Beyond Food Community Networks: organizational elements, participation and alternative models of consumption

Abstract

Alternative Food Chains (AFCs) are a new model of food production and distribution developed worldwide. The aim of AFCs is to become a suitable alternative to mainstream models and, at the same time, it aims at representing an opportunity to recreate a place where community participants can share and develop values and attitudes. It also provides a place for experimenting new organizational models with a high involvement of the different stakeholders. A specific organizational model heavily relying on high involvement of different stakeholders has been recently defined as Food Community Networks (FCNs). FCNs include Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Solidarity Purchase Group (SPG), Farmers’ Market (FM) and Associations pour le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne (AMAP). All those organizations are similar but present differences in the way they are organized. The distinctive trait of FCNs is the creation of a community dimension where consumers and producers share scarce and valuable resources such as information, time and capital. The general objective of this study is to implement a complete research of FCN. The research has the scope to generate knowledge both in terms of organizational structure and from consumers’ point of view. If organizational elements of FCNs could be better understood, then they can be used to better design interventions to sustain local farms and communities, niche products and eventually support innovative entrepreneurial attitudes. The results illustrate the organizational structure of FCNs in terms of New Institutional Economics and Organizational Science. Moreover, we deeply investigated the participation of consumers and it has been possible to draw the identikit of a FCN participant in terms of his/her personal values, attitudes and the importance of transaction cost.