested labels representing the three sustainability dimensions, labels of different graphical quality and different awarding bodies.

Findings

Consumers did not differentiate between sustainability dimensions but assessed labels in a holistic manner. The overall rating of a label positively influenced perceived sustainability. Self-designed and professionally designed labels had a positive effect on the intention to buy from an AFN. Professionally designed labels also enhanced the perceived authenticity of the networks. Notably, the source of the label, whether self-awarded or awarded by an official body, did not significantly impact consumer perceptions. However, interaction effects revealed professionally designed labels had a stronger positive effect on purchase intention when they were self-awarded.

Practical implications

AFNs can derive benefits from using labels. Self-organized, non-profit AFNs are well advised to have labels professionally designed.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the understanding of the effects of sustainability labels for community-based AFNs, diverging from the traditional focus on individual products.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 December 2020

Beyza Oba and Zeynep Ozsoy

This paper aims to study how activists involved in consumer-initiated cooperatives, in a specific context, challenge the practices of the neoliberal system and develop…

1957

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study how activists involved in consumer-initiated cooperatives, in a specific context, challenge the practices of the neoliberal system and develop counter-practices that are ingrained with their values. It aims to access the transformative capacity and inclusiveness of consumer-initiated cooperatives and the role played by prefigurative practices in changing the status quo. Three practices – defetishization of agricultural commodities, surplus generation and distribution, prefiguration – that enable the inclusion of those groups who are marginalized in the food production and consumption nexus by neoliberal policies are identified.

Design/methodology/approach

The findings of this paper were developed from 23 unstructured interviews, participant observation and analysis of the social media accounts of five consumer-initiated cooperatives located in different districts of Istanbul and which are involved in a collective response to the neoliberal policies.

Findings

The study discusses that, in a specific context, political events and economic policies can be a catalyst for the initiation of alternative consumer-initiated cooperatives. The findings indicate that these organizations can develop and articulate prefigurative practices that are influential in transforming the prevailing capitalist food provisioning system to be more inclusive.

Research limitations/implications

The findings offer an alternative view to the dominant capitalist logic and advance the concept of how the economic sphere can be re-politicized and how the persevering notion of financial performance is resolved by invoking values of inclusion, solidarity, responsibility and sharing. The findings are based on the study of five cases in a specific context during a specific period.

Originality/value

This paper focuses on cooperatives owned and governed by activist consumers and presents results concerning their underlying practices for creating a food provisioning system that is inclusive and aiming for social justice and equality. Similarly, it provides evidence of how local political and economic conditions influence the appropriation and development of these practices – commodity defetishization, surplus distribution and prefiguration.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 January 2024

Jasmine Elizabeth Black, Damian Maye, Anna Krzywoszynska and Stephen Jones

This paper examines how key actors in the UK food system (FS) understand the role of the local food sector in relation to FS resilience.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines how key actors in the UK food system (FS) understand the role of the local food sector in relation to FS resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Discourse analysis was used to assess and compare the framings of the UK FS in 36 publications released during Covid-19 from alternative food networks (AFNs) actors and from other more mainstream FS actors, including the UK government.

Findings

The analysis shows that AFNs actors perceive the UK FS as not resilient and identify local FSs as a route towards greater resilience (“systemic” framing). In contrast, other food actors perceive the UK FS as already resilient, with the role of local food limited to specific functions within the existing system (“add-on” framing). The two groups converge on the importance of dynamic public procurement and local abattoir provision, but this convergence does not undermine the fundamental divergence in the understanding of the role of “the local” in resilient UK FSs. The local food sector’s messages appear to have gone largely unheard in mainstream policy.

Research limitations/implications

The paper presents an analysis of public sector reports focused on the UK FS released during the Covid-19 pandemic years 2020–2021. The corpus inclusion criteria mean that publications during this period which focus on other food sector issues, such social injustices, climate change and health, were not included in the analysis, although they may have touched upon local food issues. The authors further recognise that Covid-19 had a longer lasting effect on FSs than the years 2020–2021, and that many other publications on FSs have been published since. The time span chosen targets the time at which FSs were most disrupted and therefore aims to capture emerging issues and solutions for the UK FS. The authors’ insights should be further validated through a more complete review of both public reports and academic papers covering a wider base of food-related issues and sectors as well as a broader timespan.

Originality/value

A comparison of how different FS actors understand the importance of local food, especially in relation to resilience, has not been undertaken to date. The findings raise important questions about the disconnect between AFN actors and other actors in the framing of resilience. Considering the need to ensure resilience of the UK FS, this study's findings raise important insights for UK food policy about the “local food blindspot” and for food movement actors wishing to progress their vision of transformative change.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 August 2018

Paola De Bernardi and Lia Tirabeni

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a sustainable business model (SBM) implemented by an Alternative Food Network (AFN), namely the Italian Food Assembly, with the goal of…

1621

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a sustainable business model (SBM) implemented by an Alternative Food Network (AFN), namely the Italian Food Assembly, with the goal of exploring its drivers of success and explaining how it can contribute to enhance sustainable and anti-consumption behaviours. This research aims at combining principles from both SBM innovation and user-driven anti-consumption and well-being habits, in order to develop more successful, comprehensive and community-centred sustainable value propositions.

Design/methodology/approach

Given the research goal, an exploratory case study was prepared where multiple sources of data were employed, namely in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups and document analysis.

Findings

In the light of the Bocken et al. (2014) framework, this paper provides evidence on the implementation of an AFN where it is possible to observe a strong sharing of knowledge regarding sustainable consumption behaviours and an effective dissemination of best practices between members. The authors developed four propositions that support the creation of a sustainable food supply chain, laying the foundation for spreading consumer behaviours and motivations so that they become more sustainable in their consumption habits.

Research limitations/implications

Even though the case study is very rich in the amount of data gathered, it cannot be generalised. Further research will overcome this limitation by adding more cases within a comparative approach and through a quantitative methodology.

Originality/value

It adds value to recent literature and practice by focussing on how networks of producers, consumers and other actors could act to improve food anti-consumption behaviours, by embodying alternatives to conventional food systems.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 120 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2014

Patrick H. Mooney, Keiko Tanaka and Gabriele Ciciurkaite

This chapter seeks to address questions related to the convergence among alternative agrifood movements as well as the convergence between alternative and conventional practices…

Abstract

This chapter seeks to address questions related to the convergence among alternative agrifood movements as well as the convergence between alternative and conventional practices with a focus on local movements. We reconstruct the common conflation of the alternative/conventional binary into a multidimensional measure that recognizes the complex interactions of economic, political, social, and cultural elements in the construction of convention, alterity, and opposition. We also consider several forms of possible convergence: multi-organizational, multi-sectoral (among elements of the agrifood system), multidimensional (among political, economic, cultural, and social practices), and multilevel or scale (hierarchy of spatially embedded governance units). These matters are empirically examined by focusing on the rapidly growing Food Policy Council (FPC) movement in North America. We address the question of this movement’s diffusion, consider its variable linkages between state and civil society, and examine the substantive practices and framings in which the movement has been engaged. While we find that most FPC practices are probably vulnerable to conventionalization, the movement’s most valuable function may be its modular form. That form functions as an incubator of multi-organizational and multi-sectoral experimental practices in a multiplicity of local environments. Further, ties between FPCs provide a networking mechanism for transmitting information about the successes and failures of those experiments among hundreds of locales and regions. Finally, the discourse among the FPC leadership amplifies values favoring the democratization of food, and articulates beliefs in the right to food as well as notions of food citizenship and sovereignty.

Details

Alternative Agrifood Movements: Patterns of Convergence and Divergence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-089-6

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2019

Sttefanie Yenitza Escobar-López, Angélica Espinoza-Ortega, Carmen Lozano-Cabedo, Encarnación Aguilar-Criado and Santiago Amaya-Corchuelo

The purpose of this paper is to identify the motivations to consume ecological foods in alternative food networks (AFNs).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the motivations to consume ecological foods in alternative food networks (AFNs).

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 150 questionnaires were applied; the questionnaire was adapted from Food Choice Questionnaire (Steptoe et al., 1995). Data were analyzed by means of multivariate statistics with factor and cluster analysis. In order to identify statistical differences (p<0.05), Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney nonparametric tests were performed.

Findings

Ten factors or motivations were found: social ecological concern, nutritional content, sensory aspects, certifications, naturalness, specialized consumption, trust in the seller, economic aspects, health and availability. Four groups were obtained and called: citizen consumers, in-process citizen consumers, conscious social consumers with no interest in certifications and conscious pragmatic consumers. It is concluded that differentiated consumers visit these establishments and their motivations are diverse, albeit they concur, to a varying extent, with the objectives of AFNs, finding a mixture of hedonic and ethical motivations.

Practical implications

This sort of works about specific places of consumption as well as specific consumers, in this case ecological, contributes to the development of future social research on other contexts, different consumers and products.

Originality/value

This sort of research has been carried out in various European cities, with a number of foods and over various sales channels; however, at present there is a debate around AFNs and the veracity of their goals. This way, the present work can contribute with an answer to whether the goals match the motivations of consumers.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 121 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 March 2022

Judith Möllers, Theresa Bäuml and Thomas Dufhues

Ethical consumption is on the rise amidst concerns about the environmental and health impacts of industrial agriculture. In light of increasingly complex food choices, alternative

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Abstract

Purpose

Ethical consumption is on the rise amidst concerns about the environmental and health impacts of industrial agriculture. In light of increasingly complex food choices, alternative food networks have emerged. However, their success depends on a deeper understanding of the product attributes that guide (ethical) consumer decisions. This study focuses on the preferences of consumers when choosing and buying fresh vegetables in Romania.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a discrete choice experiment to determine how consumers make trade-offs across a set of product attributes, such as local origin and production method.

Findings

The study analysis sheds light on the importance of food attributes relevant to ethical consumers. The main barrier to making an ethically driven choice is convenience. While local production remains of lower importance than the production method, the authors show that the Romanian consumers surveyed strongly prefer non-certified “traditional” vegetables over certified organic products.

Originality/value

This study is pioneering with a state-of-the-art discrete choice setting looking at a set of product attributes that reflect the demand of ethical consumers in an understudied transitional context. The authors go beyond the current debate on the trade-off between organic vs local food labels by introducing traditional small-scale production as a separate attribute level. The food attribute preferences of different consumer segments and a market simulation offer relevant insights how to market fresh vegetables to health- and environmentally-conscious urban people.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 124 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

1 – 10 of 60