Challenges to and from scale in alternative food systems

Abstract

In recent decades, “alternative”, “local”, “regional”, and/or “community focused” food production practices gained support as an opportunity to mitigates or even reverse the barrage of negative impacts on human health and the environment, loss of small farms and food businesses, and the increasing reliance on inequitable labor practices that are associated with industrial agriculture (Dahlberg, 1993; Feenstra, 1997; White, 2020; Low, et al., 2015) However, there is growing recognition that farmers’ markets and direct sales alone will not meet the increasing demand for local food, or shift the structure of industrial agriculture (Born & Purcell, 2006; Pirog, 2008). Instead, these interventions may need to be “scaled up” to shift production and consumption practices across the food system. Without attention to how scale may happen, efforts to build something alternative to industrial agriculture may fail. This dissertation examines challenges to and from scaling up in for alternative food systems in three ways. Paper I is a case study of innovative pathways for increasing in scale while maintaining and even enhancing many the values associated with alternative food systems. Paper II is a case study of growing pains resulting from scale, specifically how institutions influence sustainable food system development in the context of complex environmental management concerns arising from a larger scale of production. Finally, Paper III explores labor quality in alternative food systems and risks it may pose for innovation and scaling.Doctor of Philosoph