Building from existing literature on anthropology of food, political economy of food and consumption, and social movement theory, I examine the direct agriculture network of Tampa Bay Florida through a mixed-method ethnography. The research consisted of one year of field-work, with 6 months and over 100 hours of active participant observation, open-ended interviews with eight local producers, and short surveys with 100 market patrons. This thesis is an analysis of the results of this rigorous qualitative and quantitative work and, perhaps more importantly, an account of my own personal struggles in joining the direct agriculture network and my ultimate commitment to the movement. This report documents one student's transition from a researcher to an activist, finally settling in a local place that occupies both worlds in an effort to help increase the accessibility of others who wish to join the movement; an equal access based not only on economic capital, but also social and cultural capital in order to sustain an alternative food social movement.

As conceptions of citizenship and the political evolve, alternative modes and sites of political engagement can be identified. The definition of citizenship has evolved from limited civil and political rights to include social, environmental, and individual responsibilities. Modes of political participation have similarly evolved from voting and political party activity to also include a broad array of individual actions, such as voluntary work. Therefore, this thesis argues that the location of politics and citizenship has shifted away from traditional state institutions toward alternative spaces, such as farmer’s markets. Drawing on Engin Isin’s (2002, 2009) analyses of citizenship as constructed norms and identities, and the political as a challenge to those dominant norms, this thesis uses interviews with farmers’ market participants in the Greater Victoria Region to explore how farmers’ markets can be seen as political, both in the motivations of participants and the associated values of broader food movements. / Graduate

Gli scenari agricoli europei rivelano un crescente interesse per le filiere corte come strumento di promozione dei sistemi alimentari locali. Nonostante i piccoli agricoltori siano la spina dorsale dell'agricoltura europea, gli interventi politici e legislativi che si sono susseguiti nei decenni non hanno sufficientemente tutelato ne promosso la loro attuale posizione in ambito socio-economico. Il presente lavoro mira a fornire un'approfondita analisi del ruolo delle filiere corte all'interno del quadro normativo europeo per comprendere se l’attuale legislazione sostiene o piuttosto inibisce questi sistemi alternativi di produzione e distribuzione alimentare. Muovendo dall'esame della pletora di definizioni attribuite alla filiera corta e soffermandosi su una revisione critica delle più significative riforme della PAC, in particolare alla luce della strategia 'Farm to Fork', vengono identificate nuove priorità che appaiono più favorevoli ai piccoli agricoltori. Lo studio è arrichito da un confronto tra l'approccio adottoato dell'UE - caratterizzato principalmente da strumenti di hard law e misure top-down -, e quello della California ‘socialmente auto-regolato’, in cui gli 'Alternative Food Movements' e le strategie bottom-up sono attori principali nella regolamentazione della filiere corte e del loro impatto sulla comunità. Lo scopo finale é quello di identificare potenziali elementi utili che, se adottati, potrebbero migliorare il modello europeo. / European agricultural landscapes are undergoing fundamental changes, revealing an increasing interest in Short Food Supply Chains as a tool to promote local food systems and products. Despite small farmers are the backbone of agriculture in the EU, both policy leadership and legal interventions have been not sufficiently fostering their position in the socio and economic today’s narrative. The study aims at providing an extensive analysis of the role of SFSCs within the EU legal framework to understand whether EU legislation supports or rather inhibits these alternative systems of production and supply. Moving from the examination of the plethora of SFSC definitions to a critical revision of the most significant CAP reforms, especially in the light of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, new priorities that seem more favorable to small farmers are identified. The study is enriched by a comparison between the EU legal approach - mainly characterized by hard law instruments and top-down measures -, and the Californian ‘socially self-regulated’ approach, where Alternative Food Movements and bottom-up strategies act as the main player in regulating SFSCs and their impact on the community with the aim of identifying potential insights that could improve the EU model.