Abstract
Self-organization is a term that is increasingly used to describe how engaged citizens come together to create sustainable food systems at the local community level. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of what this self-organizing activity actually means. While previous literature has addressed self-organization as an outcome of building consensus and a collective intentionality shared by the members of a group, we focus on the complex social processes involved when people with a diverse set of interests and motivations interact in the food network. In this study, we analyze what kinds of boundary negotiations emerge when grassroots-led food networks scale up. Our embedded single case study focuses on a REKO (‘REjäl KOnsumtion’, meaning ‘fair consumption’ in English) network in Finland comprising distributed local food groups and three types of actors: consumers, producers, and local administrators. We examine a conflict that arose within the REKO network in May–June 2016 when a small group of actors demanded that all local groups should implement similar rules, principles, and ethical standards. Our findings illustrate how moral, geographic, market, and power boundaries emerge in a self-organized grassroots-led food network. We further explicate the challenges that may appear within a self-organized grassroots-led food network, as it grows in scale and scope.
Highlights
In year 2013, two trial groups were set up in the Western part of Finland to enable trade directly between local food producers and consumers
In the Finnish context, the REKO network was one of the first attempts to set up an alternative food network (AFN) that organizes the trade of local food on a weekly basis, directly between local consumers and farmers
The research on grassroots innovations within food often stresses that people come together at the local level to organize alternative food projects because of their shared understanding of the harms of the dominant food system [18,19], and that the shared meaning about the value of the alternative local food originates from the direct relationships formed between producers and consumers [15,19]
Summary
In year 2013, two trial groups were set up in the Western part of Finland to enable trade directly between local food producers and consumers. In the Finnish context, the REKO network was one of the first attempts to set up an alternative food network (AFN) that organizes the trade of local food on a weekly basis, directly between local consumers and farmers. Within three years after the start of the first two REKO groups with a total of 70 members, the Finnish REKO network consisted of 120 local Facebook groups with 160,000 connected members, of whom approximately 2500 were producers. The model has spread to other countries Both Sweden and Norway currently have more than 100 REKO groups, with more than 100,000 members in each country
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