Farm to institution programs: organizing practices that enable and constrain Vermont’s alternative food supply chains

Heiss, Sarah N.; Sevoian, Noelle; Conner, David S.; Berlin, Linda

doi:10.1007/s10460-014-9527-1

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The most cited examples are farm-to-school programs, which aim to increase the share of locally produced food in school lunches in the USA by connecting food producers directly with schools in a collaborative program [18]. Local school catering value chains are commonly described using concepts such as short food supply chains and values-based supply chains, e.g., [15,[19][20][21]:…”

Section: Local Food Value Chains In School Cateringmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Local Gap in Sustainable Food Procurement: Organic Vegetables in Berlin’s School Meals

et al. 2018

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Organic and local food plays an important role in the discussion of sustainable public procurement for school catering services. The present study investigates the value chain supplying school catering with organic produce, using the organic vegetable industry in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in Germany as an example. The qualitative case study employs a structuration theory approach to explore value chain actors’ perspectives and their practices. Data is collected by conducting 14 in-depth interviews with actors on different supply chain levels (farming, wholesale, and catering) and analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis. The results suggest that, while organic food is generally important in school catering in Berlin, locally produced organic vegetables play only a minor role. A constraining factor is the lack of incentives for the use of locally produced organic food in the procurement guidelines, combined with a very limited budget for sourcing. Also, there are no preprocessing facilities in the region, while work organization in school catering services depends heavily on preprocessed food. From a farmers’ perspective, focusing on process grade vegetables is rarely a common marketing strategy.

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Section: Local Food Value Chains In School Cateringmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Local Gap in Sustainable Food Procurement: Organic Vegetables in Berlin’s School Meals

et al. 2018

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“…Confronted with potential demand saturation in these direct-to-consumer markets (Low et al, 2015), small-and midscale farm enterprises (SMFEs) and practitioners in local-food system development have sought to link SMFEs into the "mainstream" market channels through which the vast majority of food is sold. Local food sold through intermediated market channels is often described in terms of SFME's "scaling-up" for larger markets (e.g., Day-Farnsworth, McCowan, Miller, & Pfeiffer, 2009;Friedmann, 2007;Heiss, Sevoian, Conner, & Berlin, 2015). One strategy to build cross-scale connections between SMFEs and larger buyers is for product to "piggy-back" on conventional distributional and retail infrastructure (Bloom & Hinrichs, 2011;Clark & Inwood, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaboration and Commitment in a Regional Supermarket Supply Chain

Dunning

2016

JAFSCD

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This article presents findings from a longitudinal case study of efforts by a 100-store regional grocery store chain to localize its supply of fresh produce. The study was conducted to better understand the development of collaborative supply chains between farmers and grocery stores, and the broader potential that grocery store chains might play in localizing food systems. Data consists of three years of the chain's local produce purchases via direct-store-delivery from farms to stores; a survey of store managers and farmervendors; and interviews with farmers and grocery store and chain-level management. Analysis is structured by a conceptual framework that links collaboration to trust, which undergirds mutual commitment and mutual dependency between supply chain members, and which is dependent upon effective communication and positive prior market exchanges. The study finds that organizational structures constraining single-store autonomy in purchasing and pricing, coupled with supply variability from farms, limits trust-building and the establishment of mutual commitments and dependencies. These constraints, however, do not completely exclude direct-store-delivery as a strategy for food system localization and grower market diversification. Practitioners can support the building of collaborative supply chains through capacity-building and shepherding of early market exchanges between growers and stores, and supporting individual growers or groups of growers to become "preferred vendors" for regional grocery chains.

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“…The simplicity of the ingenuity that occurs at the organization level makes the aggregate impact of such instances at the system level opaque, perhaps even elusive. Consequently, the grand narrative on LFS development has mostly neglected the impact of the routine in favor of celebrating cases of explicit innovation (e.g., Bagdonis et al ; Hayden and Buck ; Heiss et al ) or the overt confrontation of bureaucratic barriers and sources of systemic oppression (e.g., Allen ; Guthman , ; Hassanein ; Hinrichs ). We do not argue that these established lines of inquiry should be abandoned.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local food practitioners are known to be motivated by a range of community, financial, political, sociocultural, and spiritual agendas, beliefs, (Lyson 2014;Mars and Schau 2017a;Tregear 2011). The organizational forms and strategic initiatives that shape the structure and impact of LFSs also vary widely and include community gardens (Macias 2008;Turner 2011), community-supported agriculture (CSA) (Hayden and Buck 2012;Uribe, Winham, and Wharton 2012), farmers' markets (Beckie, Kennedy, and Wittman 2012;Wittman, Beckie, and Hergesheimer 2012), and farm-to-institution initiatives (Bagdonis, Hinrichs, and Schafft 2009;Heiss et al 2015). Furthermore, the ways in which LFSs emerge and evolve vary from one locale or region to another, adding greater complexity and heterogeneity to the broader local food movement (Hinrichs 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Jazziness of Local Food Practice Work: Organization‐Level Ingenuity and the Entrepreneurial Formation and Evolution of Local Food Systems

Mars

Schau

2018

Rural Sociology

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Local food systems (LFSs) are complex and diverse social structures. The processes that influence the formation and evolution of LFSs are obscure, relatively uncoordinated, and somewhat mysterious. This study develops a stronger understanding of such processes through a qualitative exploration of the influence of routine practice work at the organization level on the entrepreneurial development of two distinct LFSs in the Southwest region of the United States: southeastern Arizona and Albuquerque−Santa Fe. We gathered data between August 2014 and September 2017 through semistructured interviews with and direct observations of 53 local food practitioners operating in one of the two LFSs. Theoretical principles of institutional entrepreneurship, embedded agency, and practice work guided the study. The findings reveal three forms of ingenuity (technological, organizational, policy) that regularly emerge through the day‐to‐day organization‐level work of local food practitioners. We argue that the system‐level influence of these forms, whether intentional or not, are indicators of the embedded agency of the practitioners and their capacities to serve as institutional entrepreneurs. We discuss implications for both practice and future research.

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Farm to institution programs: organizing practices that enable and constrain Vermont’s alternative food supply chains

Cited by 16 publications

References 26 publications

A Local Gap in Sustainable Food Procurement: Organic Vegetables in Berlin’s School Meals

A Local Gap in Sustainable Food Procurement: Organic Vegetables in Berlin’s School Meals

Collaboration and Commitment in a Regional Supermarket Supply Chain

The Jazziness of Local Food Practice Work: Organization‐Level Ingenuity and the Entrepreneurial Formation and Evolution of Local Food Systems

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