Abstract
Our paper focuses on Solidarity Purchase Group (SPG) participants located in a highly urbanized area, with the aim to investigate the main motivations underlining their participation in a SPG and provide a characterization of them. To this end, we carried out a survey of 795 participants involved in 125 SPGs in the metropolitan area of Milan (Italy). Taking advantage of a questionnaire with 39 questions, we run a factor analysis and a two-step cluster analysis to identify different profiles of SPG participants. Our results show that the system of values animating metropolitan SPG practitioners does not fully conform to that traditionally attributed to an alternative food network (AFN). In fact, considerations linked to food safety and healthiness prevail on altruistic motives such as environmental sustainability and solidarity toward small producers. Furthermore, metropolitan SPGs do not consider particularly desirable periurban and local food products. Observing the SPGs from this perspective, it emerges as such initiatives can flourish also in those places where the lack of connection with the surrounding territory is counterbalanced by the high motivation to buy products from trusted suppliers who are able to guarantee genuine and safe products, not necessarily located nearby.
Highlights
The industrialization and globalization of food markets respond to a system of economic organization that has led to a general reduction in product prices and to the consolidation of long production chains in which food loses its identity and its cultural value (Contini et al 2017; Del Giudice et al 2015; Migliore et al 2014a; Xu and Wang 2014). This has contributed to the creation of new strategies in consumption policies, which has seen the birth and development of different forms of alternative food networks (AFNs), in the USA and Europe (Micheels and Boecker 2017; Giampietri et al 2016; Galli et al 2015)
An interesting trait of Solidarity Purchase Group (SPG) is that they allow building personal interaction between producers and consumers, which appears to be highly valued by consumers as means to build relationships of trust, ensuring the authenticity of the production (Hashem et al 2018; Migliore et al 2014a)
About half of the sample is a veteran with an SPG attendance of 5 years or more
Summary
The industrialization and globalization of food markets respond to a system of economic organization that has led to a general reduction in product prices and to the consolidation of long production chains in which food loses its identity and its cultural value (Contini et al 2017; Del Giudice et al 2015; Migliore et al 2014a; Xu and Wang 2014) This has contributed to the creation of new strategies in consumption policies, which has seen the birth and development of different forms of alternative food networks (AFNs), in the USA and Europe (Micheels and Boecker 2017; Giampietri et al 2016; Galli et al 2015). The establishment of these forms seems influenced by the territorial context where they take place, which includes the characteristics of local agriculture, as well as the geographical constrains of periurban areas (Blasi et al 2015). Blasi et al (2015) highlighted that among the characteristics recognized in AFNs, the relational proximity between producers and consumers and a short geographical distance between them are among the most important factors characterizing AFNs
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