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Summary theory session 5
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Theory session 5: Entrepreneurship, Foodand Sustainability
SOURCE: MARSDEN
Agriculture crisis in Europe:
- Declining food consumption levels
- Increasing competition from foreign producers and novel foods
- Declining farm incomes and a producer-based ‘cost-price squeeze’ in conventional farming
- Increasing public demands for higher quality in food and in the rural environment.
Responses: increase organic farming in all EU member states & more intense communication
of quality in production through local and regional brand-building.
Aim in this paper is to examine the importance of specialised food networks in shaping local/regional
responses to the deepening crisis in EU agriculture; and to assess whether such locally and regionally-
based networks have the capacity to contribute to more sustainable rural development.
Value capture = sustainable wealth creation. This requires:
- Social and entrepreneurial initiatives be merged with respect for ecological, human, social
and manufactured capital.
- The disposal of the wealth thus created shows a careful balance between satisfying
consumption needs and maintaining re-investment levels that will assure the long-term
future of both ecology and enterprises.
- New entrepreneurial initiatives that focus on investing in the local environment,
creating/strengthening local institutions, and employing people and their resources.
In the agrarian sphere the value-capture at the producer end of food supply chains has at least three
potential dimensions:
- Local producers and their networks attempt to capture more of the economic value of their
products in a prevailing context when more of this value is being lost to the down-stream
sectors.
- In order to achieve this it also requires new innovations in the mechanisms for distributing
value among producers and processors at the local level. This involves new types of
entrepreneurial activity which is socio-ecological in the sense that it is based upon distinctly
different types of networks and activities.
- these two types of value-capture can lead to new potentialities with regard to forging
synergies between agricultural practices and different types of multi-functional activities;
such as agri-tourism, engagement in off-farm incomes activities and environmental schemes
and projects. As a result, these can also stimulate further, multi-functional forms of value-
capture.
Value creation of innovative regional and local developments should fit in:
- Globalisation: despite the real threat to economic sustainability, social equity, cultural
diversity and ecological integrity that globalisation poses for local communities, many believe
that subsumed within this global transition is a strong justification for encouraging the
development and strengthening of local economies. The process of globalising seems to
distribute cost and benefits unevenly across different spatial, temporal and social domains.
Hence, communities that are not fortunate enough to be located on the benefit side of the
global logistics scale, tend to experience economic, political and social marginalisation. Local
, economic development therefore, can provide an effective counterforce against economic,
political and social vulnerability due to the forces of global competition.
- (Agro-industrial) modernisation: the process of agri-industrial modernisation involves scale-
enlargement and cost-price reduction in the producer sector, further intensification of the
production unit, specialisation and a drastic reconstruction of the rural area so as to create
the most favourable production conditions for maximising agricultural (and standardised)
production volume.
the future long-term success of local food networks depends upon both the robustness of
their internal mechanisms, and the degree of interaction or boundedness with these
prevailing external trends.
Local, in comparison to global, is:
- Form of social contingency: a space for rearranging possibilities which attempt to counter the
prevailing forces in the agrarian landscape.
- Place to share some form of disconnection: a social space for the re-assembling of resources
and of value
- Place for evolving new commodity (handelsartikel) frameworks and networks
- Place of defence from the devalorisation (decrease in value) of conventional production
systems.
The two cases below begin to explore these spatial and social dynamics, and explore the evolutionary
nature of alternative food networks in different rural spaces.
- Organic livestock production and marketing in mid-Wales: the Graig Farm case
Het bedrijf is een van de beste voorbeelden van een innovatie van een klein bedrijf op het
platteland. Bob en Carolyn hadden 10 jaar gewerkt in de tropische landbouw en keerde terug
naar Wales, ze kwamen oog in oog met nieuwe ontwikkelingen zoals de intensieve
veehouderij en waren teleurgesteld in de smaak van dit vlees. Daarom begonnen ze met het
diervriendelijk produceren van kippenvlees dat echt naar kip smaakt, ze noemden zich de
Graig Farm. Ze kochten een stuk grond in Powys (in Wales), dit gebied is door de EU
aangewezen als probleemgebied en ontvangt daarom enige regionale financieringen om
economische ontwikkelingen te ondersteunen. Customers enjoyed the chicken meat a lot
and started asking for lamb, beef and pork. So, from producing high quality chicken meat,
Graig Farm expanded into the production of a range of organic livestock. And, as demand for
organic meats increased beyond the capacity of the farm itself, closer ties were established
with other organic farms in the area, creating a network of organic suppliers which, later,
became known as the Graig Farm Producers Group. Het is Graig Farm gelukt om de ‘crisis’
van de oprukkende conventionele landbouw te verzachten. Het partnership werd zelfs zo
populair dat een groot aantal boeren die in eerste instantie conventionele vee leverde,
ervoor hebben gekozen om ook onderdeel te worden van het Graig Farm netwerk.
o Considerable job creation and preservation in the area of local farms within a wider
local community.
o The value added contribution of large quantities of high quality meat, which seems
to have a strong consumer demand and premium prices encourages sustainable
economics.
o The network can act as a stimulant for other ecological innovations on the farms
involved. In this sense a social landscape of agro-ecological improvement is instilled
in and through the network.
, Farmers advantages
Frequent meetings, when part of network, facilitates knowledge-building and
problem-solving.
Since there is trust within the network, it is easy to share productive resources
with other members of the network.
Farmers don’t have to spend costs on marketing, since this is done by agents of
Graig Farm.
Farmers have instant feedback about quality of their meat.
Farmers are assured of a reliable market for their livestock at fair prices.
The identity of each farm is kept on the labels, and information of each farm can
be found.
Graig Farm benefits
Network approach assures Graig Farm to have enough supply of high quality meat
to meet the customer demand.
Als er problemen zijn met de kwaliteit kan dit direct doorgeven worden aan de
lokale boer. Het is slechts een klein aandeel van het vlees wat zorgt voor
problemen. Dus, het verkleint de kans op systematische problemen die grote
gevolgen kunnen hebben.
Customer benefits
Consumers can trust the organic farming system
The Graig Farm network facilitates easy traceability of organic meats through
personal knowledge of the farms and farmers; each farmer’s personal knowledge
of each animal he rears, and due to predominantly local sourcing.
With no external middle-men involved in sales that pass through Graig Farm’s
farm shop and by mail order (local) customers can enjoy prices that are as low as
possible without negatively affecting producer margins.
- The Waddengroup Foundation: quality production and location branding
Ook Nederland is door modernisering en een drang naar productie efficiëntie omgetoverd tot
een soort landbouwfabriek. Er was een enorme specialisatie, intensivering en
schaalvergroting. Het idee was dat de Nederlandse landbouw op deze manier wereldwijd
goed zou kunnen concurreren. Echter, de mondiale markt toonde steeds meer belangstelling
naar NOG goedkopere producten. Er waren steeds meer boeren die niet in staat waren om
aan deze vraag te voldoen en dit was het begin van het Waddengroup Foundation initiatief.
Het doel van de Waddengroep was:
o Combining local experiences and effort to build up a collective capacity in producing
primary products, in processing, distributing and sales (bijvoorbeeld kazen van
Texelse schapen).
o Using collective knowledge to support new members and others engaged in related
businesses within the Wadden area. Het netwerk steunt elkaar, en helpt elkaar met
de kennis die ze hebben.
o Implementing a collective presentation of a wide assortment of products from the
area on the basis of high quality and the place of origin (making a trademark and
common logo).
Via het netwerk komen grondstofproducenten in contact met zuivel, fruit en
graanverwerkers waardoor een krachtige samenwerking mogelijk is. De Waddengroup
foundation geeft een grote net value-added voor de regio.
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