Many food systems actors call for a transformation of the current food system toward more equitable and healthy outcomes for planet and people. However, there is no unanimity about who takes the lead in this process: Big business that takes on a greener role but leaves the system's fundamentals untouched? Or civil society actors that aim for a system transformation? This book argues for the second option and presents case studies of grassroots initiatives from different parts of the world that aim to establish bottom-up alternatives to the current corporate-dominated food system.
The book begins with a chapter from the editors that outlines the book's perspective on the challenges ahead. Referring to Karl Polanyi, the authors argue that nothing short of a ‘Great Transformation’ of the food system is necessary to overcome the current ecological and health crisis. After 1945, food has become a commodity and its production and exchange a purely economic activity, dis-embedded from society. The focus has been on intensification, efficiency and export volumes. The authors regard attempts to alter the system by movements such as Fair Trade or Organic as unsuccessful, arguing that they have been incorporated into the mainstream without leading to structural change. The authors therefore call for new approaches such as cooperatives or community-supported-agriculture that re-embed food production into society by connecting producers and consumers through shared responsibilities for production and distribution (‘prosuming’).
The remainder of the book is divided into three parts, containing three chapters each: The first part introduces alternative food movements; the second part looks at alternative food economies and the third one at alternative food networks. The contributions cover a diversity of approaches, considering the local specificities and challenges in order to offer a comparative perspective. Cases look at initiatives in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Chapters are based on interdisciplinary qualitative case studies, mixing sociological, anthropological and economic approaches.
In the first part, the contribution of Cordula Kropp and Clara Da Ros analyzes the redefinition of urban spaces through food movements in Leipzig, Germany and Nantes, France. Both cities have experienced deindustrialization and are reinventing themselves as green and sustainable locations. However, in Leipzig this process is civil society driven, while in Nantes local politics fosters this transition as part of their vision for the city. The contribution shows how regional circumstances affect food movements and how actors adapt to them. Despite their differences, the movements are united in their attempt to use urban agriculture not only for food production but also for community building and creation of public spaces, thus demonstrating the multifunctionality of urban agriculture.
The contribution of Julien Vastenaekels and Jérôme Pelenc in the second part investigates how far the cooperative model can re-embed food production into society through the examination of three food cooperatives in Belgium. By bringing together producers and consumers on a basis of a shared concern for environmental issues, fair prices and labor standards, the cooperative model has the potential to rebuild the food system based on social relations that go beyond the economic sphere. However, the contribution also highlights contradictions of the cooperative model, for example, when social inclusivity is in conflict with the goal of paying fair producer prices.
Cristina Grasseni's contribution in the third part compares food networks in Italy and the US and how their work is based on different notions of solidarity. In the US case, activists understand food as connected to other social justice and environmental issues such as inequality or soil pollution from unsustainable construction. In the Italian case, the focus is on establishing direct connections between producers and consumers, focusing on immediate food systems issues. However, social justice plays a role, for example, in the procurement of ‘mafia-free produce’. Despite the differences, the networks share a common goal of overcoming the unequal outcomes of the current food system.
The book shows an interesting variety of local bottom-up solutions for food systems transformation. All are connected by an attempt to overcome consumerism and commodification of food through cooperation between consumers and producers based on fairness, trust and visions of environmental sustainability. At the same time, all initiatives are faced by contradictions such as between economic efficiency and democratic decision-making or between fair pricing for producers and social inclusivity for consumers. Mostly, the book deals with the contradictions on a merely descriptive basis. It would have benefited from some deeper theorizing on how contradictions can be overcome or accommodated. In addition, there is no discussion of how scaling of alternatives can lead to system transformation rather than co-existence in niches of the current system. The initiatives might as well remain small-scale alternatives without instigating the called-for ‘Great Transformation’. However, the book offers an interesting and thought-provoking read for everyone interested in alternatives to the current food system.
