Producers’ transition to alternative food practices in rural China: Social mobilization and cultural reconstruction in the formation of alternative economies

Author

Qian Forrest ZHANG, Singapore Management UniversityFollow

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

9-2023

Abstract

The shift from the conventional agri-food system to alternative practices is a challenging transition for agricultural producers, yet surprisingly under-studied. Little research has examined the social and cultural processes in rural communities that mobilize producers and construct and sustain producer-driven alternative food networks (AFNs). For AFNs to go beyond just offering “alternative foods” or “alternative networks” and to be constructed as “alternative economies”, this transformation in the producer community is indispensable. This paper presents a case study of a rural cooperative in Shanxi, China. The discontent with both productivist agriculture and the social decay in communities motivated a group of women to engage in a decade-long process of social mobilization, cultural reconstruction, and learning by experimentation. Through this, they developed an alternative vision and successfully created a localized alternative socio-economic model, which I call “anti-productivism”. It prioritizes ecological sustainability, self-reliance, reciprocity, and cultural values over output maximization, productivity growth, commodity exchange, and monetary gains. This case contrasts sharply with the urban-initiated, consumer-driven AFNs studied in the China literature, which mostly just offered alternative foods but brought little change to the producer community. It shows that the alternative economy must be embedded in an alternative community united by strong social bonds and shared cultural values.

Keywords

Alternative food networks (AFN), Alternative economies, Productivism, Cooperatives, Moral economy, Agroecology

Discipline

Agricultural and Resource Economics | Asian Studies | Rural Sociology | Sociology

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Agriculture and Human Values

First Page

1

Last Page

16

ISSN

0889-048X

Identifier

10.1007/s10460-023-10509-4

Publisher

Springer

Citation

ZHANG, Qian Forrest.(2023). Producers’ transition to alternative food practices in rural China: Social mobilization and cultural reconstruction in the formation of alternative economies. Agriculture and Human Values, , 1-16.

Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3794

Copyright Owner and License

Author

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10509-4