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Supermarkets governance of the agri-food supply chain: Is the corporate-environmental food regime evident in Australia?
Abstract
This article investigates the extent to which the purported greening of food retailing and consumption in Australia is consistent with the development of a corporate-environmental food regime. Recent developments in food regime theory, particularly the concept of an emerging third food regime (the so-called corporate-environmental food regime), provide a useful organizing framework for understanding recent agri-restructuring trends. We find that, while a globally based, third food regime is becoming more apparent, the attributes that relate to corporate retail-driven greening of the supply chain are less evident within Australias domestic market than in its EU counterparts. However, there is some evidence that Australias export market is subject to some degree of greening at a distance due to private regulations imposed by supermarkets overseas. We argue that while broader agri-restructuring trends may be evident at an international level, elements of greening specific to national contexts are important for determining the trajectory of any third food regime.
... There is an increased interest in the environmental and social sustainability of food production and consumption, particularly in wealthier parts of Europe (Smith et al. 2010). This interest has been taken up by the retail sector, and there are today a wide variety of 'sustainable' choices for consumers to make in European supermarkets (Burch et al. 2013;Chkanikova and Mont 2015;Freidberg 2014;Ponte and Cheyns 2013;Thompson and Lockie 2013). 1 Promoting 'sustainable' choices can be seen as a way for supermarkets to take some responsibility for the negative side-effects of today's food production and consumption. ...
... 1 Although consumer pressure has been pointed out as an important source for the increasing focus on 'sustainable food' in the retail sector (Smith et al. 2010), we do not include consumers in this study. There are two reasons for this. ...
... ICA, the Swedish food and multiple retailer, currently controls over 50% of the food retail market in Sweden (Brännström 2015). There is now talk of a third 'corporate-environmental food regime' (Friedmann 2005;Smith et al. 2010), of which Sweden clearly is part, where sustainability interests increasingly influence the food system and where food production is largely governed by the retail sector. Following the general trend in the sector (Freidberg 2014), ICA has increased its control over actors upstream. ...
Swedish beef and dairy farmers are currently facing a challenging financial situation. Simultaneously, beef farming contributes significant environmental impacts. To support farmers, actors from the whole value chain are now promoting Swedish beef as particularly ‘sustainable’. The paper draws on critical discourse analysis of interviews with and documents from the largest Swedish supermarket chain ICA, Swedish farmer organisations and farmers to study how ICA and farmers articulate sustainability and their responsibility for the same. Articulations are subsequently discussed in the light of actual environmental impacts of beef production and the distribution of power in the beef value chain. The findings suggest that negative environmental impacts and farmers’ struggles are largely hidden in the dominant articulation of sustainability. Furthermore, ICA does not use the power it has to steer consumers toward reduced beef consumption. We conclude with suggesting more open deliberation about current levels of beef sales and consumption and about what compromises to make when striving for ‘sustainable’ beef consumption.
... These documents were published in a wide range of study disciplines, with the highest number relating to food policy or food systems (20/68) (10,15,21,25,58,60,61,(64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(73)(74)(75)83,(91)(92)(93)95). In addition, there were seven documents for each topic related to competition law (86,87,102-104,106,109), retailing (22,57,62,89,90,96,105) and governance (23,63,71,78,88,94,100); there were six sociology and political science studies (54)(55)(56)70,72,101); there were four for each topic related to business (59,(97)(98)(99), agriculture or agricultural economics (53,77,80,81) and public health (18,84,107,108); three documents were related to rural society or communities (3,52,76); there were two marketing studies (69,82); and there was one for each topic related to preventive medicine (34), international development (1), labour relations (85) and geography (79). ...
... The framework for conceptualizing corporate power in food governance (11) was referred to by nine studies (15,58,59,(62)(63)(64)74,76,94). In addition, food regimes theory (111) was referred to by five documents (53,54,61,80,95); and three documents referred to multiple frameworks or theories (55,60,71). Authority or trust was the focus of three documents (75,83,93); one document referred to 'Big Food', which describes dominant food businesses (92); two documents referred to an ecological framework of the influences on food choice (1,112); one referred to the process of supermarket domination or 'supermarketization' (3); one referred to global value chain analysis, which identifies how supply and demand can be influenced (66); one referred to the regulatory network analysis approach to policy analysis (72); one referred to corporate political activity (18); and one referred to systemic power or the power of one actor over the whole system of another actor (69). ...
... Food safety and quality Through implementing private quality standards, supermarkets have had positive effects on food safety and quality (15,22,23,53,(61)(62)(63)(64)66,71,81,82,94,95), resulting in a safe food supply (3,15,56,62,67,75). However, supermarkets now use private standards to exert control over aspects of food production that extends beyond food safety, including cosmetic appearance of fresh produce, and social and environmental considerations such as fair trade standards (1,23,58,65,67,68,(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)80,94,95). ...
... For example, the rollout of initiatives such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Standards, and the UK grocery chain Tesco's Nature's Choice (Ghosh 2014;Lin 2014); and GLOBALGAP in Europe (Smith, Lawrence, and Richards 2010) point to the desire of food system actors to address practical challenges through a combination of multiple frameworks and approaches. The section below discusses three key lessons gleaned from a review of the theoretical frameworks and food system governance initiatives around the world, highlighting them as recommendations to guide future food governance initiatives. ...
... In several other countries, smallholder farmers have wrestled for themselves a substantial portion of coffee export markets to improve their livelihoods, using Fair Trade as a market-entry tool (Bacon 2010). At the global level, GlobalGAP, uses market-based certification schemes to drive sustainability goals in the food system (Arora et al. 2013;Smith, Lawrence, and Richards 2010). Price premiums paid to farmers remain the strongest economic incentive for actors to adopt social and agri-environmental standards (Bacon 2010). ...
While theoretical frameworks of food system governance simplify complex food system phenomena, they may ignore other occurrences outside their framework boundaries, and the practical considerations informing actual governance initiatives. This article discusses governance frameworks such as alternative food networks, bioregions and foodsheds, rural-urban linkages, short food supply chains, and city-region food systems; and draws insights from real-life governance initiatives to demonstrate the practical considerations that inform such initiatives. It concludes that a) localized grievances inform governance responses, b) globalization and localization need not be delinked, and c) while alternative voices are valuable, markets are important for food systems sustainability.`K
... As such the demand for alternative and sustainably produced food in the Australian market is increasing (Australian Organic, 2018;Deloitte, 2019;Spencer, 2016). Unlike European food retailers, the major food retailers in Australia have not responded to this demand, which creates an opportunity for smaller producers (Smith et al., 2010), who are well positioned to respond to demand for food produced outside of corporate structures. Food that is marketed as healthier and sustainably produced attracts a higher premium (Nielsen, 2015) and can be produced intensively on smaller plots of land. ...
... Instead of competing in this system she opts for the organic market as it is not crowded by larger producers and retailers. Supermarkets have not attempted to rebrand themselves as environmentally sustainable and the organic line in the two major supermarket chains in Australia represents only 2-5% of total sales (Smith et al., 2010). While selling directly to consumers and through shorter supply chains is an opportunity for the women in this study to overcome the disadvantage of producing smaller quantities, it does represent additional work that productivist producers who sell through mainstream supply chains do not incur. ...
This research examines how female agricultural producers are responding to the cost-price squeeze of Australian agriculture. Thirty-six in-depth interviews were conducted with female producers in a variety of sectors from across Australia. In order to maintain viability female producers are seeking alternative methods of production and marketing, rather than pursing economies of scale. Female producers are seeking alternatives to hegemonic agriculture due to its gendered financial and social constraints. This involves the sustainable production of niche products on smaller plots of land and direct marketing to capture more of the economic value of their products and to reduce risk. This research highlights ways in which producers can stay on farm and contribute to the creation of alternate food systems. It represents an alternative to the competitive productivist agricultural approach of “get big or get out” and improves the visibility of women farmers and a shift in the masculinist construction of farming. These alternative production and marketing methods have the potential to benefit Australian agriculture, rural communities, to create more equal gender regimes and to improve environmental sustainability.
... It can be noted that, green marketing has become an important component of most companies' marketing process (Thakur & Gupta, 2012). The importance of environmental stewardship is also emphasized by green marketing (Smith, Lawrence & Richards, 2010). Nowadays people are highly concerned about environmental protection and are willing to consume those products which are environmentally friendly (Saxena & Khandelwal, 2010). ...
... Peattie & Crane (2005) define a product as being 'green' when, in manufacture, use or discarding, its environmental and societal functioning, are considerably improved, relative to a traditional product. Smith, Lawrence & Richards (2010) regard the main measures of a green product as being that of green design, green labelling, green packaging and green procurement. The idea of green marketing is that the concern of companies should be centered on what ensues during and after a product's usefulness (Gale, 2006). ...
The focus of this paper is to present an exploratory study on the level of awareness regarding green marketing and its managerial implications, among selected, South African Manufacturing Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), in the province of KwaZulu–Natal (KZN). The concept of green marketing and thought provoking managerial implications are still an issue of concern in the South African manufacturing sector. The study aimed to explore the awareness levels about green marketing by selected South African manufacturing SMMEs in KZN, and the resulting managerial implications. Primary data was collected from 84 manufacturing SMMEs. This research was quantitative in nature and a questionnaire was used to collect data from SMMEs owners/managers in KZN. Findings of the research indicate that SMMEs in the study are aware of green marketing and its managerial implications. It further reveals that SMMEs’ owners/managers indicate that the South African Environmental Act and Consumer Protection Act are additional factors that influence their businesses operations. The paper will benefit SMMEs owners/managers, SMMEs marketing managers, and affiliated stakeholders, by introducing a new understanding of green marketing and how to cope with the demand of new green marketing strategies. Most work on the Green Zone has concentrated on green products, with little emphasis on green marketing and its implications. The findings are limited by the study’s exploratory, quantitative nature and small sample. Generalisation should be done with care and further research, with a large sample and consideration of other provinces, is therefore recommended.
... Mais ainda, por estarem em sintonia imediata com os consumidores, detêm o elo entre a demanda e as fontes globais de suprimento enquanto captam mais facilmente as preferências de consumo formadas em cada espaço social. Nessa posição, adotam práticas de rastreabilidade, arregimentando quem produz segundo as exigências de quem consome, fazendo com que a ideia de alimento oriundo de qualquer lugar (food from nowhere), para descrever o sistema alimentar, seja adicionada à de alimento de algum lugar específico (food from somewhere) 9 . ...
RESUMO O artigo traz uma discussão sobre a conexão entre saúde coletiva e agroecologia como promotoras de saúde, como expressão de sistemas alimentares sustentáveis e saudáveis orientados pelo princípio de Soberania e Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (SSAN). A noção de regime alimentar corporativo ou neoliberal orienta a interpretação das transformações do sistema alimentar no contexto da ordem global neoliberal, a partir da qual é possível detectar suas fragilidades. Assim, é dada atenção a tendências contra-hegemônicas impulsionadas por movimentos sociais e formas alternativas de produção e abastecimento alimentar. O regime alimentar neoliberal concentrado no poder das grandes corporações, capazes de capturar o aparelho de Estado, é marcado por práticas desiguais e destrutivas, que expulsam povos dos seus territórios, expropriam a natureza, contaminam solos, água, ar e alimentos, adoecem e matam pessoas e o ambiente. Em oposição, entendem-se a agroecologia e a saúde coletiva como campos contra-hegemônicos que promovem sistemas alimentares sustentáveis e saudáveis. Dessa forma, apoiado nessa análise, é necessário construir uma base de conhecimento interdisciplinar que dê solidez conceitual e visibilidade a outro sistema alimentar coeso e sustentado nos princípios da SSAN, no direito humano à alimentação adequada, na valorização da vida humana e respeito à natureza.
... It should be noted that whilst reductions in intensity internationally have largely been driven through government intervention, that is not the whole story. Private sector schemes have developed that address these issues in response to the concerns of consumers [59]. For example, Tesco, the UK supermarket chain, introduced Nature's Choice in 1991 which tied supply contracts to practices enhancing the environmental performance of the production system and Marks and Spencer launched Plan A in 2007 with the aim of making all their activities carbon neutral as well as helping their suppliers cut their emissions. ...
Internationally there is a desire to transition farming systems towards more sustainable production in response to global and local social and environmental challenges. This transition has often been linked with a movement towards ‘sustainable intensification’ which, although having advantages, has raised questions about a lack of attention to, for example, social and ethical consideration of food and fibre production. Whilst there is general consensus that a transition is required, what is much less clear is what transitioned agricultural sectors would look like in terms of land-use configurations and how such a change can be achieved. Using New Zealand as an example, this paper provides some initial views on what such a reconfiguration may entail. The paper identifies and assesses a range of possible alternative land use configurations that, in general, lead to landscape/regional diversification. The importance of incorporating new high value low intensity (niche) systems into the landscape is highlighted. Development of these niches to achieve scale is shown to be key to the transition process. The joint role of the private (through markets) and public (through policy) sectors in driving the transition is highlighted.
... Similarly, discursive power is referred to as the "most insidious" and "least visible" form of power ( Depending on their location in the food supply chain, food companies exercise varying degrees of influence over other food companies, producers or eaters (Burch & Lawrence 2009;Winson 2004). For example, food retailers influence consumer choices through their selling power but also farmer livelihoods via their buying power, which leads some scholars to argue that they have replaced food manufacturers as the most powerful food system actor (Burch & Lawrence 2005;Smith, Lawrence & Richards 2010). Food companies also exist in different political and market contexts and face differing regulatory threats and market opportunities due to the different foods (and non-foods) in their portfolios (Access to Nutrition Index 2018; Hawkes & Harris 2011;Lang, Rayner & Kaelin 2006). ...
Background Soft drink corporations face scrutiny from governments and public health experts for the contribution of their products to obesity and non-communicable diseases. Historically, the soft drink industry sought to deny the contribution of its products to the incidence of obesity and undermine public health policies that it perceived as threatening. This oppositional strategy has evolved into a more conciliatory approach, in which the soft drink industry has sought to position itself as “part of the solution” to obesity though the implementation of corporate health promotion strategies. This thesis begins with the proposition that, like lobbying and more overtly oppositional political strategies, corporate health promotion is fundamentally a political strategy. To interrogate this proposition, this thesis explores the political dimensions and consequences of corporate health promotion. It aims to answer the following research question: How and why has the soft drink industry attempted to position itself as “part of the solution” to obesity? Methods This thesis analyses three case studies of corporate health promotion strategies used by the Australian soft drink industry: its provision of nutrition education and information; its reformulation of soft drinks to reduce calories and sugar; and its engagement with the policy process via the development of self-regulation. This thesis also explores the various forms of power that corporate stakeholders exercise to minimise the risk of government regulation and to maintain the sales of their products, including instrumental, structural and discursive forms of power. Results The first case study analysed the different forms of nutrition education and information that the Australian Beverages Council and Coca-Cola Australia provided to the Australian public. This study found that most initiatives informed consumers about the importance of calorie counting, which benefited the soft drink industry in several ways. The second case study analysed how Coca-Cola Australia’s product reformulation practices and communications evolved. This study found that Coca-Cola Australia’s reformulation initiatives changed from a strategy of “offering variety” to “stealth sugar reformulations.” The third case study analysed the political rationales and practices underpinning the Australian Beverages Council’s development and promotion of self-regulation in response to obesity. This study found that the Australian Beverages Council’s approach to obesity changed from denying the role of soft drinks in obesity to creating self-regulation and funding research to demonstrate that its industry was part of the solution. Conclusions The Australian soft drink industry gradually changed how it communicates and practices corporate health promotion in response to obesity. Comparisons between the case studies reveal that some of these changes cluster around similar periods, which coincide with transformations in the corporate health promotion strategies of the global soft drink industry and other food and beverage manufacturers internationally. A key finding is that corporate health promotion offers a range of political benefits for the soft drink industry that amplify its political power and make it easier to exercise political power and influence in the future. This thesis contributes to the growing body of scholarship interrogating the political power of the packaged and fast food industry and its influence on food and nutrition governance.
... These findings are consistent with previous research, which found that supermarkets enforce rules about acceptable food safety and product quality to manage reputational risk [117], and their standards are typically more stringent than government food safety standards [118]. Suppliers are required to provide assurance of food safety to enable them to do business with supermarkets [119]; however, these standards are not communicated to consumers on labels [120]. Supermarkets make important decisions regarding food safety risks that affect public health [121], suggesting that increased transparency regarding the standards set and levels of compliance is needed. ...
Improving population diets is a public health priority, and calls have been made for corporations such as supermarkets to contribute. Supermarkets hold a powerful position within the food system, and one source of power is supermarket own brand foods (SOBFs). Many of the world’s largest supermarkets have corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies that can impact public health, but little is known about their quality or practical application. This study examines the nature and quality of Australian supermarkets’ CSR policies that can impact public health nutrition, and provides evidence of practical applications for SOBFs. A content analysis of CSR policies was conducted. Evidence of supermarkets putting CSR policies into practice was derived from observational audits of 3940 SOBFs in three large exemplar supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths, IGA) in Perth, Western Australia (WA). All supermarkets had some CSR policies that could impact public health nutrition; however, over half related to sustainability, and many lacked specificity. All supermarkets sold some nutritious SOBFs, using marketing techniques that made them visible. Findings suggest Australian supermarket CSR policies are not likely to adequately contribute to improving population diets or sustainability of food systems. Setting robust and meaningful targets, and improving transparency and specificity of CSR policies, would improve the nature and quality of supermarket CSR policies and increase the likelihood of a public health benefit.
... Labuschagne et al., 2005) or the retail sector (e.g. Smith et al., 2010) and fail to implement a systemic perspective. Furthermore, studies about food supply chains (e.g. ...
Agri-food systems are confronted with sustainability challenges such as climate change, price volatility and retaining consumer trust. Agri-food systems are complex, dynamic systems involving multiple actors such as science, policy, industry and civil society. To tackle these challenges, a transformation of the agri-food system towards sustainability is essential. Therefore, collective effort and actions are required. The rationale of this dissertation stems from the observation that although multiple agri-food networks arise, most of these networks fall short in realising their objective or cease before any changes are made. The aim of this dissertation thus is to explore the potential of new agrifood networks in food system transformations. We applied systems thinking, combining systems approaches and transdisciplinary research. Systems thinking in practice can help to address four societal challenges, namely sustainability as a multidimensional and normative concept, complex processes in a dynamic agri-food system, new types of organisation in agri-food networks, and the presence of multiple heterogeneous actors with diverse visions. Throughout the dissertation, eight agri-food networks were analysed and compared with an emphasis on multi-actor collaboration, their governance, their culture and reflexive evaluation.
... By being self-employed entrepreneurs, and highly dependent on market prices, weather, and changing policies and prices, farmers may also be particularly exposed to stress resulting from vulnerability to external factors that they cannot control (Kolstrup et al. 2011;Statistics Sweden et al. 2012). In addition, recent research indicates that many farmers across the world feel increasingly exposed to global market fluctuations, and believe in many cases that the state has stepped back from supporting them (Smith et al. 2010;Thompson et al. 2013). This applies also in Europe (European Commission 2016) and in Sweden, where a recent publication shows that Swedish farmers feel financial pressure and believe that the Swedish government could do more to secure their interests (Fischer and Röös 2018). ...
Recent research indicates that sustainability assessment tools (SAT) for farms need to be contextually adapted to be acceptable and useful. Focusing specifically on social sustainability , this study sought to identify important aspects of relevance for Swedish (livestock) farmers' social situation and compare these aspects with social indicators used in three existing SATs (RISE, SAFA, IDEA). A survey revealed that social issues of key importance for the self-reported overall life satisfaction of Swedish livestock farmers are: having a good financial situation, having a similar standard of living as others, not experiencing too much stress, having meaningful work, having decent working hours, and having a desirable family situation. Of the three SATs evaluated, RISE appears best equipped to capture the social situation of Swedish farmers but does not fully address the aspect of finding work meaningful. SAFA and IDEA both fail to capture many aspects of importance for describing the social situation of Swedish farmers. We present a novel method for testing the relevance of social indicators for farmers in a specific context. Applying this method before choosing, applying, and adapting SATs for farm-level sustainability assessments would increase the relevance of the social sustainability dimension, but deeper stakeholder engagement than offered by our survey is needed. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Apart from redefining the relationship between suppliers and retailers, the shift from being a retailer to being a center of solutions orchestrating a network of resources (Bradford and Sherry 2013) would be considered from a holistic perspective. Clients cannot be held only as purchasers or as consumers, on the contrary, they must be considered as employee, as citizens, as learners, as association members, or simply as people who feel like members of the "global village" (Smith, Lawrence, and Richards 2010). This particular focus on the client, who has an increasing need for protection, can in the case of certain brands lead to the development of a truly educational role for the retailer. ...
By calling the present condition of the French food retail industry an interregnum, this research considers the impact of liquid modernity on this sector and looks for signs of a new order at a designing stage. Nine experts representing large retailers and entrepreneurs using alternative modes of food retailing were interviewed. An interpretive analysis reveals a wide diversity of changes. Following Bauman’s liquid metaphor, we identify shock, transformations, and crisis in food retailing, which we describe as phases that mark the dynamics in the shift from solid to liquid retailing. We discuss how retailers are adapting and deploying tactics both to respond and belong to these liquid times and how retailers can regain some legitimacy by claiming a role in territorial sovereignty.
... Australia and New Zealand, as major food suppliers for the world, have mature FSCM in terms of consolidation of food industry partners and supply chain integrations. Australia proposed a green supply network where the consumers are able to seek to secure food 2093 Food supply chain management (Smith et al., 2010). Recently, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization launched a digital agriculture plan to help Australian farmers and food industry parties to improve productivity and sustainability. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the food supply chain management (FSCM) in terms of systems and implementations so that observations and lessons from this research could be useful for academia and industrial practitioners in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematical and hierarchical framework is proposed in this paper to review the literature. Categorizations and classifications are identified to organize this paper.
Findings
This paper reviews total 192 articles related to the data-driven systems for FSCM. Currently, there is a dramatic increase of research papers related to this topic. Looking at the general interests on FSCM, research on this topic can be expected to increase in the future.
Research limitations/implications
This paper only selected limited number of papers which are published in leading journals or with high citations. For simplicity without generality, key findings and observations are significant from this research.
Practical implications
Some ideas from this paper could be expanded into other possible domains so that involved parties are able to be inspired for enriching the FSCM. Future implementations are useful for practitioners to conduct IT-based solutions for FSCM.
Social implications
As the increasing of digital devices in FSCM, large number of data will be used for decision-makings. Data-driven systems for FSCM will be the future for a more sustainable food supply chain.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive review on FSCM from the view of data-driven IT systems.
... Az FMCG/Food szektorban az elmúlt évtizedben a kiskereskedelmi láncok szerepének és arányának növekedése, illetve a kiegészítő és a helyi ellátási láncok szerepének visszaszorulása volt tapasztalható. Smith et al. (2010) az élelmiszer-ipari ellátási láncokban a döntéshozói hatalom alapján három korszakot különböztet meg: 1) 1870-es évek -II. világháború az alapanyag-termelők voltak a döntéshozók, a fogyasztóknak minimális befolyása volt a termelésre, 2) 1950-es évek -1990-es évek: a feldolgozóipar vállalatai kerültek erőfölénybe, 3) 1990-es évektől napjainkig: a kiskereskedelmi láncok dominanciája tapasztalható a megnövekedett fogyasztói elvárások (minőség, biztonság, etikai kérdések) mellett. ...
A gyorsan változó piaci igények, illetve az ellátásilánc-menedzsment kritikus szerepe az igényeknek való megfelelésben, valamint az integrált ellátási láncok nyújtotta potenciális előnyök mind olyan tényezők, amelyeket a vállalatok ma már nem hagyhatnak figyelmen kívül. Ugyanakkor ezek az előnyök csak akkor realizálhatók, ha az ellátási lánc egyes szereplői között kellő szorosságú együttműködési formák alakulnak ki. A partnerkapcsolatok ellátási lánc mentén történő kialakítását azonban döntően befolyásolják a lánctagok közötti erőviszonyok. A tanulmány az FMCG/food szektor ellátási láncaira jellemző hatalmi viszonyokkal foglalkozik, különös tekintettel arra, hogy az erőviszonyok miként befolyásolják a szektor kis- és középvállalkozásainak működését, partnerkapcsolatait. A szerzők – nemzetközi kutatási eredményeket alapul véve – élelmiszer-ipari KKV-k körében végeztek kérdőíves lekérdezést. Ennek eredményeit felhasználva, a partnerkapcsolatokban megnyilvánuló hatalmi viszonyok és a vállalati jövedelmezőség, illetve néhány egyéb ellátási láncbeli sajátosság (a kapcsolatok szorossága, tartóssága, információmegosztási hajlandóság stb.) ellentmondásos viszonyát mutatják be.
... Criteria regarding the look, color, or size of the product, also referred to as 'cosmetic standards', have been controversial as fruit and vegetables that do not meet strict criteria are generally rejected by the retailer (Fulponi 2006). Retailers, however, argue that consumers demand near-perfect produce-and that cosmetic-based quality assurance standards respond to this consumer demand (Smith et al. 2010). ...
By examining corporate social responsibility (CSR) and power within the context of the food supply chain, this paper illustrates how food retailers claim to address food waste while simultaneously setting standards that result in the large-scale rejection of edible food on cosmetic grounds. Specifically, this paper considers the powerful role of food retailers and how they may be considered to be legitimately engaging in socially responsible behaviors to lower food waste, yet implement practices that ultimately contribute to higher levels of food waste elsewhere in the supply chain. Through interviews with key actors in the Australian fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain, we highlight the existence of a legitimacy gap in corporate social responsibility whereby undesirable behaviors are pushed elsewhere in the supply chain. It is argued that the structural power held by Australia’s retail duopoly means that supermarkets are able to claim virtuous and responsible behaviors, despite counter claims from within the fresh food industry that the food supermarkets’ private quality standards mean that fresh food is wasted. We argue that the supermarkets claim CSR kudos for reducing food waste at the expense of other supply chain actors who bear both the economic cost and the moral burden of waste, and that this is a consequence of supermarkets’ remarkable market power in Australia.
... The underlying motive of the proliferation of standards was discerned to have both an assurance cum compliance objective to state agents and secondly, and more importantly is the motive of competitive advantage (Konefal, Mascarenhas, & Hatanaka, 2005;Ouma, 2010). This trend is what is currently categorised as the new food regime that is emerging out of a combination of the concerns of consumers, increased supermarket power, and new forms of regulation (Smith, Lawrence, & Richards, 2010). ...
The domain of governance has largely been extolled by Nations, States or governmental and intergovernmental actors especially in upholding Nations' sovereignty and values. While this still holds, governance complexity has been reinforced by establishment of global value chains such as in food and agriculture commodities increasingly being influenced and controlled by non-state actors in different parts of the world by both corporate and retail actors through private governance mechanisms. These mechanisms often fall short of universal standards and the resultant effect is ramified through proliferation of standards that result to state of governance that is constantly being redefined as 'codes of colours'. This paper thus seeks for an alternate dimension based on Foucault's governmentality theory. The quest for this overarching theory is based on its mediatory role that regulates the excesses of private interests in regulations while not prioritizing any state's sovereignty but views governance inclusively to both the State and non-state actors; this view promotes the broader understating of global value chains in the global economy of the 21st century. The paper's methodology is based on literature review pertinent to governance theory, value chain governance, governmentality as its key variables in light of the agrifood sector. It applies the value chain discourse and governmentatity in light of the Kenya's Horticultural export and strategic positioning to the EU market. This paper's novelty in light of the discourse and building on the body of knowledge and for the plausible ways and means to re-articulate value chain governance in the global economy while creating a viable alternative between the States, and Non-State actors for the benefit of both the upstream agents and downstream customers.
... In the second and third phases major retailers play a key role in food governance in the UK. Burch and Lawrence (2005) have analyzed the shifting distribution of power in the global agri-food supply chain: in the first food regime (from 1870 onwards) nation states and farmers were the main drivers, in the second food regime (from 1950) processing companies were the main drivers and in the third food regime (emerging from 2000) retailers are the main drivers (see also Smith et al. 2010). In the current food regime the power in agri-food supply chains has shifted away from manufacturers of branded food products to the global Henson (2008) observes that systems of public and private food regulation differ across countries and supply chains. ...
This chapter discusses the increased role of corporate retailers in global food safety regulation and its consequences for food producers. Retail-driven private food safety regulation started in the early 1990s and has become increasingly important in global food regulation. Major European retailers took the lead in the establishment of private food safety standards with third party certification. These retailers require their suppliers throughout the world to participate in this system of private food governance. The first of these standards were developed by national retailers associations. The British Retail Consortium was a front runner here. Later the food standards crossed borders and were adopted by retailers and producers in other countries.
... The hour-glass shape refers to the highly concentrated 'middle' that connects farms with consumers (Hendrickson et al., 2001). Wherever there is market concentration there is an increased risk of market distortion in the form of buyer and/or seller power, which can have a deleterious effect on food access and food security more generally (see Burch and Lawrence, 2007;Stringer and Le Heron, 2008;Smith et al., 2010). Agri-food market concentration is becoming increasingly pronounced, particularly among high-income countries. ...
The goals of this article are multiple: to challenge conventional under-standings of food security; to show that economic growth per se cannot be relied upon to adequately feed the world; to convince critics of economic growth to pay closer attention to issues related to food in their assessments of 'development'; and to up-end established beliefs around the so-called Global North–South di-vide while confronting the belief that the latter must follow in the food-prints of the former. The author introduces the Food and Human Security Index (FHSI) with these ends in mind. A FHSI score is calculated for 126 countries by looking at indicators of objective and subjective well-being, nutrition, ecological sustain-ability, food dependency, and food-system market concentration. The ranking of scores has some counter-intuitive placements, which ought to be reflected upon as new lines are drawn around food security in the twenty-first century.
... Kurian, 2005). With a growing demand for 'green goods' (Smith et al., 2010) businesses and organizations of all kinds are expected to become increasingly conscious of the environment -part of what Friedmann (2005) has described in agribusiness as the 'corporate environmental food regime', in which emergent and expanding ecological concerns shape the world food system. This demands vigilance of company actions and claims, asking whether the world's agribusiness multinationals reflect shared values and true social responsibility or if in reality they are greenwashing their image as a public relations (PR) or spin tactic to gain trust and improve their reputations and bottom line Miller, 2007a, 2007b). ...
... Over the past few decades there have also been gradual yet substantial changes in the agri-food supply chain, which can be characterised as follows: increasing concentration, retailer dominance and globalisation; increasing pressures for the provision of traceability information; increasing social and environmental concerns and regulations; increasing organic products and emerging alternative agri-food networks (AAFNs) (AFGC 2011;Andrée et al. 2010;Burch & Lawrence 2005;Busch & Bain 2004;Lu & Swatman 2009;OECD 2006;Richards et al. 2011;Smith et al. 2010;Spencer & Kneebone 2012;Van Der Meer 2006). These transformations have created unprecedented opportunities for the large players at the retailer end of agri-food supply chains, while simultaneously creating significant problems and challenges for the microand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which comprise the farmers and other businesses at the production end of agri-food supply chains. ...
... Despite their general similarities, there are also significant differences between agri-food production systems and other manufacturing production systems (Jang & Klein 2011; Sporleder & Boland 2011) due to the unique attributes of food production, including seasonality of production, perishability; and price fluctuations (Matopoulos et al. 2005; Sporleder & Boland 2011). Over the past few decades there have also been gradual yet substantial changes in the agri-food supply chain, which can be characterised as follows: increasing concentration, retailer dominance and globalisation; increasing pressures for the provision of traceability information; increasing social and environmental concerns and regulations; increasing organic products and emerging alternative agri-food networks (AAFNs) (AFGC 2011; Andrée et al. 2010; Burch & Lawrence 2005; Busch & Bain 2004; Lu & Swatman 2009; OECD 2006; Richards et al. 2011; Smith et al. 2010; Spencer & Kneebone 2012; Van Der Meer 2006). These transformations have created unprecedented opportunities for the large players at the retailer end of agri-food supply chains, while simultaneously creating significant problems and challenges for the microand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which comprise the farmers and other businesses at the production end of agri-food supply chains. ...
Food security – the ready access to adequate quantities of safe, nutritious food – is a major concern of governments and industry around the world and has led to an increasing focus on the agri-food supply chain. Yet despite sophisticated (often global) connections between retailers and processors, little attention has been paid to linking primary producers into these supply chains, although they are under considerable pressure from a combination of factors including: global markets, highly concentrated market power and increasing government regulation. In this paper we report the first stage of a research project investigating the possible use of Web 2.0 by primary producers to reduce costs and enhance their marketing opportunities, concentrating on farmers in the Australian State of Tasmania. The initial stage of the project was a series of interviews with experts in the four sectors selected (dairy, seafood, vegetables and livestock) to understand how ICT is currently used in these sectors and to what extent the possibilities offered by Web 2.0 had already been realised.
KEYWORDS
Agri-food supply chain management, ICT, Web 2.0
A gyorsan változó piaci igények, illetve az ellátásilánc-menedzsment kritikus szerepe az igényeknek való megfelelésben, valamint az integrált ellátási láncok nyújtotta potenciális előnyök mind olyan tényezők, amelyeket a vállalatok ma már nem hagyhatnak figyelmen kívül. Ugyanakkor ezek az előnyök csak akkor realizálhatók, ha az ellátási lánc egyes szereplői között kellő szorosságú együttműködési formák alakulnak ki. A partnerkapcsolatok ellátási lánc mentén történő kialakítását azonban döntően befolyásolják a lánctagok közötti erőviszonyok. A tanulmány az FMCG/Food szektor ellátási láncaira jellemző hatalmi viszonyokkal foglalkozik, különös tekintettel arra, hogy az erőviszonyok miként befolyásolják a szektor kis- és középvállalkozásainak működését, partnerkapcsolatait. A nemzetközi kutatási eredményeket alapul véve az élelmiszer-ipari KKV-k körében végeztek kérdőíves lekérdezést a szerzők. Ennek eredményeit felhasználva, a partnerkapcsolatokban megnyilvánuló hatalmi viszonyok és a vállalati jövedelmezőség, illetve néhány egyéb ellátási láncbeli sajátosság (a kapcsolatok szorossága, tartóssága, információmegosztási hajlandóság stb.) ellentmondásos viszonyát mutatják be.
The importance of green product strategies cannot be overemphasised. As consumers become green-conscious and external forces such as the climate change force companies to be green responsible, companies have no choice but to adopt green product strategies. The climate change, drought and shortage of electricity are some issues affecting green marketing in South Africa (SA). However, not all consumers buy green products. The purpose of the chapter is, therefore, to determine factors influencing the adoption of green products by consumers in emerging markets of South Africa. Research has indicated that green product adoption practices in SA are still growing; therefore, an understanding of the factors influencing green products adoption in SA would enhance the marketing of green products.
Marketing has transformed through the introduction of information and communication technologies, changing consumer lifestyles, globalisation of supply chains, and increased regulatory and environmental pressure. Green marketing is a business approach towards a greener economy in the pursuit of sustainable development. In developed economies, booming industrialisation in response to the rising demand for environmentally friendly products is evidence that emerging economies need to leverage the unexploited opportunities to create a unique brand position through green marketing. Although green marketing practice is gaining prominence, firms also face uncertainty in their ability to effectively mobilise resources and to effectively solidify their green marketing edge, while generating returns on their investment. Accordingly, this chapter discusses the concept of green marketing, opportunities, challenges and directions for effective implementation. Adopting a literature review approach, the chapter shows that green marketing adoption is driven by sustainable development, social responsibility drive, supportive government policies and leadership, green consumerism and consumer health consciousness. Nevertheless, firms practising green marketing are sometimes constrained by limited green financing and investment opportunities, regulatory priorities of governments, weak implementation and collaboration among nations towards the promotion of sustainable development, and firm’s internal capabilities. Implications are drawn for emerging economies, firms, consumers and governments as key stakeholders towards transformational green marketing practice.
Dünyanın
çeşitli bölgelerinde yaşanan gıda krizleri ve gıda ayaklanmaları, gıdanın
değişen mahiyetinin öneminin vurgulamaktadır. Neoliberalizm ile paralellik arz
eden tarımın değişen yapısını açıklamak üzere çeşitli yaklaşımlar ortaya
atılmıştır. Bu yaklaşımlar arasında gıda rejimi analizi, sadece gıda ile ilgili
kavramları açıklamakla kalmaz, bu tarihsel dönüşümü de detaylıca ortaya
koymaktadır. Gıda üretim ve tüketimini belirli tarihsel dönemler itibarıyla ele
alan gıda rejimi, kapitalist sermaye birikimi çerçevesindeki uluslararası
işbölümünü anlamaya yardımcı olmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Philip McMichael’ın üçlü
gıda rejimi yaklaşımı temel alınmıştır. Gıda rejimi analizi göz önüne
alındığında, Türkiye’nin tarımsal ürün ticaretinde yaşadığı dönüşümün dünya ticaretindeki
değişim ya da işbölümü çerçevesinde yaşanan dönemsel değişimle de paralel
olduğu gözlemlenebilmektedir. 2000’den önce dünyanın en büyük ihracatçısı
ülkesinden biri olan Türkiye, bu konumunu kaybetmiş ve ithalatçı konumuna
düşmüştür. İhracat boyutunu sadece gıda ile sınırlandırmak tarımsal dış ticaret
bilançosunu değerlendirmek için yeterli değildir. Analizi tarımsal hammaddeleri
de dikkate alarak yeniden değerlendirmek gerekmektedir. Tarımsal ticarette
ikili bir yapı oluşmuş durumdadır. Gıda ve işlenmiş tarım ürünleri ticaretinde
fazla verilmektedir. Ancak 1980’lerin ortalarından itibaren, tarımsal hammadde
dış ticaretinde açık verilmeye başlanmış ve bu açık günümüze kadar artarak
devam etmiştir. Gıda ve işlenmiş ürünlerde verilen fazla tarımsal hammadde de
verilen açıkları artık karşılamamakta ve genel bir açık ortaya çıkmaktadır.
The major supermarket chains in Australia are struggling to gain competitive advantage over their rivals in the face of rising retail competition. Closer collaboration with suppliers is one competitive strategy that is gaining in popularity. Collaboration allows for the provision of information that can improve responsiveness of the supply chain to consumer demands and reduce costs for both retailers and suppliers. This paper examines the case of the apple industry in Australia, studying the collaboration between the two dominant supermarkets and apple suppliers to control apple quality. The development of private retail standards using consumer perceptions of quality has been observed to be ineffective in creating value and satisfaction for consumers due to the lack of correlation between consumer perceptions of quality with actual eating quality of apples. Consistent eating quality can be achieved through coordination of the supply chain processes that align factors that affect the eating quality of apples (ripeness). Alignment of harvest maturity, storage periods and supermarkets' marketing windows is required for improving the quality reputation of the apple industry.
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Private sector actors are playing an increasingly significant role in the definition and governance of 'sustainable' agri-food practices. Yet, to date little attention has been paid by social scientists to how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are addressed as part of private agri-food governance arrangements. This paper examines how private actors within agri-food supply chains respond to emerging pressure for measures to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture. Drawing upon the Anglo-Foucauldian governmentality literature, we introduce the notion of the corporate carbon economy to conceptualise the practical techniques that enable private agri-food actors to make GHG emissions thinkable and governable in the context of existing market, regulatory, and supply chain pressures. Using a case study of the Australian dairy industry, we argue that private agri-food actors utilise a range of techniques that enable them to respond to existing government environmental regulations, balance current market pressures with future supply chain requirements, and demonstrate improved eco-efficiency along food supply chains. These techniques - which include environmental self-assessment instruments, tools for measuring GHG emissions, and sustainability reporting - have little direct relevance to the 'international climate regime' of carbon trading, and carbon markets more broadly, yet individually and in combination they are crucial in enacting an alternative regime of GHG governance. In concluding, we contend that the growing use of sustainability metrics by international food companies is likely to have the most powerful implications for GHG governance in the agri-food sector, with potentially far-reaching consequences for how future action on climate change is rendered thinkable and practicable.
The highly concentrated nature of food retailing in Australia gives supermarkets considerable control over the interface between consumers and producers. Legal and regulatory commentary debates what can and should be done about the market dimensions of supermarket power. This article shows that Australian supermarkets are amassing not only economic power but also political power in the food system. The article makes this argument by reference to two major supermarkets’ initiatives in the regulatory space around food labelling, specifically the contested meaning of free range eggs. The article examines how the supermarkets are using their market power to create private standards for suppliers of own brand products that set the meaning of ‘free range’ for consumers too. This entrenches supermarkets’ market share as well as their political power as food authorities.
This paper discusses the increased role of retailers in global food safety regulation and its consequences for food producers. The first section deals with the development of retail-driven private food safety regulation from the 1990s onwards. The dominant transnational retail-driven standards are introduced with particular attention to the dissemination outside Europe and the power of retailers in the governance structure of the standards. The next section discusses the reasons for retailers to engage in food safety standards. Subsequently, section 3 deals with the reasons for food producers to comply with food safety standards.
This paper investigates what “free-range” eggs are available for sale in supermarkets in Australia, what “free-range” means on product labelling, and what alternative “free-range” offers to cage production. The paper concludes that most of the “free-range” eggs currently available in supermarkets do not address animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and public health concerns but, rather, seek to drive down consumer expectations of what these issues mean by balancing them against commercial interests. This suits both supermarkets and egg producers because it does not challenge dominant industrial-scale egg production and the profits associated with it. A serious approach to free-range would confront these arrangements, and this means it may be impossible to truthfully label many of the “free-range” eggs currently available in the dominant supermarkets as free-range.
This article builds on Whitley's comparison of the business systems and global commodity chains approaches to the study of economic organization within and across nations and regions. My objective is to provide a fuller exposition of the logic and evidence underlying the emergence, evolution, and variation in buyer-driven and producer-driven commodity chains. While there are clearly national differences within commodity chains, the idea that nations matter more than industrial sectors in generating contrasting forms of economic organization in global capitalism remains debatable. One of the central propositions of the commodity chains perspective is that globalization tends to diminish the influence of national origins on business systems. The way firms do business in the international economy thus is determined to an increasing extent by their position in global commodity chains, not their national origins. Nonetheless, because they highlight different units and levels of analysis, the business systems and commodity chains approaches are best viewed as complementary (rather than competing) theoretical frameworks.
In the years since publication of the first edition of Food Wars much has happened in the world of food policy. This new edition brings these developments fully up to date within the original analytical framework of competing paradigms or worldviews shaping the direction and decision-making within food politics and policy.
The key theme of the importance of integrating human and environmental health has become even more pressing. In the first edition the authors set out and brought together the different strands of emerging agendas and competing narratives. The second edition retains the same core structure and includes updated examples, case studies and the new issues which show how these conflicting tendencies have played out in practice over recent years and what this tells us about the way the global food system is heading. Examples of key issues given increased attention include:
nutrition, including the global rise in obesity, as well as chronic conditions, hunger and under-nutrition
the environment, particularly the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, water stress and food security
food industry concentration and market power
volatility and uncertainty over food prices and policy responses
tensions over food, democracy and citizenship
social and cultural aspects impacting food and nutrition policies.
This chapter describes the development of supermarkets in Europe, the way they have reshaped the governance of agri-food industries, and the consequences for other actors in agri-food chains. The focus is on changing power relationships within European agri-food supply chains, in terms of the developments in supply chain partnerships, regulatory responses, and the rise of protest among producers and members of civil society.
Food regime analysis emerged to explain the strategic role of agriculture and food in the construction of the world capitalist economy. It identifies stable periods of capital accumulation associated with particular configurations of geopolitical power, conditioned by forms of agricultural production and consumption relations within and across national spaces. Contradictory relations within food regimes produce crisis, transformation, and transition to successor regimes. This ‘genealogy’ traces the development of food regime analysis in relation to historical and intellectual trends over the past two decades, arguing that food regime analysis underlines agriculture's foundational role in political economy/ecology.
Supermarkets in Great Britain have joined the country's Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) in order to demonstrate their commitment to social welfare and environmental standards in their supply chains. They have been particularly concerned to enforce ethical as well as food safety standards in the African horticultural industry, which has historically depended on cheap labour to produce high-value vegetables. The supermarkets' 'ethical turn' appears to signal an important change from forms of commodity fetishism that obscured exploitative relations of food production in the South. This paper, however, argues that in an era of high food anxiety for both retailers and consumers, ethical standards are themselves fetishized. It also shows how the effort to impose such standards on Zambia's horticultural export industry resembles the colonial 'hygienic mission', and faces a similar contradiction.
The global development project faces newly evident challenges in the combination of energy, climate and food crises. Their interrelationships create a powerful moment in world history in which analysts and practitioners grope for solutions, limited by the narrow market episteme. This contribution argues that official development, in advocating green market solutions, recycles the problem as solution—a problem rooted in the geopolitics of an unsustainable global ‘metabolic rift’ and a discourse of global ecology reinforcing international power relations through monetary valuation, and deepening the North's ‘ecological debt’.
In the last 15 years, agri-environmental programmes in Australia have been underpinned by a neoliberal regime of governing which seeks to foster participation and ‘bottom-up’ change at the regional level at the same time as encouraging farmers to become entrepreneurial and improve their productivity and environmental performance without government interference. However, while experiencing a degree of success in terms of farmer involvement, considerable tensions are evident in such programmes. Drawing on an ‘analytics of governmentality’, this paper argues that while current agri-environmental programmes enable authorities to combine often competing and contradictory imperatives under the rubric of single political problems—what has been termed hybrid forms of governing—it also contributes to the continuing failure of these programmes to achieve their desired effects. As a consequence, neoliberal forms of governing tend to be characterised by experimentation with a range of governmental technologies in order to make programmes workable in practice. We explore two different types of technologies—standards schemes and direct government regulation—that have emerged in recent years, and how these have sought to address the limitations evident in ‘participatory’ programmes. The paper concludes by arguing that while these initiatives seek to encourage farmer compliance in seemingly divergent ways, their capacity to be workable, and have broader effects, in practice will depend upon their capacity to manage the competing imperatives of environmental degradation, capital accumulation and private property rights.
The corporate food regime is presented here as a vector of the project of global development. As such, it expresses not only the social and ecological contradictions of capitalism, but also the world-historical conjuncture in which the deployment of price and credit relations are key mechanisms of ‘accumulation through dispossession.’ The global displacement of peasant cultures of provision by dumping, the supermarket revolution, and conversion of land for agro-exports, incubate ‘food sovereignty’ movements expressing alternative relationships to the land, farming and food.
This paper suggests that a corporate-environmental food regime is emerging as part of a larger restructuring of capitalism. Like past food regimes, it reflects specific social and political compromises, which I interpret through the social movement concept of interpretive frames. The diasporic-colonial food regime of 1870–1914 grew up in response to working class movements in Europe, and created a historically unprecedent class of commercial family farmers. When world markets collapsed, those farmers entered into new alliances, including one that led to the mercantile-industrial food regime of 1947–1973. Lineaments of a new food regime based on quality audited supply chains seems to be emerging in the space opened by impasse in international negotiations over food standards. Led by food retailers, agrofood corporations are selectively appropriating demands of environmental, food safety, animal welfare, fair trade, and other social movements that arose in the interstices of the second food regime. If it consolidates, the new food regime promises to shift the historical balance between public and private regulation, and to widen the gap between privileged and poor consumers as it deepens commodification and marginalizes existing peasants. Social movements are already regrouping and consolidation of the regime remains uncertain.
In order to understand the potential of new policy instruments in tackling environmental problems we locate their development in the context of challenges to traditional roles of the Australian state in promoting welfare and national economic development through regulatory measures. This contextual information is crucial to understanding the mix of policy instruments adopted by policy-makers. The analysis of environmental policy highlights persistence of regulatory traditions and emergence of new ways of organising state interventions, including voluntary agreements, targeting resources to create competitive eco-efficient industries and research on economic or market based systems like emissions trading.
Beginning with a theoretical and empirical critique of the prevailing "ideal' development model of complementary intersectoral linkages between agriculture and industry, a fresh perspective on the historical impacts of agriculture on the global state system, based on the concept of "food regime', is developed. The nineteenth century process of national-state formation is seen as a systemic process in which settler states and their agriculturalists provisioned the growing European working classes and became the basis of a new type of trade within a new international order. Late twentieth century agriculture is conceptualized in terms of an intensive system in which consumption relations have been reconstructed as part of the process of capital accumulation and of the growing power of capital undercutting state policies directing agriculture to national ends. -Authors
The food regime concept is a key to unlock not only structured moments and transitions in the history of capitalist food relations,
but also the history of capitalism itself. It is not about food per se, but about the relations within which food is produced,
and through which capitalism is produced and reproduced. It provides, then, a fruitful perspective on the so-called ‘world
food crisis’ of 2007–2008. This paper argues that the crisis stems from a long-term cycle of fossil-fuel dependence of industrial
capitalism, combined with the inflation-producing effects of current biofuel offsets and financial speculation, and the concentration
and centralization of agribusiness capital stemming from the enabling conjunctural policies of the corporate food regime.
Rising costs, related to peak oil and fuel crop substitutes, combine with monopoly pricing by agribusiness to inflate food
prices, globally transmitted under the liberalized terms of finance and trade associated with neoliberal policies.
Early food regimes literature tended to concentrate on the global scale analysis of implicitly negative trends in global food
relations. In recent years, early food regimes authors like Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael have begun to consider
the sites of resistance, difference and opportunity that have been emerging around, and into contestation with, new food regime
relations. This paper examines the emerging global-scale governance mechanism of environmental food auditing—particularly
those being promoted by supermarkets and other large food retailers—as an important new dynamic in our understanding of the
politics and potentials of food regimes. Commencing with an examination of Friedmann’s corporate environmental food regime,
two key dynamics are identified as being pivotal in the rise and decline of global-scale regimes: securing social legitimacy
for food relations and the importance of ecological dynamics in global food relations. By extending McMichael’s notion of
‘Food from Nowhere’ versus ‘Food from Somewhere’, the paper interrogates the emergence of a cluster of relations that comprise
‘Food from Somewhere’ and examines whether this cluster of relations has the potential to change some of the constituent ecological
dynamics of food regimes. These ecological dynamics have historically been problematic, amply demonstrating Marx’s metabolic
rift as the early food regimes solidified relationships between ‘ecologies at a distance’. By using socio-ecological resilience
theory, ‘Food from Somewhere’ is characterized as having denser ecological feedbacks and a more complex information flow in
comparison to the invisibility and distanciation characterizing earlier regimes as well as contemporary ‘Food from Nowhere’.
The conclusion of this article is that while ‘Food from Somewhere’ does provide one site of opportunity for changing some
key food relations and ecologies, the social legitimacy of this new form of food relations does rely on the ongoing existence
of the opposite, more regressive, pole of world food relations. The key question for resolving this tension appears to be
whether new food relations can open up spaces for future, more ecologically connected, global-scale food relations.
This ten-chapter book was the first of its type in Australia, bringing a critical sociological perspective to the analysis of contemorary regional change. Synthesising results from over 15 years of research by the authors, the book sought to explain regional disadvantage. In then provided ideas for a platform for regional revitalisation, based upon the application of principles of 'sustainable regional development'. following publication of the book, over 30 interviews were given by the authors on national radio and television. Federal and State government ministers and departmental heads were briefed on the books findings
Contemporary geo-political-economic power relations, which are partly institutionalized through WTO, involve the globalization of the relationships between food production and consumption. The political choice to refer to international markets prices, though those prices are dumped by the export subsidies from a few countries, and the political choice to liberalize, lead to a great recombining of agricultural productions around the world, to a new dominant thinking about 'food security', to food dependency for numerous poor countries, to destruction of peasant farming and to enhancement of multinational agribusiness power.
The current crisis of the world political economy stems from the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, which was characterized by stable institutions of regulation of national capital accumulation within the Pax Americana. The resulting absence of rules governing international trade, reflected in rising (Northern) protectionism and anarchic competition for markets for agricultural commodities, underlies a dramatic restructuring of the world economy. Focusing on the world food order, this essay speculates about the characteristics of a new international food regime that could arise to match the growing power of transnational companies to restructure production and consumption relations on a global scale. It is argued that the recomposition of North-South relations means a new subordination of Southern political-economy by intensifying Southern food dependency. This is a prelude to the further centralization of Northern corporate power, and the possibility of a system of global regulation administered under the auspices of the IMF and the GATT.
This book sets out to examine what really is going on in the organic sector socially and politically. In the process, it debunks a number of apparently common-sense beliefs: that organic consumers are wealthy environmental and health extremists; that growth in the industry will inevitably undermine its environmental values; that mainstream media is antagonistic to organics; and that the industry is driven by consumer demand. This book seeks to make a practical contribution to the development of more sustainable food systems by articulating what it takes to get people involved in organics at each stage of the food chain.
As a member of the Cairns Group, New Zealand is an excellent case for investigation of the impacts of market-based restructuring and the emergence of new mechanisms for regulation. The paper examines how agriculture in New Zealand has been impacted by economic reforms that have fundamentally changed the nature and interrelations of regulatory arrangements and economic processes. The paper sketches the origins of New Zealand's agricultural crisis and the main features of the reforms, outlines developments in several global commodity chains (meat, dairy, apples) that since the mid 1980s have shaped regulatory and governance adjustments, and explores dimensions of a reimaging of agriculture in new conditions. The paper concludes that agri-food restructuring in New Zealand is implicated in the wider integrative project of globalization. Agriculture's reconstruction reopens the scope and terms under which New Zealand labor and households might be able to participate in the agri-food sector.
Governments and institutions have laid down safety standards for the international trade in food products; these are mainly based around the Codex principles for HACCP. Although at present standards are not fully harmonized internationally, they may be used to provide a set of core guidelines. At the same time various sectors of the food supply chain in different regions have developed schemes to 'assure' the supply chain and eventual consumers that their products are safe. Analysis of many schemes, some of which are reported here, indicates that many of these do not fully comply with core international guidelines. Schemes that embrace these guidelines enable members to reduce the risk and hence liability resulting from a food breakdowns. Such schemes also reduce the costs of assessing food safety for the whole chain and for public regulation. We would argue that the development of schemes that are seen to have a common standard for food safety, irrespective of country of origin, would benefit the whole food chain and consumers. This may be achieved through co-recognition of schemes or the adoption of schemes in more than one country. However, an essential pre-requisite for an international industry scheme, or schemes, is the urgent need to harmonize international standards.
In critically re-examining the concept of food regime this article argues for an alternative formulation thatposits the concept on the foundation of the theory of value, rather than the developmentalist framework of the regulation theory within which it was originally posed. This is possible because while the insights of food regime analysis were rooted in a world historical perspective on global value relations, its presentation always subordinated the latter to the more abstract stage theory of the regulation school. Disentangled from regulationism, the concept of food regime is central for a labour-oriented perspective on imperialism as a relation of production embedded in global value relations. This is part of a broader methodological critique that locates the problematic of development (and consumption, in the postdevelopmentalist era) within the discourses of bourgeois modernity (and postmodernity) and seeks to differentiate these from the problematic of labour and labour emancipation. The article addresses the problem of a conflation of theory and history in connection with a developmentalist/positivist reading of Marx, and suggests 'global value relations', 'global working day', 'global worker', as world historically informed concepts that capture the 'unity of the diverse'. Global value relations include the politics of state relations, the world market, colonization and imperialism, and the (often geographically segregated) labour regimes of production of relative and absolute surplus value. The latter is posed as a contemporary relation of neo-liberal capitalism involving (postmodern) over-consumption on the one hand and (still modern) forced under-consumption on the other hand. 'World hunger amidst global plenty' is an expression of these relations.
This paper examines the role of certification in alternative agri-food networks (AAFNs), which are in the process of building markets for their produce outside conventional supply chains. Drawing upon recent writing on ‘embeddedness’, we argue that certification provides an important focus for exploring the relationship and tensions between horizontal and vertical dimensions of embedding processes, and thereby understanding the complexities of agri-environmental governance. Through a case study of a group of beef farmers in south-eastern Australia, we investigate how one type of process-based certification—Environmental Management Systems (EMSs)—was used as the basis for constructing an AAFN and selling a premium environmentally certified product. The case study shows that environmental certification had mixed results for this AAFN. For instance, while it represented a useful means of building consumer trust, considerable time and effort was required by producers to target and build a market for the certified product. Producers initially had little to gain financially from a third-party-certified EMS. However, despite the current lack of broad consumer demand for non-organic environmentally certified products, the farmers we interviewed did not reject the EMS process entirely—they used it to realise a range of non-monetary personal and community benefits. We conclude that certification can be a useful strategy for those AAFNs in the process of expanding beyond direct marketing. Nevertheless, the lack of consumer understanding and demand means that certification may be adapted and combined with other producer strategies to meet personal and societal expectations regarding land stewardship.
Adopting a 'global value chain' approach, Value Chain Struggles investigates the impact of new trading arrangements in the coffee and tea sectors on the lives and in the communities of growers in South India. Offers a timely analysis of the social hardships of tea and coffee producers. Takes the reader into the lives of growers in Southern India who are struggling with issues of value chain restructuring. Reveals the ways that the restructuring triggers a series of political and economic struggles across a range of economic, social, and environmental arenas. Puts into perspective claims about the impacts of recent changes to global trading relations on rural producers in developing countries.
Developments favouring the liberalisation and globalisation of economic exchange and increasingly rigid constraints on domestic fiscal policy have provided support for neo‐ liberal policy ideas. Neolibcralism challenges the logic of embedded liberalism that underscored trade multilateralism in the post‐second world war period, and the exclusion of sectors like agriculture from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Focusing on agricultural policy, the article examines the pace and extent to which neo‐liberal ideas have been able to gain hold and displace non‐liberal domestic policies in Australia and Canada. The article shows that neo‐liberal ideas have been more easily translated into domestic policy change in Australia than in Canada. A significant part of the explanation for this cross‐national difference is found in the differing domestic political‐institutional arrangements, including federalism, bureaucratic arrangements, the presence or absence of a neo‐liberal epistemic community, and trie structure of interest intermediation systems. These factors, in turn, have their impact on policy change through their effects on the structures of agricultural policy networks and policy communities.
After over a decade of leading research work which has examined the political economy and globalization of the ‘industrial’ agro-food system it is clear that there are now important new challenges associated with the incorporation of nature, consumption and alternative food networks. Taking David Goodman's recent paper (Sociologia Ruralis 1999, no. 1) as a starting point, this discussion not cautions against a premature and over-generalized rejection of political economy on the basis of concepts based upon actor-network theory. Questions of food governance expose the asymmetry in power relations in food networks, whether conventional or alternative. Moreover, while accepting the need to examine the ‘hybridity’ of nature-society relations, this needs to be done in ways which expose the degree of interconnection through the development of micro-analytical research and the development of ‘middle-level’ concepts.
The recent development of new supermarket forms in Australia (Woolworths Metro and Coles Express) provides important insights into the changing geographical forms of grocery retailing and consumption in Australia. Using a multi-layered approach designed to integrate three overlapping geographical processes relevant to this issue: urban socio-economic restructuring, shifting spatial arenas of consumption and the corporate geographies of major retailers, the paper identifies the ways that these developments decentre traditionally dominant supermarket discourses. These new supermarket forms are important because they provide a vehicle for the nation’s two pre-eminent supermarket chains to extend their retail reach, and effect a blurring of taken-for-granted retail categories. Although these developments are new and tentative, they presage wider changes in the emerging geographical structures of Australian grocery retailing, and the linkages between urban spaces and modes of consumption.
Abstract The last decade has witnessed a dramatic rise in global trade in food and agricultural products. While much analysis has focused on the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in this process, we argue that other forms of regulation are of far greater consequence. In this paper, we examine changes in the agrifood system made possible by the WTO and we assess the rise of global private standards. We argue that the new global rules, regulations, and institutions implemented by the WTO have facilitated the ability of the private agrifood sector to consolidate and expand internationally. Of particular importance is the growing influence of food retailers as they rapidly become more global and oligopolistic. The article concludes that today it is the private sector, and retailers in particular, together with private standards that are at the center of the transformation of the global agrifood system.
Three studies were conducted in Australia and New Zealand to examine consumers’ ratings of food and health concerns, the influence of sociodemographic factors on them, and the interrelationships between perceived concerns. Similar results were found in both countries. Principal-components analyses yielded several factors that suggested consumers in both countries perceived food and health issues along several key dimensions. These were related to concerns about food safety, food system issues, health, the environment and animal and human welfare. Generally, women expressed more concern than did men about most issues, while young people and highly educated people expressed least concern. These differences suggest that familiarity, perceived control and personal resources may have some influence on expressed concerns. However, other psychological influences remain to be identified since only small amounts of variance in the key dimensions were explained by the demographic variables. Comparisons of the rankings of the issues in the two New Zealand studies, administered 2 years apart, showed that they were very similar (ρ = 0.91, P < 0.0001) despite the use of different response scale wording. This supports the view that the population’s evaluation of food issues may be enduring and suggests they are relatively independent of differences in elicitation questions.
Recent restructuring of the Australian dairy and wheat sectors can inform current theoretical debates on the significance of agri-food globalization. A key issue in recent debates is whether current processes lead toward a so-called “third food regime,” wherein strategies for profit capture are built around internationally coordinated flows of production, commodities, and money capital. The study outlined here suggests that there may be ongoing roles for local, farmer-owned marketing cooperatives within current globalization processes. An agenda is presented for further research into agri-food restructuring and globalization.
The ‘new rural sociology’ arguably represented the most significant watershed in the development of rural sociology during the 1970s and 1980s. I argue, however, that the new rural sociology, especially its dominant traditions of Chayanovian and neo-Leninist Marxism, has now been almost entirely superseded as a theoretical position in agrarian political economy by the international food regimes, commodity chains/systems analysis, regulationist, and actor-network traditions. In addition, Wageningen School research on ‘farming styles’ and the ‘cultural-turn’ within rural sociology and rural studies have arisen, in part, as challenges to the more structuralist styles of reasoning within agrarian political economy. Parallel trends in the sociology of development are also discussed. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of these new late twentieth century traditions in agrarian political economy, particularly in comparison with the new rural sociology.
This article proposes a number of arguments about the contemporary food system. Using the UK as a case study, it argues that the food system is marked by tensions and conflicts. The paper explores different strands of public policy as applied to the food system over the last two centuries. It differentiates between various uses of the term globalization and proposes that the real features and dynamics of the new world food order are complex and neither as benign nor as homogeneous as some of its proponents allow. Opposition to the new era of globalization is emerging in the food system. This is already having some impact, questioning not just the products of the food system but the nature of its production and distribution.
In this paper I want to consider whether actor-network theory [ANT] gives rise to a new kind of geography, or, perhaps more specifically, a new kind of geographical analysis. The paper therefore seeks to identify the main types of spaces implicated in the typical network configurations found in actor-network studies. Following a review of the ANT literature I conclude that two main spatial types can be discerned, linked to the degrees of remote control and autonomy found in networks. I characterise these two types as ‘spaces of prescription’ and ‘spaces of negotiation’. I go on to elaborate what a geography of prescription and negotiation might imply both for spatial analysis and actor-network theory. This paper is therefore one attempt to think through some of the implications that ANT holds for the study of space.
Growing consumer concern for health and environment issues has resulted in increased attention towards the purchase and consumption of organic food. This has driven an increase in organic research, especially as marketers seek to understand the motivations behind consumer purchases of organic goods.
This study explored the effects of health consciousness, environmental concern, organic knowledge, availability, quality, price consciousness, subjective norms, risk aversion, perceived control and familiarity on organic attitudes, organic purchase intentions and organic purchase behaviour. These variables formed the antecedents of the causal model which utilised Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) Theory of Reasoned Action as the framework of analysis. Results showed strong support for the relationship between organic knowledge, subjective norms and environmental concern on organic attitudes. While health consciousness, quality, subjective norms and familiarity were found to influence purchase intentions, familiarity was the only variable found to exhibit a significant relationship with organic purchase behaviour. This paper will discuss the implications of these results for marketers. It will also consider the limitations of the study and areas for future research.
The paper examines the main economic and institutional incentives which have driven major OECD food retailers in their use of private voluntary standards and discusses their growing role in shaping the agri-food system. It is based on interviews with quality and safety directors of major OECD retailers and a brief survey of retailers’ actual buyer practices. Though not all retailers are included, these firms account for over 70% of retail food sales in OECD countries. We find that the growing voice of civil society, changing legal and institutional frameworks, increased market concentration and buying power as well as their integration with financial markets has provided the setting for development of private standards. While food safety and quality standards are seen as key to maintaining and improving reputation as well as against legal liabilities, additional standards such as labour, environmental and animal welfare are also gaining ground as strategies for customer loyalty and market shares. The grass-roots retailer move in the harmonization of food safety standards is seen as an initial step towards a global approach to managing the food system, with harmonization of other standards likely in the future. Given their buyer power, these developments can be viewed as a way of governing the food system and will be important for both OECD and non-OECD food and agricultural sector evolution in the coming years.
The literature on food regimes gives insufficient attention to the national and regional variability in the experience of food regimes. Two analytical frameworks are integrated for this purpose in this paper. Recent debates on the nature of family farming as a form of production and its relationships to the capitalist economy and further development of the concept of ‘real’ regulation enable us better to understand past food regimes and the processes of uneven development in western economies. Social and political movements in the countryside, often supported by legislation, are suggested as neglected elements in understanding the experience of individual nations within historical and emerging global food systems. By their association in communities, in cooperatives, and in more politically-oriented organizations, farmers are able to influence the form of agro-commodity chains and legislation governing the rural sector, key factors which influence the variability of the experience of food regimes. Our examples are France and the settler economy of New Zealand.
Food regime theory focuses upon the dynamics, and agents, of change in capitalist food and farming systems. Its exponents have been able to identify relatively stable periods of capital accumulation in the agri-food industries, along with the periods of transition. Recently, scholars have argued that—following a first food regime based upon colonial trade in bulk commodities like wheat and sugar, and a second food regime typified by industrial agriculture and manufactured foods—there is an emerging third food regime. This new regime is one that is lead by global corporations that are profiting from the re-organisation of agri-food chains. The delivery of ‘fresh/healthy’ foods is one manifestation; another is the sale, by supermarkets, of ready-meals and other own-brand products. This paper argues that behind the movement to a putative Third Food Regime are changes to the financial system. ‘Financialisation’—the increased influence of finance capital on the agri-food system—not only provides new opportunities for profit-making by hedge funds and private equity consortia, but also creates a situation in which agrifood companies, including food manufacturers, international commodity traders and supermarkets, may benefit. Supermarkets for example, are moving into banking, and are altering their role as they move from being retailers of products, into the provision of capital. Food regime theory needs to consider what lies ‘behind’ the transformation of food and fibre production, to examine not only the role of finance capital in re-shaping relations up and down the agri-food supply chain, but also investigating the tendency for agri-food capitals to seek profits from financial transactions.
New Zealand and Australian agri-food industries are being restructured both as a consequence of the extension of neoliberal policy settings and as a result of the increasing influence of the global supermarket sector. In the EU, supermarkets have sought to standardise and harmonise compliance, with their influence being felt well beyond European boundaries. EurepGAP (a European standard for 'Good Agricultural Practices') is an example of an emerging 'audit culture' where strict adherence to set rules of operation emerges as the basis for accreditation of goods and services. It represents the trend towards private sector standardization and assurance schemes, and provides an example of the growing importance of the supermarket sector in sanctioning the on-ground activities that occur in the production and processing of farm-derived outputs. This chapter highlights the influence of EurepGAP protocols in the reorganisation of the agri-food industries of New Zealand and Australia. It argues that - for industries such as vegetable and fruit production, where Europe is the final destination - compliance with EurepGAP standards has largely become essential. In this sense, EurepGAP has emerged as the standard among producers who wish to export their products. The chapter concludes with an assessment of EurepGAP as a form of global agri-food governance that demonstrates a strong relationship between new audit cultures and neoliberal forms of trade regulation. In both Australia and New Zealand, some production sectors have rapidly adopted EurepGAP - despite extra costs, reduced choices over crop management and a lingering sense of resentment at the internal imposition of yet another production audit - primarily as a solution to the politics of risk in the context of high levels of exposure to market requirements under neoliberalism. The implications of this for Antipodean farming are considered in detail.
Globalizing tendencies within capitalism are leading to important alterations in the structure of agricultural production and the ways food companies are involving themselves in processing and marketing. Increasingly, finance capital and transnational agribusiness have sought ways to influence, and in some cases redirect, farming activities in Australia. The penetration of farming structures by corporate capital has been hastened by state deregulation. Rather than providing detailed empirical evidence, this paper presents a broad synthesis of recent Australian research with the aim of informing readers otherwise unaware of events in the Antipodes of the forms and impacts of agri-food change in Australia.
Report of the ACCC Inquiry into the Competitiveness of Retail Prices for Standard Groceries. canberra: commonwealth of australia
ACCC (AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION) (2008) Report of the ACCC Inquiry into the
Competitiveness of Retail Prices for Standard Groceries. canberra: commonwealth of australia.
reshaping the agri-food system: the role of standards, standard makers and third-party certifiers
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