IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v40y2023i1d10.1007_s10460-022-10362-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Between the farm and the fork: job quality in sustainable food systems

Author

Listed:
  • Sophie Kelmenson

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Abstract

Advocates for structural change in the food system see opportunity in alternative food systems (AFS) to bolster sustainability and equity. Indeed, any alternative to industrial labor practices is assumed to be better. However, little is known about what types of jobs are building AFS or job quality. Failing to understand job quality in AFS risks building a sustainable but exploitative industry. Using a unique and large data set on job openings in AFS, this paper narrows this gap by providing an assessment of labor demand and job quality for AFS in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Job advertisements are matched to 2018 Standard Occupation Codes to characterize work. Wages are compared to living wage standards and median incomes by occupation and local labor market. Considering living wage tests and local labor market competitiveness together, the potential for high job quality in AFS is mixed. Optimistically, higher prices in occupation that are close to consumers and experiencing significant labor demand, like food service and sales, saw more competitive wages. However, these roles frequently failed to offer living wages. Farm work occupations underperformed compared to local labor markets. In addition, uncompetitive senior-level jobs may indicate low-quality career pathways for leadership roles charting paths forward in AFS. These results suggest more institutional action are necessary to enhance labor quality within these spaces and more broadly across the food system. These results also raise questions about who is able to participate in AFS development and whether barriers to participate may replicate equity blind spots.

Suggested Citation

  • Sophie Kelmenson, 2023. "Between the farm and the fork: job quality in sustainable food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 317-358, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:40:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10460-022-10362-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-022-10362-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-022-10362-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-022-10362-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aimee Shreck & Christy Getz & Gail Feenstra, 2006. "Social sustainability, farm labor, and organic agriculture: Findings from an exploratory analysis," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(4), pages 439-449, December.
    2. Dawn Thilmany & Craig A. Bond & Jennifer K. Bond, 2008. "Going Local: Exploring Consumer Behavior and Motivations for Direct Food Purchases," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1303-1309.
    3. Jill Harrison & Christy Getz, 2015. "Farm size and job quality: mixed-methods studies of hired farm work in California and Wisconsin," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 617-634, December.
    4. Donald R. Grimes & Penelope B. Prime & Mary Beth Walker, 2019. "Geographical Variation in Wages of Workers in Low-Wage Service Occupations: A U.S. Metropolitan Area Analysis," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(2), pages 121-133, May.
    5. Joshua Sbicca, 2015. "Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 675-687, December.
    6. Courtney White, 2020. "Why Regenerative Agriculture?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(3), pages 799-812, May.
    7. Somnath Datta & Glen A. Satten, 2008. "A Signed-Rank Test for Clustered Data," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 64(2), pages 501-507, June.
    8. Samina Raja, 2020. "Planning and pandemics COVID 19 illuminates why urban planners should have listened to food advocates all along," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 553-554, September.
    9. Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, 2020. "Re-orienting policy for growing food to nourish communities," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 623-625, September.
    10. Eliza C. Forsythe, 2019. "The Occupational Structures of Low- and High-Wage Service Sector Establishments," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(2), pages 76-91, May.
    11. Becca B.R. Jablonski & Allison Bauman & Dawn Thilmany, 2021. "Local Food Market Orientation and Labor Intensity," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 916-934, September.
    12. Garrett Graddy-Lovelace & Patti Naylor, 2021. "Disparity to Parity to Solidarity: Balancing the Scales of International Agricultural Policy for Justice and Viability," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 64(3), pages 259-265, December.
    13. Rachel Soper, 2020. "How wage structure and crop size negatively impact farmworker livelihoods in monocrop organic production: interviews with strawberry harvesters in California," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 325-336, June.
    14. Bauman, Allison & Thilmany McFadden, Dawn & Jablonski, Becca B. R., 2018. "The Financial Performance Implications of Differential Marketing Strategies: Exploring Farms that Pursue Local Markets as a Core Competitive Advantage," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 477-504, December.
    15. Andrea Rissing & Shoshanah Inwood & Emily Stengel, 2021. "Correction to: The invisible labor and multidimensional impacts of negotiating childcare on farms," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(4), pages 1215-1215, December.
    16. Jennifer Clapp, 2019. "The rise of financial investment and common ownership in global agrifood firms," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 604-629, July.
    17. Zahniser, Steven & Taylor, J. Edward & Hertz, Thomas & Charlton, Diane, 2018. "Farm Labor Markets in the United States and Mexico Pose Challenges for U.S. Agriculture," Economic Information Bulletin 281161, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    18. Andrea Rissing & Shoshanah Inwood & Emily Stengel, 2021. "The invisible labor and multidimensional impacts of negotiating childcare on farms," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 431-447, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rachel Soper, 2020. "How wage structure and crop size negatively impact farmworker livelihoods in monocrop organic production: interviews with strawberry harvesters in California," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 325-336, June.
    2. Jeffrey K. O'Hara & Nony Dutton & Nick Stavely, 2022. "The influence of farmers markets' characteristics on vendor sales," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 295-311, April.
    3. Brian Lee & Jhih‐Yun Liu & Hung‐Hao Chang, 2020. "The choice of marketing channel and farm profitability: Empirical evidence from small farmers," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 402-421, June.
    4. Lydia Zepeda & Anna Reznickova, 2017. "Innovative millennial snails: the story of Slow Food University of Wisconsin," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 167-178, March.
    5. Monica Fisher & Paul A. Lewin & Ryanne Pilgeram, 2023. "Gender differences in the financial performance of U.S. farm businesses: A decomposition analysis using the Census of Agriculture," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 1233-1253, June.
    6. Anelyse M. Weiler, 2022. "Seeing the workers for the trees: exalted and devalued manual labour in the Pacific Northwest craft cider industry," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 65-78, March.
    7. Nicole Didero & Marco Costanigro & Becca B. R. Jablonski, 2021. "Promoting farmers market via information nudges and coupons: A randomized control trial," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(3), pages 531-549, July.
    8. Becca B.R. Jablonski & Allison Bauman & Dawn Thilmany, 2021. "Local Food Market Orientation and Labor Intensity," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 916-934, September.
    9. Becca B. R. Jablonski & Martha Sullins & Dawn Thilmany McFadden, 2019. "Community-Supported Agriculture Marketing Performance: Results from Pilot Market Channel Assessments in Colorado," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Douglas H. Constance, 2023. "The doctors of agrifood studies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 31-43, March.
    11. Rahe, Mallory L. & Tsay, Juo-Han & Low, Sarah A., 2023. "Vendor persistence and sales growth 2019-2021: Evidence from five rural Oregon farmers markets," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 336002, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Becca B. R. Jablonski & Michael Carolan & James Hale & Dawn Thilmany McFadden & Erin Love & Libby Christensen & Tabitha Covey & Laura Bellows & Rebecca Cleary & Olaf David & Kevin E. Jablonski & Andre, 2019. "Connecting Urban Food Plans to the Countryside: Leveraging Denver’s Food Vision to Explore Meaningful Rural–Urban Linkages," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, April.
    13. İlkay Unay-Gailhard & Mark A. Brennen, 2022. "How digital communications contribute to shaping the career paths of youth: a review study focused on farming as a career option," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(4), pages 1491-1508, December.
    14. Bond, Craig A. & Thilmany, Dawn D. & Bond, Jennifer Keeling, 2008. "What to Choose? The Value of Label Claims to Fresh Produce Consumers," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1-26.
    15. Karing’u kelvin Njuguna & Hezron Nyarindo Isaboke & Samuel Njiri Ndirangu, 2022. "Determinants of smallholders’ choice of avocado marketing outlets and profitability in Murang’a County, Kenya," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(8), pages 1-25, August.
    16. Filippo Oncini, 2021. "Food support provision in COVID-19 times: a mixed method study based in Greater Manchester," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(4), pages 1201-1213, December.
    17. Demartini, Eugenio & Ricci, Elena Claire & Mattavelli, Simone & Stranieri, Stefanella & Gaviglio, Anna & Banterle, Alessandro & Richetin, Juliette & Perugini, Marco, 2018. "Exploring Consumer Biased Evaluations: Halos Effects of Local Food and of Related Attributes," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 9(4), August.
    18. Reynolds-Allie, Kenesha & Fields, Deacue, 2011. "Alabama Restaurant Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Local Food: A Choice Based Approach," 2011 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2011, Corpus Christi, Texas 98822, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    19. Antonino Galati & Giuseppina Migliore & Alkis Thrassou & Giorgio Schifani & Giuseppina Rizzo & Nino Adamashvili & Maria Crescimanno, 2023. "Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Agri-Food Products Delivered with Electric Vehicles in the Short Supply Chains," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 12(2), pages 193-207, June.
    20. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:40:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10460-022-10362-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.