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How local is local? Determining the boundaries of local food in practice

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  • Shawn Trivette

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how local can be defined in practice. It contributes to the growing literature on local food systems and particularly our understanding of what counts as local and the elements that influence those contours. While most of our conceptions of local food tend to rely on an articulation of either proximity traveled or relationship between entities, I argue that a more nuanced and complete understanding must take account of both of these aspects. I draw on a dataset of locally oriented farm and food-related establishments in southern New England to identify how far local food travels in this region and how interconnected local food establishments are with one another and use these and other measures to tease out the tension between proximity and relationship as measures of local. I find that these two aspects (how far food travels and the number of connections with other local food entities) not only are connected to each other in a complex dynamic, but also are bound up with other structural factors as well (such as size, type of operation, and proximity to an urban center). Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

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  • Shawn Trivette, 2015. "How local is local? Determining the boundaries of local food in practice," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(3), pages 475-490, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:32:y:2015:i:3:p:475-490
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-014-9566-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Theresa Selfa & Joan Qazi, 2005. "Place, Taste, or Face-to-Face? Understanding Producer–Consumer Networks in “Local” Food Systems in Washington State," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(4), pages 451-464, December.
    2. Kim Darby & Marvin T. Batte & Stan Ernst & Brian Roe, 2008. "Decomposing Local: A Conjoint Analysis of Locally Produced Foods," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 476-486.
    3. Laura DeLind, 2002. "Place, work, and civic agriculture: Common fields for cultivation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(3), pages 217-224, September.
    4. Low, Sarah A. & Vogel, Stephen J., 2011. "Direct and Intermediated Marketing of Local Foods in the United States," Economic Research Report 118025, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Steven Schnell, 2013. "Food miles, local eating, and community supported agriculture: putting local food in its place," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(4), pages 615-628, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Shawn A. Trivette, 2019. "The importance of food retailers: applying network analysis techniques to the study of local food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(1), pages 77-90, March.
    2. Subir Bairagi & Marie Claire Custodio & Alvaro Durand-Morat & Matty Demont, 2021. "Preserving cultural heritage through the valorization of Cordillera heirloom rice in the Philippines," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(1), pages 257-270, February.
    3. Matthew M. Mars, 2022. "Community and Cultural Entrepreneurship and Value Co-Creation in the Local Food Marketscape," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Steve W. Martinez, 2016. "Policies Supporting Local Food in the United States," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Matthew M. Mars & Hope Jensen Schau & Tyler E. Thorp, 2023. "Narrative curation and stewardship in contested marketspaces," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 418-443, March.
    6. Shawn A. Trivette, 2017. "Invoices on scraps of paper: trust and reciprocity in local food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 529-542, September.
    7. Clare Gupta & Tamar Makov, 2017. "How global is my local milk? Evaluating the first-order inputs of “local” milk in Hawai‘i," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 619-630, September.
    8. Stephanie Godrich & Katherine Kent & Sandra Murray & Stuart Auckland & Johnny Lo & Lauren Blekkenhorst & Beth Penrose & Amanda Devine, 2019. "Australian Consumer Perceptions of Regionally Grown Fruits and Vegetables: Importance, Enablers, and Barriers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Koen van der Gaast & Eveline van Leeuwen & Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, 2020. "City-Region Food Systems and Second Tier Cities: From Garden Cities to Garden Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, March.

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