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Supply chain, power relationships and local food
systems Preliminary results from an ongoing
research Institutional architectures for
sustainable food systems (Keywords
globalization, sustainability, local food
systems, participatory democracy ) Valeria
Sodano Department of Agricultural Economics,
University of Naples Federico II
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The main issue
Sustainability is defined with respsect to
cociety, economy, environment
Globalization is jeopardizing sustainability of
the food system . During the last twenty years
public intervention have been undermined in every
field of economic and social organization because
of TNCs and international bodies such as the WTO
imposing their neoliberal trade agenda
Food local systems are a kind of organizational
form able to promote sustainability when state
intervention is no longer able to accomplish the
task of correcting the different forms of market
failures that contrast sustainability
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Local food systems definitions A food system
comprises the interdependent and linked
activities that result in the production and
exchange of food. A food system is local when
it allows farmers, food producers and their
customers to somehow interact face-to-face at
point of purchase. Consumers are linked to
producers by bonds of community as well as
economy.
Community Food Systems (Gillespie, A. and
Gillespie, G. 2000. Community Food Systems
Toward a Common Language for Building Productive
Partnerships. Cornell Cooperative Extension) A
community food system is a food system in which
food production, processing, distribution and
consumption are integrated to enhance the
environmental, economic, social and nutritional
health of a particular place.
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Sustainability of food systems is a wide concept
when assuming the principle of food for
community instead of food as commodity (IIED,
2006).
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Food for community Food as commodity
Food is a basic human need and right Food is a commodity
Farming connects people to the land Farming like factory operations
Positive externalities (Farming providing environmental and social benefits, gain of social capital) Negative externalities (pesticides, soil erosion, declining of rural communities and local food traditions, loss of social capital)
Eating is an act of communion with the Earth Eating is an unconscious act aimed at refluing our bodies and is largely affected by compulsory nevrotic behaviors
Communities partecipate in making decisions about their food supply Large corporations control the food supply at rhe expense of communities
Food for community Food as commodity
Food is a basic human need and right Food is a commodity
Farming connects people to the land Farming like factory operations
Positive externalities (Farming providing environmental and social benefits, gain of social capital) Negative externalities (pesticides, soil erosion, declining of rural communities and local food traditions, loss of social capital)
Eating is an act of communion with the Earth Eating is an unconscious act aimed at refluing our bodies and is largely affected by compulsory nevrotic behaviors
Communities partecipate in making decisions about their food supply Large corporations control the food supply at the expense of communities
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A sustainable food system is one able to correct
market failures due to public goods, negative
externalities, and future generation issue.
When market fails , the process of resource
allocation needs to be performed by alternative
institutions, as for example power and
gift-relations (Sodano, 2006). Unfortunately
experimental behavioral economics has largely
demonstrated that gift relations based on
altruistic attitude are very rare in practice.
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- In the process of resource allocation, in the
economic field, goods are continually transferred
from an actor to another actor. - For perfect
private goods these transfers are regulated by
free voluntary market exchanges. - In the case
of public goods different form of regulation are
needed, these are basically rules relying on
power and on gift-relations (Consumer social
responsibility and corporate social
responsibility can be considered as special
cases of gift-relationships)
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As a consequence Sustainability of food systems
is more likely to be fostered by power (and thus
by politics) than by altruism (and thus by
ethics)
Power needs to be legitimated by the society,
hopefully in a democratic way. In the period
between the second world war and the eighties, in
Western Europe nation democratic states have
widely carried out policies aimed at correcting
market failures, and providing those basic goods
and services needed to assure life and human
rights to their citizens. During the last twenty
years the process of globalization has
dramatically undermined public intervention in
every field of economic and social organization
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Localization is about the process of restoring
public policies on the basis of a participatory
democracy, a democracy that involves popular
control and equality and ensures real
participation (not simply through elections) in
managing food, environment, health and all those
public goods that the private sector is not
able-willing to supply. Concluding Local food
systems can be considered as a form of economic
organization that solves the public goods
problem, stemming from the view of food for
community and not food as a commodity, through
participatory democracy.   All the following nine
options for localizing foods rely on some of
participation led by trust and solidarity.
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Nine options for localizing food (Prety J.
,2001) 1. Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA) The basic model is simple consumers pay
growers for a share of the total farm produce,
and growers provide a weekly share of food of a
guaranteed quality and quantity.  2. Box
Schemes In the UK, there are 20 large schemes and
another 280 small ones are supplying some 60,000
households weekly A central rationale for both
CSAs and box schemes is that they emphasise that
payment is not just for the food, but for
support of the farm as a whole.  3. Farmers
Groups Farmers can create new value in
agricultural systems working together in
groups.  4. Consumer Groups and
Cooperatives Direct links between consumers and
farmers have had spectacular success in Japan,
with the rapid growth of the consumer
co-operatives, sanchoku groups (direct from the
place of production) and teikei schemes (tie-up
or mutual compromise between consumers and
producers).  
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Nine options for localizing food (Prety J.
,2001) 5. Farmers Markets Sell your produce
directly to a consumer, and you get 80-90 of the
food pound instead of the paltry 8-10 through
normal marketing mechanisms. In the UK, there
were 200 established Farmers Markets trading on
some 3000 market days per year in early 2001.  6.
Community Gardens In developing countries,
100-200 million urban dwellers are now urban
farmers, providing food some for at some 700
million people.  7. Clear Labelling Eco-labels
They allow growers and processors to be rewarded
for using environmentally-friendly production
processes. They also permit consumers to express
their values whilst making purchases.  8. Food
Webs and Local Shops Small retailers, producers
and consumers creates a dense social network that
provides employment, good quality food and wider
social benefits.  9. Slow Food Systems Slow and
distinctive food, resonant of place and people.
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The benefits of local food systems -Food swaps
and food miles. Average meal travel in a local
food system 45 miles average meal travels in
the conventional food system 1500 miles. In the
US each item of food travels 2000 km from field
to plate. - More jobs and safer labor. -
Improving food sovreinty. - Improving food
security . - Strengthening culture and societal
activities. - Bioregionalism implying the
integration of human activities within
ecological limits.
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Threats to local food system Consolidate
corporate power Economic subsidies and
incentives that favor big business
Preemption (laws preventing local governments
from passing policies and initiatives that
regulate the food sector and the environment).
Free trade ( Legally binding international trade
agreements can remove a countrys ability to
restrict food imports for health, safety, or
environmental reasons). Health, safety and
environmental standards (when these are used by
big business to shape policy in its favor and
burden smaller business). Disinformation
(marketing campaigns portraying the global scale
food system as the key to economic prosperity).
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A case study the market for fresh produce in
Italy, traditional retailers and regional markets
vs large retailers  
In Italy the fresh produce market exhibits a
polarized structure, with the 70 of the market
dominated by few large chains of supermarkets and
the remaining part of the market covered by the
so-called traditional retailers, i.e. small
specialized retailers located in residential
areas and in the traditional food trade centers
of towns.
Strategies carried out towards customer and
suppliers by supermarkets do not promote
sustainability, being characterized by high
distance suppliers, standardized productions,
power relationships and technology-intensive
innovation policies
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On the contrary traditional retailers are
integrated in more sustainable local
production-consumption systems, characterized by
local small suppliers, high product variety,
trust-based relationships and innovation policies
aimed to restore traditional sustainable
production processes and food styles more than to
experiment new bio and nanotechnologies.
  Notwithstanding its high performance in term
of sustainability and consumer satisfaction, the
traditional sector is very likely to be forced to
exit the market in the next years, due to the
aggressive competitive behaviors of supermarkets
and to the lack of state intervention in the
field of environment protection
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One way for these regional markets to survive is
to turn themselves in real local food system,
where a deliberative process of communication
and participation among the different
stakeholders of the system might strengthen
producer-consumer relationships on the basis of a
shared preference for food for community
instead of food as commodity.   Only one in
five of the analyzed regional markets seems to
experiment such a metamorphosis. More
research effort on theoretical and empirical
ground is requested in order to assess the real
attitude of Italian food market towards
sustainable local food systems