Box-scheme as alternative food network\u2014the economic integration between consumers and producers

Ronaldo Tavares De Souza

doi:10.1186/s40100-020-00162-4

Abstract

As a growing option for small farmers, alternative food networks (AFN) have attracted the attention of researchers around the world. Nevertheless, not much focus is given to box-schemes as a format itself. The nomenclature is often associated with community-supported agriculture (CSA) and solidarity purchase groups (SPG), but many companies have reduced geographic and informational distances without demanding such a narrow relationship between collaborators. The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between companies and their customers. A theoretical framework was built based on thoughts about economic integration and the relationship in the retail environment to examine the possibility of reciprocity and redistribution. The fieldwork was conducted in São Paulo, Brazil. Technology is found to be fundamental to the rise of such companies, but the Internet is not the only key, the telephone is also important for a warmer and closer relationship. The interviews revealed different signals of reciprocity supporting a trusting relationship while the occasional buyers demonstrate more opportunistic behaviors. Of the cases studied, one successful company demonstrated signs of reciprocity between companies and customers, as well as customer integration based on redistribution characteristics. This confirmed the possibility of the box-scheme contributing to rural sustainability, related to customers who have built a broader perspective, going beyond price and quality. The article concludes defending that this format of commerce should be further studied to confirm its capacity to support rural development and continue to deepen the understanding of the conditions that can make it successful.

Highlights

The growth of organic food sales has not stopped and it is still an option to provide higher income to small producers (IFOAM 2005; Luttikholt 2007)
(2020) 8:18 these farmers to engage with alternative food networks (AFN) as the only option to commercialize their products (Cicatiello et al 2015; Micheels and Boecker 2017; Wilkinson 2010)
In Mastronardi et al (2015:1), it is described as “sales method whereby the farmer sends produce directly to the homes of participating consumers.”. We find it as composed by products from different farmers (Milestad, Kummer, and Hirner 2017) as the practice gains scale and reaches over 60,000 people with large companies operationalizing box-schemes in the UK

Summary

Introduction

The growth of organic food sales has not stopped and it is still an option to provide higher income to small producers (IFOAM 2005; Luttikholt 2007). There is not yet a clearly accepted definition along the discussion that defines what an AFN is, and the most often found proposal defines it in opposition to the conventional super and hypermarket model (Forssell and Lankoski 2015; Si, Schumilas, and Scott 2015; Tregear 2011; Wilson 2013) This includes farmers’ markets, communitysupported agriculture (CSA), and solidarity purchase groups (SPG), among other formats. I highlight that many articles overlap with similar research areas, such as short food supply chain and local food systems Another way to conceptualize AFN is as an expression of recursive material and symbolic interactions between producers and consumers (Goodman, DuPuis, and Goodman 2012). These all combined have formed an area of growing attention while more and more researchers are turning their focus to contribute to its development

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