Alternative or conventional? An examination of specialist livestock production systems in the Scottish-English borders.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter begins by sketching the parameters of an alternative geography of food, noting a significant blurring between alternative and conventional food systems. The rest of the chapter, based on 22 semistructured interviews with specialist livestock producers in the Scottish-English border region in the UK, sheds some light on the emergence and evolving nature of the alternative food economy (AFE) in lagging regions. A key finding has been that many of the businesses operate very individual supply chain constellations, with produce regularly sold through short food supply chains. The supply chain analysis also demonstrated the heterogeneity of producer initiatives developing under the headings 'local', 'alternative' and/or 'quality food'. Moreover, the research argues that 'soft' conceptualizations of AFE, notably notions of 'trust', 'regard', and 'social embeddedness' are appropriate, but need to be weighed against a 'hard' (agro-)economic context.