Family farmers between re-localisation and co-production

Abstract

Rural sociology and anthropology have developed a sizeable scholarship on “alternative food networks”, which value short supply chains. What are the limits and potentials of becoming involved in alternative food networks? This is sometimes unclear for smallholders and family farms. In this article, I explore the different forms of collaboration that can ensue between “provisioning activists” and local farmers, within a rather complex and fragmented scenario of localised interventions; the article focusses on discourses and practices of food re-localisation, which include many kinds of food “producers” and “coproducers”.