The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food
The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food (IJSAF) is the primary publication outlet for the Research Committee on Food and Agriculture (RC-40) of the International Sociological Association (ISA). It actively seeks out high-quality manuscripts that present theoretically informed research on issues related to the social organization of food and agriculture. Manuscripts are welcomed from scholars across the social sciences including sociology, science and technology studies, human and cultural geography, political science, consumer management, agricultural economics, anthropology, philiosphy and environmental studies. IJSAF also welcomes manuscripts from and about all regions of the World.
Research Committee on the Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC-40) of the International Sociological Association (ISA).
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Innovation at the Margins: The Challenges for Bangladesh’s Aquaculture Hatchery Sector
Reducing disease and improving quality control for shrimp and prawn production are key policy aims for Bangladesh’s export aquaculture with its hatchery sector, the foundation of aquaculture production, targeted for technical innovation. Hatchery reared postlarvae are carriage for the transferral of pathogens and potentially antibiotic resistant genes onto farms, compelling the Department of Fisheries to introduce the Hatchery Act in 2011, stipulating that all hatchery reared PL should be tested before onward sale. Policy implementation is achieved in collaboration with externally funded, locally managed development programmes for upgrading production management practices, delivering genetically enhanced breeds, and improving business margins by providing opportunities for pathogen-free guarantees and branding. However, uptake of improvements in the hatcheries has been low. Disease remains a key production challenge, and despite a reduction in antibiotic use, antibiotics remain a necessary component of disease control. In this paper, we develop a sociotechnical diagram, inspired by Actor Network Theory, that combines analytical models for innovation and disease outbreaks with a sociology of translation. Our approach highlights how vernacular trading practices, farmer financial and adaptive capacities, poor quality materials, and limited laboratory facilities tighten business margins and increase production risks, leaving hatcheries with little to no extra investment capacity or incentive to implement seed testing and improved management practices. We demonstrate the kinds of alliances to be made, interests to be negotiated, and adjustments to be considered for seed innovations to gain purchase in Bangladesh’s food production ecology.
Copyright (c) 2021 Andrea Butcher, Muhammad Meezanur Rahman, Steve Hinchliffe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Development Induced Food Insecurity and Poverty in Rural Nepal
Historically, Nepal maintained a high degree of food self-reliance and even exported substantial quantities of grain. Over time, however, and despite constitutional and statutory commitments to the Right to Food, the country has increasingly come to depend on food imports. Drawing on long-term familiarity with rural settings and lived experiences, this paper adopts a perspective to reflect on how development-led modernisation has contributed to rising hunger in rural villages rather than alleviating it. The paper illustrates how modernisation has gradually undermined subsistence-based livelihoods, replacing locally grown and nutritious foods such as barley, wheat, millet and maize with commercially purchased and processed alternatives. It also reflects on the erosion of a former 'solidarity economy', in which rural households exchanged labour and shared food without monetary transactions. As labour relations have become increasingly cash-based and agriculture more commoditised, many farming families now sell their most nutritious produce to the market while consuming less healthy foods themselves. The paper argues that subsistence agriculture should not be dismissed as a sign of backwardness or poverty but recognised as a sustainable and culturally grounded pathway with significant potential to address Nepal's growing food crisis.
Copyright (c) 2026 Uddhab Pyakurel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Contemporary Vestals in the Masterchef’s Kitchen
This article aims to analyse how domestic food practices, along with the associated motivations and behaviour patterns, either reinforce or challenge binary gender models in households. The theoretical framework is based on Harold Garfinkel’s (1967) concept of ‘doing gender’ and contemporary studies (Ehlert, 2021; Pettersson & Heldt, 2014; Szabo, 2014) that highlight tensions between cultural patterns defining gender roles in the kitchen and phenomena contributing to the blurring of gender inequalities in everyday life. Qualitative data (individual in-depth interviews) collected in two separate studies conducted in Poland between 2020 and 2022 were used as the research material. The analysis of this material reveals two key figures: the Vestal, referring to women who assume responsibility for others and are focused on the domestic hearth, and the Masterchef, who is typically male and engages in cooking only occasionally. Emerging trends, such as men’s increasing attention to the body and food, the growing importance of declaring shared responsibilities, and shifting attitudes towards cooking as a leisure activity, do not yet appear to be leading to fundamental changes in the processes through which gender is constructed or deconstructed in relation to domestic life and food practices.
Copyright (c) 2026 Agnieszka Maj , Wojciech Goszczyński, Anna Wójtewicz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In India, animal farming is often presented as the main cause of the development of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the environment. On top of being one of the pillars of global pharmaceutical production, India is also a major provider of food animals at the global scale. The importance of pharmaceutical manufacturing and the large scale of animal farming have turned the presence of antibiotic residues and resistant genes in the environment into a worrying phenomenon. In this paper, our team focuses on the shrimp industry in Tamil Nadu. Beyond AMR, shrimp cultivation has also been implicated in ecological degradation and the dispossession of local farmers, and has produced a landscape that visually invokes quite literal ruination. Due to the saline water that is piped in to fill shrimp ponds, soil salinity levels are often so high as to not only preclude any other farming activity, but also to kill trees and other remaining plant life. Multiple struggles have emerged in Tamil Nadu around this ruination and led to new legislation on coastal aquaculture and AMR in August 2023. This paper will focus on this new legal development and the controversies around it in Tamil Nadu, India.
Copyright (c) 2026 Marine Al Dahdah, Renaud Colson, Arunkumar Abhimanue Sulochana, Prabhakar Jayaprakash https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Discussion of Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge by Charlotte Biltekoff
On November 25th 2024, the RC-40 book club held a meeting to discuss Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge by Charlotte Biltekoff. This review is the product of our collective discussion.
Copyright (c) 2025 Katharine Legun, Madeleine Fairbairn, Xaq Frohlich, Mary Hendrickson, Romain Blancaneaux, Marilyn Asiedu Sefa, Eugene Setsoafia, Mylène Tanferri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Food systems, transformation, and politics
This paper argues agri-food scholars need to engage more critically with conceptualisations of food systems and politics of transformation, given current debates about food system sustainability, climate change, planetary boundaries, resilience and well-being, alongside new politics, social movements and forms of protest that disrupt established ways of deliberating, agreeing and enacting social change. As food systems exceed established ‘thresholds’, transformative change is needed. However, de- and re-politicisation, oscillating from post-political to new modes of hyper-politics, challenge not only food system knowledge production, but also the socio-material actions needed to enact food system transformation pathways at scale. Against this context, the paper summarises the contribution the Special Section makes to food system transformation politics, highlighting a ‘politics of knowledge’, ‘politics of transformation’ and ‘politics of feeling’ nexus of relations. We conclude by calling for further research on food-politics relations given their role in determining whether we achieve or not the food system changes necessary for the health of people and the planet.
Food System Transformation, Politicisation and Depoliticisation
Copyright (c) 2025 Damian Maye, Gianluca Brunori, Allison Loconto, Nadine Arnold, Jessica Duncan, Francesca Galli, Joost Dessein, Ritwick Ghosh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The European debate on Front-of-Pack Labels
Since the mid-twentieth century, global agri-food systems have been increasingly shaped by what McMichael defines as the corporate food regime, characterised by the commodification of food and the growing distance between production and consumption. In this context, nutritional labelling has emerged as a key policy instrument to address rising rates of overweight and obesity across Europe. This article argues that Front-of-Pack Labels (FoPLs) are not neutral technical devices based on universal nutritional science, but politically and culturally situated instruments of public action. Focusing on the controversy between France's Nutri-Score and Italy's NutrInform Battery, the article analyses how competing food cultures, economic interests, and epistemological assumptions about health shape national positions on food labelling. Drawing on food regime theory and the sociology of public policy instruments, the paper shows that the Italian resistance to Nutri-Score reflects broader concerns about the symbolic, territorial, and economic value of traditional foods, rather than purely technical disagreements over nutritional communication. The European debate on FoPLs thus reveals the inherently political nature of nutritional information and highlights the limits of standardised labelling as a standalone solution for promoting healthy and sustainable diets.
Copyright (c) 2026 Antonello Podda, Alessandra Piccoli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In 2024, a wave of farmers’ protests shook policymaking in the EU. The protests began in reaction to national policy measures and soon coalesced into a unified movement across Europe, directed against the CAP reform (into force since January 2023). The protests took an anti-European tone and were supported by anti-system political forces. In response, European Institutions modified salient environmental aspects of the reform and withdrew, or blocked policy measures proposed within the Farm to Fork strategy. The Head of the EU Commission initiated a “strategic dialogue” with key stakeholders to develop a common vision for the future of the EU agriculture and food sector. This paper examines the relationship between crisis, (de)politicization, and polarization in the CAP reform process, with a focus on how actors mobilize strategies to politicize, depoliticize, or polarize policy debates. Drawing on a conceptual framework that integrates recent literature on (de)politicization and consensus-building, and a thematic analysis of policy discourse from 2021 to 2024, we explore how institutional dynamics and stakeholder interactions shape the prospects for transformative food system change. We argue that consensus or compromise-building is a crucial mechanism for transformational change and the very process of creating it is at the heart of debates on (de)politicization vs (de)polarization. We conclude that deliberative arenas and independent science and media can play a complementary role in this debate, by fostering dialogue, highlighting trade-offs and establishing the basis for finding compromises.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gianluca Brunori, Sabrina Arcuri, Francesca Galli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Geographical indication (GI) identifies a good as originating in a particular territory where a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. GI protects origin-specified products and has been recognised as a mechanism for food system relocalisation and revitalisation. The rapid expansion of GI in recent years in the global South has drawn the interest of scholars of rural economic development, yet there has been a dearth of scholarship considering the role of territory in creating, managing, and marketing such standards. In contrast, we address global South GI through application of a localised agro-food systems (LAFS) approach, which addresses the interrelationship between identity-based foods and the territory. In this article, we examine how territorially exogenous and endogenous dynamics shape local dynamics of GI implementation and the capacity of GI to reinforce and sustain elements of a LAFS. Using a case study approach, we explore GI for coffee grown on the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador and analyse how territorial resources are mobilised through GI. We demonstrate that the Galápagos coffee sector exhibits elements of a LAFS, including a distinct coffee heritage and potential for collective action in production and commercialisation. However, intellectual property laws, agro-export policy priorities, institutional dysfunction, and lack of local cooperation impeded the mobilisation of territorial resources. Our case study demonstrates the analytical purchase gained from examining the role of territory for tropical commodity sectors characterised by territorial disembeddedness, complementing and extending critical scholarship on global South GI.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Matthew J. Zinsli, Dr. Rafael Villota-Jetzer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Impacting conventional foodways with food democracy
Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) have received growing attention for their potential to promote sustainability, foster social innovation, and challenge dominant agri-food regimes. These value-driven initiatives offer both practical alternatives and critical responses to industrialised food systems, seeking to align food production and consumption with ecological, social, and ethical priorities. This paper examines four AFNs across different European contexts to explore how diverse scaling strategies – scaling deep, up, out, and through – are employed to expand their reach and influence. While often situated at the margins of conventional markets, AFNs serve as laboratories for experimenting with democratic governance and participatory organisational models. Through an analysis of their internal dynamics and external alliances, the paper shows how scaling efforts intersect with broader aims of food democracy, particularly in enhancing citizen agency and inclusivity. The findings underscore the importance of re-politicising food systems and building transformative pathways toward more just and sustainable food futures.
Diversity for More Sustainable Food Systems
Copyright (c) 2026 Francesca Forno, Michela Giovannini, Ewa Kopczynska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Combining political ecology and pragmatist sociology to repoliticise agrifood systems’ transformations at the territorial scale
Recent crises have led to an increased framing of agrifood systems transformations through the lens of food supply at different scales (global, national, territorial), sometimes justifying neo-productivist perspectives, and often at the expense of environmental issues and social justice. In turn, this produced a broader depoliticisation of food systems transformations despite an institutional politicisation, i.e. an increased integration in policy narratives, often with limited real effects. We suggest that pragmatist sociology and political ecology might offer fruitful insights for addressing this issue in a repoliticised way. These two literatures show how people identify problems affecting agri-food systems and collectively work to find solutions while, at the same time, recognising the plurality of understandings of transition pathways and highlighting the mechanisms through which some actors and worldviews are neglected when it comes to defining possible paths of transformation. Inspired by these literatures, we have established three key guiding questions dealing with the processes of definition of the food systems’ transformations as a shared and collective problem, the analysis of the reconfigurations of power relations, and the recognition of the diversity of visions of the food system. These guiding questions, that can orientate both analytical and transformative perspectives, emerged and were tested in three territorial case studies in France and Brazil. They appear useful not only for the scientific analysis of de/repoliticisation processes, primarily because they reveal the contrasted effects of the increasing institutionalisation and legitimisation of agrifood transitions but also for developing a transformative approach allowing to repoliticise this issue.
Copyright (c) 2018 Claire Lamine, Juliano Palm, Martina Tuscano, Claudia Schmitt, Morgan Jenatton, Terry Marsden https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Contribution of Public Policies to the Scaling Up of Agroecology in Peru
This article evaluates the combined contribution of Peruvian public policies to laying a foundation for scaling up agroecology. Through qualitative content analysis, the study explores Peruvian public policies and identifies the conditions they foster or fail to support, which may respectively facilitate or hinder the scaling up of agroecology in the country. Results show that, although agroecology gained limited institutional recognition in Peru in 2021, public policies remain largely focused on economic growth, agribusiness development, and market integration. While some measures support ecological practices and acknowledge cultural and social aspects, these are often framed within goals of productivity and profitability or directed toward organic agriculture, thereby hindering the comprehensive scaling up of agroecology. Nevertheless, the research identifies openings in public policy, such as efforts to strengthen governance structures among smallholder and family farmers, legitimize rural communities' rights, and recognize diverse knowledge systems, that present opportunities for grassroots agroecological initiatives to expand. The study concludes that for agroecology to meaningfully scale up in Peru, public policy must shift from an economic-centric model to one that fosters ecologically sound, culturally grounded, and socially just farming systems, with greater autonomy for local producers from global markets.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cesar Manuel Llanos Puga, Joost Dessein, Jonas Adriaensens https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper explores how organic farming unfolds in Bogor Regency, Indonesia, by looking closely at the power dynamics that shape its meaning, practices, and governance. Rather than treating organic farming as a fixed technical system, we approach it as a contested space where farmers, state agencies, NGOs, certification bodies, and private actors bring different values, interests, and forms of authority. Using a combination of stakeholder power analysis (SPA), political ecology, and food regime theory, the research draws on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions in two villages with contrasting institutional landscapes. We find that key barriers, such as high certification costs, limited market support, and fragmented policy implementation, are not simply technical problems but reflect deeper struggles over who gets to define sustainability. In response, smallholder farmers and civil society actors are creating grassroots innovations, including peer-to-peer mentoring systems and participatory guarantee schemes, that reclaim agency from top-down structures. Still, institutional silos and the lack of meaningful coordination continue to undermine inclusive progress. Our findings call for stronger connections across institutional boundaries. We argue that building trust-based spaces of dialogue between certification agencies, advisory services, and farmer networks is essential not only to make organic farming more viable, but also to ensure that it reflects the lived realities and aspirations of those who practice it. By foregrounding local knowledge and ethical commitments, this study contributes to broader conversations on agroecological transitions and more just food systems.
Copyright (c) 2025 Handoyo, Subarudi, Syahyuti, Lukas Rumboko Wibowo, Kushartati Budiningsih, Alfonsus H. Harianja, Atika Zahra Rahmayanti, Mohamad Iqbal, Ane Dwi Septina, Tria Anggita Hafsari, Sanusi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Rethinking Agrifood Systems in (Post-)Pandemic Times
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant changes in the global agri-food system. It disrupted food supply chains, created labour shortages, instilled fears of food insecurity, and altered market dynamics. The pandemic also highlighted the resilience of alternative food systems through the shortening of food supply chains, a greater appreciation for local agricultural production, increased focus on sustainable practices, the use of technological platforms for direct farmer-to-consumer sales, and policy interventions providing financial and regulatory support to ensure food security. The two special sections of IJSAF titled “The Food System in the (Post-)Pandemic World: Disruptions, Vulnerability, Resilience, and Alternatives” offer an in-depth exploration of the challenges faced by food systems and how various actors - populations, policymakers, and food producers - responded to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. The nine articles included in these sections present ethnographic and qualitative research from different parts of the world and engage critically in discussions regarding disruptions and resilience within agrifood systems during the pandemic. The authors explore how COVID-19 influenced power dynamics among various actors in the food system. These articles are selected from papers presented at the mini-conference of the ISA Research Committee on Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC40), which took place in October 2022 at Leipzig University. Drawing from the conference and the published articles, this editorial introduction discusses the methodological and theoretical strengths and challenges faced by critical agrifood studies in times of crisis.
The Food System in the (Post-)Pandemic World
Copyright (c) 2024 Atakan Büke, José Duarte Ribeiro Ribeiro , Hilde Bjørkhaug, Sarah Ruth Sippel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The concept of seasonality is both quietly and publicly discursive, with everyday consumers referring artlessly to seasons for consumption and seasons for production in the same terms, and producers exploiting these expectations to expand seasons for commercial reasons. Seasons are nationalized, both to frame cultural identity and to create the foundation for consumptive activities, such as festivals, holidays, and regional food. In this way, seasonality can be constitutive of both cultural and economic value, with each sustaining the other endogenously. The consequence is a concept of seasonality that is both conceptually stuffed with expedient markers of consumption and production, but also hollow, lacking an anchor in the natural phenomena, such as agricultural cycles. We argue that this artifice, the disembedding of seasonality from environmental phenomena, is facilitated by two processes: the engagement of capital to expand, change or discipline agricultural cycles; and the elaboration of seasonality ‘labeling’ through the converging interests of marketers, tourism promoters, and governments. The success of these processes can be seen in the enduring value of temporal notions of “seasonal”, which consumers continue to respect and uphold in consumption valorization, even as its basis is quietly undermined by the processes above. We present the case of Japan, where conspicuous references to seasonality are widespread, and in which adherence to seasonality is considered superior to other regions. We find that the potential cognitive dissonance related to contradictions against environmental seasons is minimized by the mobilization of coercive marketing and propaganda that can normalize hyper-modern forms of seasonality.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hart Feuer, Romain Blancaneaux https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Alternative Food Networks and Green Infrastructures
Urbanisation, growing population pressure, and extreme weather conditions all contribute to food insecurity. In greenhouse farming, vegetables are harvested in a controlled environment, resulting in high-quality production with minimum resources. Such green infrastructures have also become promising in urban areas and non-arable lands. In this paper, I focus on community-based greenhouses in the Netherlands, which are primarily managed by volunteers and local residents, and on their varied conceptualisations of food production and innovation. I argue that these Alternative Food Networks are not homogeneous, and that their polymorphism reflects an intrinsic diversity in both organisational cultures and materiality. Despite this diversity, these green infrastructures converge in their emphasis on producing high-quality food and prioritising the management of nature and biodiversity, rather than any reliance on mechanical manipulation. My research involves conducting primary research studies, based on a mixed-method approach combining the use of surveys, semi-structured interviews, observational studies, and site visits around the Netherlands. I posit that community-based greenhouses constitute a hands-on agricultural practice that relies heavily on trust and on fluidity between consumers and producers. This fluidity is enacted through the interconnected roles and knowledge circulation within the greenhouse ecosystem. Understanding technology in use, experiential expertise – which often contains tacit components –, and a knowledge base that is critical to the effective operation of the greenhouse as a system, are integral to this innovative approach to agriculture. The paper examines the role of smart technologies and the emergence of visions in facilitating this ecosystem, while highlighting the vital interplay between growers and consumers in reimagining food production and sustainability.
Copyright (c) 2026 Meilin Lyu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This study investigates the phenomenon of meat consumption among meat-avoiding consumer groups, such as vegetarians and vegans. While previous research has found the phenomenon to be relatively common, knowledge about why it occurs remains limited. Drawing on interviews with 15 young Danish meat avoiders, the study addresses this gap and challenges conceptualisations of vegetarian meat consumption as dietary lapses or violations. It explores how participants use dietary labels and how meat consumption is organized in their everyday lives. The findings show that labels such as "vegetarian" or "vegan" are often used to communicate usual dietary practices, either due to the lack of an appropriate alternative label or as a rejection of strict adherence as a prerequisite for using dietary labels. Additionally, the study finds that instances of meat consumption often result from meat avoiders navigating competing end-goals and social procedures of proper conduct across different meal situations. The study concludes that vegetarian meat consumption is ordinary and expectable behaviour among socially sensitive meat-avoiding consumers, who balance multiple priorities in daily life. By showing vegetarian meat consumption to be a socially situated practice rather than a deviation, the article contributes a more nuanced understanding of consumers' use of dietary labels. The study concludes with implications for research and policy and discusses implications for the public understanding of meat-avoiding consumers' use of dietary labels.
Copyright (c) 2025 Morten Wendler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This study analyses the political dynamics of nitrogen governance in Flanders, a contentious issue shaped by the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. Combining the Policy Arrangement Approach with theories of (de)politicisation, we trace the policy’s evolution from Natura 2000 implementation to the 2024 decree. We identify a recurring cycle: judicial interventions, particularly concerning Article 6 of the Habitats Directive, temporarily disrupt a closed political process by imposing new evidential standards. However, these openings are quickly reabsorbed. Administrative mechanisms—technical thresholds, model-based attribution, and neo-corporatist bargaining—systematically re-channel conflict into narrow, technical procedures While consultation appears to expand, the influence of alternative claims and knowledge remains minimal, constrained by calculative tools and cabinet politics. Consequently, potential synergies between agriculture and nature, such as agroecology, are depoliticised; their discourses gain visibility but leave budgets and core instruments unchanged. The current shift towards emission-based instruments risks repeating this cycle if treated as a mere technical fix. For nitrogen governance to be both effective and democratically robust, it requires deliberative spaces for co-designing policy, transparent evidence practices open to counter-expertise, and financing that enables systemic transition rather than incremental pollution abatement.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maarten Crivits, Louis Tessier, David De Pue , Lies Messely https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Knowledge on agroecology disseminated by the FAO
This study assesses the knowledge on agroecology disseminated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) through its Agroecology Knowledge Hub (AKH), from a human-nature relationship perspective. It focuses on the knowledge contained in scientific articles published between 2014 and 2023. Using a theoretical framework based on the concept of human-nature relationship and a methodology rooted in content analysis techniques, the study seeks to answer the following research question: What knowledge on agroecology that contributes to the reconnection between humans and nature has the FAO disseminated during the period 2014-2023? To this end, the study: (1) depicts the main trends and geopolitical distribution of the knowledge disseminated through the AKH during the specified period, (2) reveals the human-nature relationship perspectives embodied in this knowledge, and (3) delves into the state of this knowledge. The findings suggest that the knowledge disseminated through the FAO’s AKH does not fully contribute to the reconnection between humans and nature within the agricultural realm. The discrepancy may be attributed to patterns of coloniality of knowledge, the preference for disseminating knowledge rooted in positivist/post-positivist foundations and in an extractivist logic and a mechanistic view of nature, and the potential perpetuation of the Western worldview in the production of knowledge. The study concludes by urging the FAO to take ethical responsibility for its knowledge dissemination, and recommends that knowledge producers challenge prevailing theoretical frameworks and epistemological positions guiding the generation of knowledge on agroecology.
Copyright (c) 2025 Federico Augusto Murriel Gonzales https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This research examines the impact of authentic local cuisine on tourist satisfaction and revisit intention, with a focus on the mediating roles of destination image and destination branding. Utilizing a conceptual model and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), this study analyzes data from 203 tourists. The findings reveal that authentic local cuisine significantly and positively influences tourist satisfaction, both directly and indirectly through destination image and destination branding. Furthermore, tourist satisfaction is identified as the most critical factor influencing revisit intention. The study provides valuable insights for destination marketers and policymakers, highlighting the competitive advantage of leveraging authentic cuisine as an effective branding strategy and offering practical steps to enhance tourist satisfaction and revisit intention.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alvaro Dias, Anastasiia Posheliuznaia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Social movements play a critical role in politicising food systems, often contesting and moralising markets to advance their social change agenda. To induce moralisation processes, social movements frequently deploy market devices. Examining the case of the creation and development of the Swiss fair trade flower market over time (1990–2005), we investigate how several market devices are being used in moralising a market, including the intended and unintended consequences of this process. Our findings reveal how the sequencing of devices—the gradual build-up of various devices upon one another—enabled the market-pioneering movement to first ‘heat up’ moral concerns and raise awareness, and later ‘cool down’ these concerns by specifying accountabilities and obligations to scale the market. However, the sequencing of devices resulted in a moralised market concentrated on a powerful device—a certification standard for plantations—which in turn triggered tensions within the fair trade movement. The market pioneers became marginalised, and the initial fair trade idea—supporting smallholders—became fundamentally renegotiated at international level. These findings advance our understanding of the mainstreaming process of fair trade, explain how fair trade has come to encompass its first non-food product (i.e., flowers) and planation production, and contribute to research on movement-induced markets by highlighting the unintended consequences and intra-movement conflicts of building moralised markets through devising.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nadine Arnold, Birthe Soppe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Empowering Farmers for Sustainable Food Security
This study investigates the role of structural empowerment in promoting sustainable food security in rural south-eastern Tehran, Iran. Despite its agricultural potential, the region faces persistent challenges due to weak empowerment structures. While most previous studies have focused on psychological or gender-based empowerment, this research applies Kanter's structural empowerment theory—initially developed for formal organisations—to rural agriculture. It examines how access to information, resources, power, and support influences food security across environmental-ecological, socio-economic, political-cultural, and infrastructural dimensions. Data from 400 farmers across 37 villages were analysed using multiple linear regression and structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings reveal significant positive impacts of structural empowerment on sustainable food security. These impacts arise from awareness, knowledge, and skills, along with training, association, and both formal and informal power. In contrast, institutionalism exhibited no statistically significant effect, highlighting the region's formal structures' inefficiency. These results underscore the importance of social networks, informal institutions, and collective agency in enhancing farmers' resilience and decision-making capacity. The study advocates shifting from top-down, technocratic policies to participatory, bottom-up empowerment strategies and recommends institutional reform, education and strengthening of local associations as key steps toward improving food system sustainability. This research offers a novel contribution by localising structural empowerment theory within an underexplored rural setting, providing valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars in agricultural development. It calls for multidimensional policy interventions that address both individual and structural factors. Future studies should investigate gender disparities, conduct cross-regional comparisons, and refine empowerment metrics to enhance the applicability and relevance of findings across contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Naser Shafieisabet, Neginsadat Mirvahedi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Long-Term Social Network Dynamics in the Revival of Organic Mountain Cereals in the Swiss Alps
Cereal cultivation has largely disappeared from high-altitude farming in the European Alps due to livestock specialisation and economic constraints. In the Swiss canton of Grisons, however, the Gran Alpin cooperative has revived organic mountain cereal production since the late 1980s. This study analyses the long-term development of the social networks that supported this revival, with a particular focus on the cooperative’s role. Using longitudinal Social Network Analysis (SNA), we examined collaboration and information exchange among actors in three periods (before 1995, 1996–2009, 2010–2022). Data were collected through expert interviews and an online survey, complemented by actor perceptions of influence. The results show that both collaboration and information exchange networks expanded substantially over time. Collaboration became progressively more distributed across actors, while information exchange became more centralised around specific coordinating nodes. Local actors consistently outnumbered non-local actors, and their share increased to nearly 70% in the most recent period. At the same time, non-local actors remained structurally relevant within the value chain. Across all periods, the Gran Alpin cooperative occupied core positions in both networks and ranked among the most central and influential actors. By tracing more than two decades of network development, the study provides rare longitudinal insights into how collaboration, coordination, and actor roles evolve within a regional mountain value chain, highlighting the structural dynamics through which such initiatives are sustained over time.
Copyright (c) 2026 Carmen Forrer, Nathalia Trüb, Emilia Schmitt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Advancing early-career agri-food researchers publishing opportunities in Sub Saharan Africa
Social science researchers from Sub-Saharan Africa are underrepresented in internationally published and peer-reviewed journals. Their low representation is often attributed to factors such as limited funding, unfamiliarity with scholarly styles and language, and the lack of a support network that provides mentoring. Recognizing the knowledge gaps resulting from lack of training and exposure, the Research Committee on Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC40) of the International Sociological Association (ISA) supported the development of a two-and-a-half-day virtual workshop and conference participation to address these concerns. Based on our experience, it is evident that virtual workshops provide an inexpensive and rapid avenue for capacity building. However, proficiency in producing high-quality publications requires continuous training and strong support from a mentoring network. Common difficulties observed include the lack of a conceptual framework to position field survey (or qualitative) results within current scientific debates. Weak engagement with theoretical concepts constantly debated in the social sciences also suggest that enduring competencies cannot be achieved through a short online workshop alone.
Emerging Scholars of Agriculture and Food
Copyright (c) 2024 Fridah Mubichi-Kut, Allison Marie Loconto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Sustainability assessment methodologies such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are becoming increasingly prevalent in the evaluation of agri-food value-chains. Proponents of such assessment methodologies argue that they offer a factual and robust measure of the sustainability impacts of food production. Yet, assessment methodologies have attracted criticism for portraying a partial representation of the phenomenon. For example, existing LCA models tend to operationalize simplified and generalizable ideals of sustainability. These operationalizations mobilize understandings of sustainability that may clash with the grounded, experientially-based understandings of local actors such as farmers. Using a theory of translation and the concept of immutable mobiles, we consider how LCA seeks to stabilize a definition of sustainability by delineating what aspects of agriculture may be considered relevant for sustainability and what is irrelevant, what is made visible in sustainability discourse, and what can be ignored. We then apply our analysis to a case study of quinoa farming in Europe. We compare what quinoa farmers identify as central to sustainability to what is included in dominant LCA methodologies to highlight what is excluded from LCAs: bodies, place, and qualitative aspects of the farm. In describing what is excluded, we consider how farmers are disempowered through definitions of sustainability evolved through new assessment tools, and consider how these elements of the farm become a moot point for sustainable assessment and instead are central to political contestation. Finally, the paper argues for the transformation of power relations in the sustainability sector, which tend to isolate farmers, through the construction of new relationships between farmers and the research sector, as well as the valorization of farmers' knowledge in the definition of sustainable agriculture being advanced in policy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Giulia Volpini, Katharine Legun, Mark Vicol, Federico Andreotti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Integrating Land-Use and Food Planning for the Re-territorialisation of Agricultural Activities
The re-territorialisation of agricultural activities (RAA) refers to the promotion of local food production and its diversification geared towards local consumption. RAA helps to shape the local food system, a subject that is increasingly studied with regard to planning. Land-use and food planning are two local policy areas associated with RAA, yet the way in which they interact to facilitate RAA remains unclear. This research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the integration between land-use and food planning by reviewing the scientific literature in these planning fields in the Global North over the past 24 years. We reviewed 161 publications pertaining to RAA-related interests and instruments, intersecting action fields and governance mechanisms. The literature shows the complementarity between land-use and food planning in areas related to RAA, and the consequent need to develop coherent planning strategies to improve the effective implementation of RAA. Land-use planning has a spatial dimension with regulatory instruments, whereas food planning often has a food system and life cycle dimension with strategic instruments. Access to land, collective food infrastructures, and farming practices are three areas around which land-use and food planning can have synergies. Coherence and synergy can also be favoured by a well-established co-governance model, which implies collaboration between sectors, multi-level governmental actors, and a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes. We conclude with suggestions for planning practitioners and provide a future research agenda by appealing for more empirical studies on the intersectional fields of land-use and food planning.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tianzhu Liu, Romain Melot, Frédéric Wallet, Coline Perrin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Role of Informal and Formal Seed Systems on Seed Security in Malawi
Since the early 1990s, most African countries have implemented seed sector policy reforms aimed at strengthening formal seed systems to enhance agricultural productivity through improved access to high-yielding varieties. However, empirical evidence on the outcomes of these reforms remains mixed. This study examines the policy implications of seed system reforms in Malawi, focusing on the operationalisation of legal and institutional frameworks, seed availability (in terms of quantity and crop diversity), and changes in smallholder farmers’ seed-sourcing patterns. The analysis draws on secondary data from grey literature, large-scale Integrated Household Panel Survey (IHPS) datasets, and primary data collected through fieldwork, including focus group discussions (FGDs). Results indicate that the operationalisation of legal and institutional frameworks for the formal seed system has lagged behind private sector growth. Moreover, private sector expansion has not translated into increased seed quantities or greater crop diversity in the market, leading to increased reliance on informal seed systems by smallholders. The FGDs reveal that poverty, limited availability, and poor seed quality are key barriers to the adoption and use of certified seed. These results suggest that current reform approaches inadequately address smallholder seed access constraints. The study highlights the need for more inclusive seed policies that recognise and support the complementarities between formal and informal seed systems in order to improve smallholder access to high-quality seeds and strengthen agricultural resilience.
Copyright (c) 2026 Henry Geoffrey Hunga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Analysis of the Narrative Grammars of Cultured Meat in UK Food and Farming Media
Cultured meat (CM), meat produced through animal-derived cell cultures, has garnered considerable media attention. At the moment, there is a set of ‘loud’ voices and particular ‘grammars’ that primarily dictate the current media framings of CM. To date, very little research has attempted to understand what the food and farming sector think of CM and, moreover, its potential impacts on farmers, their livelihoods and the farming sector more broadly. This study looks to bring to the fore these more marginalised and understudied food and farming voices, in the form of their legacy media and social media narratives, to explore and analyse the construction and circulation of the grammars of CM in digital, online spaces. To this end, through an iterative sampling procedure, we collected and qualitatively and quantitatively analysed the framing grammars of 147 pieces of online discursive and visual media discussing CM from 2017 to 2023. Analysing the discursive grammars of CM suggested three prominent grammars of CM: 1) CM is a ‘solutionist’ technofix for the UK and explicitly Britain post-Brexit, 2) CM is a ‘virtuous’ technology given its environmental and food security possibilities, and 3) CM is ‘in tension’ with the farming sector as well as consumers’ health and taste buds. Farmers in particular perceive CM as an existential threat to their livelihoods and livestock farming, with some of these grammars verging on the conspiratorial. Yet, some farmers did not see CM as a realistic or potential threat. A final grammar surrounded the affordability of CM.
Copyright (c) 2024 Michael Goodman, Adele Wylie, Alexandra Sexton, Katherine Lewis, David Rose, Tom MacMillan, Louise Manning https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In many places worldwide, government-imposed lockdowns during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in harshening food insecurity for urban residents. The lockdowns had contrasting effects in the rural areas of the Cayambe canton, north of Ecuador. This article shows the different forms of solidarity and reciprocity that emerged amongst consumers and producers from Kayambi communities during the pandemic. Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork amongst agroecological producers in 2020 and 2021, I describe their challenges in guaranteeing food security and their strategies for generating new local markets for agroecological production. At first, like peasants in other parts of the world, producers in Cayambe faced challenges in distributing food in mainstream distribution channels, a worldwide phenomenon of food surplus accumulation (de Wit 2020). Later, a shift towards increasing agrobiodiversity and decentralizing agroecological markets became the primary strategy of Kayambis. In dialogue with Altieri and Nicholls (2020), I expand on the relevance of agroecology to reconstructing agriculture in the post-covid. I show that when capitalist structures fail to guarantee peoples’ food security, other economic principles become more evident in daily life practices.
Copyright (c) 2024 Larissa da Silva Araujo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Introducing “warm glow” as a key psychological motive on consumer willingness to consume organic food
There has been an upsurge of purchasing of green products in Indonesia in recent years, accompanied by increasing consumer expectations as regards the value of the products they consume. This study shows that one of the key factors influencing consumer attitudes and willingness to consume (WTC) organic foods is the warm glow effect, whereas altruistic and egoistic values ​​were previously put forward as the main drivers of organic consumption. This study applied a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to 337 Indonesian respondents. The findings show that while altruistic and egoistic values influence consumer behaviour, the warm glow motive provides additional benefits for consumers of organic food. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dhika Cahyasita, Irham Irham, Jamhari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0