Over the past decade, concerns regarding food safety and access to and control over food have become widespread in South Korea and are often associated with concerns over the global agri-food system. Large consumer cooperatives that have memberships that can exceed 800,000 members have emerged as a popular and effective way of addressing these concerns. Yet, these important alternatives to the global agri-food system have received little attention by researchers and policymakers alike. This study investigated attitudes towards an ongoing agricultural and rural crisis and food concerns for consumers and farmers in South Korea. Further, the roles of consumer cooperatives in addressing this crisis and as an alternative to the global food system were documented. Surveys were conducted with 412 conventional consumers and 452 consumers that were members of consumer cooperatives as well as 166 conventional farmers, and 118 farmers that grow food for these cooperatives. In addition, 11 Korean food experts that reflect a wide diversity of stakeholder interests including government, NGO, universities and farmers were also interviewed. Korean consumers identified that freshness was the most important factor when they purchase foods, followed by food safety and price. It seemed that the global agri-food system is unlikely to address these consumer concerns. Public rallies that raised concerns about the import of beef from the US reflected widespread public resistance to agricultural globalization and the pursuit of economic liberalization by the Korean government. Participants perceived that government policies neglected domestic agriculture and were the primary cause of low rate of food self-sufficiency in Korea. Both conventional farmers and member farmers strongly opposed policies that promote industrial economic growth at the expense of local farmers and food systems. Farmers in this study were generally highly critical of the global agri-food system, especially those that were relatively young and well educated. Member farmers benefitted from their relationships with consumer cooperatives, and earned an 11-30% premium compared to farmers that sell their products to large retail markets. Korean consumer cooperatives represent an important frame for building alternative food systems and for promoting cooperation between consumers and farmers into the future. / February 2016

Alternative food systems (AFSs) are so defined because they purport to challenge a value or ameliorate a negative impact of the dominant conventional food system (CFS). Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are a type of AFS whose alterity is defined by socially proximal economic exchanges that are embedded in and regulated by social relationships. This relational closeness is argued to have benefits with respect to economic, environmental, and social sustainability. However, it would be a mistake to assume that AFSs and CFSs are paradigmatically differentiated or that their structures engender particular outcomes. The first article traces a misguided attempt to find indicators of success for farms participating in short food supply chains. The effort was misguided, because in designing the original study there was an assumption that producers participating in these AFSs shared similar goals, values, and definitions of success. The true diversity of these variables was discovered through the analysis of eighteen semi-structured interviews with Burlington and Montpelier area farmers who participate in SFSCs. This diversity motivated an exploration of the origins, common applications, and recent academic skepticism regarding assumptions of the relationship between certain food systems structures and broader food systems outcomes. The second article undertakes to develop a framework for exploring the actual motivations of SFSCs farmers and challenging common AFS assumptions. A framework that differentiates motivations guided by formal and substantive rationality is used to code the aforementioned data. Common themes amongst the responses are discussed demonstrating that producer motivations for participating in AFSs can be diverse, contradictory, and subject to change.

In response to trends that challenge food access, farmer livelihoods and public health, several market and social institutions have pursued the development of alternative food systems (AFS). These attempt to support the production and distribution of foods with important qualities, such as attention to specific growing practices, higher worker standards, superior product quality and taste, support for environmental health and farmer well-being (Valchuis et al. 2015). While there has been some success in these efforts, as evidenced by the growth of farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture programs, and farm-to-institution relationships, growth in direct to consumer markets has flattened in recent years (USDA 2012) and there are still many barriers that limit the efficacy and reach of AFS. Farmers and distributors are constantly innovating, trialing new ideas and re-thinking old ones in hopes of overcoming or circumventing these challenges. The Farm Fresh Food Box (F3B) project is one such market innovation that hybridizes direct to consumer (DTC) and value chain models with the goal of expanding producer sales and improving rural food access. Researchers and extension professionals from University of Vermont, University of Washington, Evergreen State College, and University of California studied the efficacy of F3B as a potential food system innovation through an applied project in partnership with small farmers and retailers. Research efforts focused on understanding challenges and opportunities for success within the model, as well as gleaning fundamental take-aways to better inform the broader knowledge of the continuum between DTC and value chain distribution systems. This thesis considers findings from the first half of this research project. The first article Farm Fresh Food Boxes: Pilot Study Findings of Farmer-Rural Retailer Partners assesses the pilot season of the project and identifies major challenges and associated learning opportunities, with a focus on implications for Extension personnel.The second article, Farm Fresh Food Boxes: Relationships in Value-Chain Partnerships, merges existing knowledge of strategies and barriers that characterize DTC with current understanding of value-chains to better understand the process of expanding into new consumer populations. This analysis focuses on how the quality of the relationship between producers and retailers impacts overall success when expanding into new or unusual venues. Unlike much of the previous value-chain research, this paper places unique emphasis on the importance of the farmer-retailer relationship.

The current global food system is market-driven and depends on the exploitative commodification of our basic need to eat. It has been consistently condemned for its incapacity to account for justice, sustainability, welfare, and health. Developing alternative food system strategies is a necessary step towards creating a more sustainable and just reality. By conducting a comparative analysis using semi-structured interviews and virtual mapping between a rural area and an urban city in Ontario, Canada, the relationship between food geographies and the development of diagnostic (problem-oriented) and prognostic (solution oriented) framings within the corporate food regime is explored. Considering the influences of socio-geographical context (i.e. urban or rural), and the impacts of cognitive and physical food distancing adds new perspective and considerations to the existing literature. The results found that the urban participants had more robust diagnostic and prognostic framings than the rural participants. They also found that the impacts of food distancing were represented by the participants differently; The urban participants experienced more significant cognitive and physical distancing, but were mostly worried about the impacts of cognitive food distancing, whereas the rural participants were mostly focused on the impacts of physical distancing and were less affected by both types of distancing.

Food has a crucial role in our lives as a way of shaping identities, societies, and because it enables possibilities of bringing people together. Access to food has complex social, ecological, and economic implications that deserve to be examined through a new approach. Natural disasters and nutrition concerns can be taken as an opportunity to reflect on alternative ways of getting accessing food, especially in urban contexts. In case of a similar outbreak or emergency of unknown repercussions, will mainstream food supply function sufficiently and be affordable? The aim of this study is to contribute with increased knowledge and understanding on alternative ways of allocating food in an urban context, to contribute with a discussion on their current spatial arrangements and possible ways of planning for them. As opposed to the mainstream ways of allocating food, alternative organizations specialized in food do not have a permanent space that makes them visible to outsiders, hence hindering access to them. The study shows that urban dwellers can have fluid roles regarding how food is allocated in urban contexts. They can be makers and producers, not only consumers. Alternative food allocation is a phenomenon that entails assorted aspects such as trust, spatiality, and safety and availability of the redistributed food.

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Background: The relevance of the food system for economic, environmental and social well-being is vital to consider. However, there is a lack of research covering issues and performance assessments of the supply chains in the food industry. Due to pressures on the natural environment and unsustainable production and distribution, Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC’s) have arisen as an alternative model to conventional supply chains. However, there is a need for more research in the field as its showing to be a growing trend in the food industry. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study the topic of SFSC, where the focus in this paper is to explore what advantages and barriers food producers experience when operating within a SFSC. Method: This study is exploratory and follows an inductive and qualitative approach, where 6 semi-structured interviews with local food producers were used to collect data. The data was analysed and connected to previous literature using a thematic analysis.   Conclusion: The findings in this research illuminates that the advantages and barriers from selling through SFSC´s depends on the circumstances of the channel and the characteristics of the producers. They experienced advantages in their organization such as a high professional satisfaction, fair compensation and autonomy. The social proximity between the actors also facilitated the management of information and allowed for supply chain flexibility. However, producers also faced barriers such as the lack of proper governance in the SFSC channels, and logistical challenges such as the uncertainty of production and the difficulty of ensuring the efficiency of transportations. The analysis of SFSC’s is still in its early stages and the necessary innovations to attain the full positive effects have yet to be implemented.

The diploma dissertation deals with farm box home delivery which is world widespread form of an alternative food system. The main aim of this dissertation was to identify the subjects involved in farm box distribution and make a survey on experiences with this form of business - afterwards to define the consumers´ attitude to this way of distribution.

This exploratory research focuses on identifying the roles and perspectives of community gardens in the Dallas area. Results from semi-structured interviews reveal the social and political makeup of the neighborhoods where the garden projects in this study are located. While these findings highlight the benefits of gardening in the city, they can also be contested spaces. In advocating for the proliferation of garden projects in the city, community organizations would benefit from understanding the nuances of garden initiatives and the way in which they are perceived by members of the garden, nearby residents, and policy makers.

As a response to the growing global sustainability challenges related to industrial agriculture, alternative approaches of food production and distribution are emerging. One approach that fosters direct consumer-producer relationships and sustainable local food production is known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This study explored how the CSA movement can be supported strategically towards a flourishing movement in Europe. A qualitative research approach was chosen with a comparative element of the two countries with contrastive characteristics in terms of the degree of successfulness of the movement; with France being successful and Sweden having less success in terms of the number of CSAs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 CSA farmers, network members and researchers. The results revealed barriers and enablers for a flourishing movement under five overarching themes: (1) Definition, structure and operation (2) The direction of the movement (3) Social aspects (4) Knowledge and communication, and (5) Country-/region-specific aspects. Crucial factors and contrastive features between countries were identified and discussed in relation to how they hinder or enable a flourishing movement. Based on the findings, strategic guidelines were developed with the aim of contributing to CSA practitioners and leaders in Europe.