Conventional Food System Research Articles

“Chasms” in agrifood systems: rethinking how we can contribute

The reaction to conventional agriculture and food systems has generated a host of alternative social movements in the past several decades. Many progressive agrifood researchers have researched these movements, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, and failures. Most such research is abstracted from the movements themselves. This paper proposes a new way of self-organization that, while fulfilling traditional university demands on researchers, will provide research support for progressive agrifood movements by transcending the boundaries of disciplines and individual universities.

UN/RE‐CONSTRUCTING THE AGRARIAN DREAM: GOING BACK‐TO‐THE‐LAND WITH AN ORGANIC MARKETING CO‐OPERATIVE IN SOUTH‐CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA, USA

ABSTRACTThis paper employs a cultural‐economic approach to understanding the labour model strategies employed by an organic marketing co‐operative in a rural community of south‐central Pennsylvania. The co‐operative is composed of self‐described ‘back‐to‐the‐landers’, who are motivated by an agrarian dream of a better quality of life, making a living off the land and contributing to the environmental sustainability of farming. Organic agriculture as a technical practice with a lucrative market holds the promise of realising these dreams, and the co‐operative functions as an alternative food network that delivers organic produce to a regional market. The members of the co‐operative employ a diversity of labour strategies, some of which reproduce the labour processes and outcomes of the conventional food systems, and others which (sometimes simultaneously) configure new social and economic relations with farm workers.

What organic and Fair Trade labels do not tell us: towards a place‐based understanding of certification

AbstractCertified organic and Fair Trade food products are making their way into the mainstream among Western consumers and, as such, are increasingly viewed as sustainable and preferable alternatives to the conventional food system, with its many negative social and environmental externalities. Two case studies discussed in this paper indicate, however, that operationalizing the goals for organic and Fair Trade food via certification can be a complex and difficult process. Specifically, the implementation of certification creates a disconnect between expectations raised by labels and the ‘lived experience’ of small farmers. In the case of small farmers in Mexico growing certified organic tomatoes and herbs, certification exacerbated socio‐economic inequality and disrupted local social norms by creating a hyperfocus on surveillance. In the case of small farmers in the Dominican Republic growing Fair Trade bananas, the certification process prioritized the demands of the market to such a degree that the farmers were largely unaware that they were participating in anything ‘alternative’, and it simultaneously reinforced socio‐economic inequalities within the communities. These findings suggest that if the appeal of certified labels rests on the integrity of what the label represents to consumers, then such consumer movements would benefit from a more robust analysis of how certification intersects with and affects local spaces, cultures and communities at the point of production.

Local or global food markets: A comparison of energy use for transport

This study compares energy use for food transport to a farmers' market in Sweden with energy use for transport in the conventional food system. The farmers' market was investigated through data sampling from on-site investigations. The conventional food system was studied with the aid of life cycle assessments reported in the literature. Overall, the study found no significant differences in levels of energy use for transport to the farmers' market compared with the conventional food system. For certain products, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, transport-related energy use was much lower in the local system although the season in Sweden for this kind of product is restricted to two or three months at the end of the summer. However, there is considerable potential to increase energy efficiency in local food systems by organizing the selling in new ways and by using more energy efficient vehicles.

Local, organic food initiatives and their potentials for transforming the conventional food system

L’objectif de cet article est de discuter l’importance des initiatives locales dans la distribution de produits biologiques. Le sujet est abordé d’une part en fonction de la relation entre ce type d’initiatives et le système agroalimentaire conventionnel et d’autre part en fonction de la possibilité du développement d’un système agroalimentaire plus durable. Basé sur trois études scandinaves, concernant des produits biologiques en Norvège et au Danemark, cet article souligne le fait que les différents acteurs intreviewés jouent à la fois sur le tableau du local et du biologique et sur le tableau du conventionnel. En dépit de différences structurelles distinctes, les deux systèmes, et les conventions qui leur sont rattachées, s’influencent mutuellement. Afin de mettre au point une agriculture plus durable, il semble donc important de mettre en valeur le fondement global de l’agriculture écologique, qui repose non seulement sur des valeurs biologiques et locales, mais encore sur des aspects économiques, sociaux et culturels qui doivent être pris en considération.

EFFECTS OF HEATING METHODS ON PROTEIN NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF FIVE FRESH OR FROZEN PREPARED FOOD PRODUCTS

ABSTRACTLyophilized samples of instant mashed potatoes, peas with onions, beans with frankfurters, beef pot roast with gravy, and breaded fish portions were evaluated for effects on protein nutritional value of treatments simulating conventional institutional procedures (fresh preparation followed by holding at 82°C for 0, 1/2, 1/2, and 3 hr) and convenience food system handling procedures (preparation, freezing, reheating to 82° C using microwave, high pressure steam, infrared or hot air convection oven heating and holding at 82°C for 1/2hr). For the five products studied, the treatment means for Shortened Pepsin Digest Index values ranged from 66–69, for percent available lysine (excluding values for the fish product) from 82‐86% (FDNB extractive method) or 59‐65% (TNBS extractive method) and for Modified Protein Efficiency Ratio from 2.99‐3.07. Lysine availability, when estimated by the “difference” method, for the fish product was over 95% for all treatments. Amino acid compositions of selected samples did not vary markedly with treatment. With rat bioassays, designed to detect decreases in selected amino acids, several significant differences were observed but they were not consistently related to treatment. Neither conventional nor convenience food system handling procedures seriously decreased estimated protein nutritive values of the products studied.