Call for Papers: Cooperatives and Alternative Food Systems Initiatives

The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development , the only international, peer-reviewed journal focused on the emerging field of food and agriculture–based community development,  has a call for papers on Cooperatives and Alternative Food Systems Initiatives

Cooperatives have historically been, and still are, important institutions in the global economic landscape, and have strong roots in food and agriculture. Conventional agriculture cooperatives work to increase the marketing power of farmers by pooling their products to achieve economies of scale. Traditional consumer cooperatives focus on increasing buying power to meet member needs. Recently there has been a surge in cooperative alternative food systems initiatives in the form of cooperative food hubs, cooperative local food networks, cooperative farmers’ markets and box schemes, worker‐owned food cooperatives, cooperative value chains, and cooperative food buying clubs. These initiatives represent new forms of collective engagement of consumers, producers and other actors as “food citizens” within “civic food networks,” the social/solidarity economy, and a “civic agriculture.” Cooperative food systems initiatives are differentiated from conventional cooperatives in that they:

1. reconnect farmers and consumers in more direct and meaningful ways;
2. sell to local and regional markets and through alternative networks such as CSAs, farm‐to‐school programs, farmers’ markets; or
3. promote food production, distribution, and consumption processes that are environmentally sound or socially just.