The aim of this article is to show Actor-Network Theory's (ANT) potential for accounting for the alternative-conventional hybridity of alternative food networks. A review of the literature shows that this has not yet been done. Consequently, this article proposes to fill this gap with findings from ANT research regarding such notions as "market devices," "market mediation," and "market agencements." The theory is backed up by an analysis of a local food system involving five small fishermen and the delivery of fish to 1500 households in the area around Nantes in France. Seeing this local food system as a "market agencement," i.e., a sociotechnical arrangement capable of market action, makes it possible to underscore the many hybridities that compose alternative food networks: those of human, material, and natural entities; the local and global scales; and production and consumption; but also that of alternative and conventional actors and devices.
The objective of this article is to assess the impact of a gradual increase in the number of labels appearing on some food products on consumer valuation of the given product. Three empirical studies were designed to measure the effects of using labels to differentiate food products (Organic Farming, Fairtrade, and Label Rouge (a French label that concerns organoleptic quality)) on the willingness of 519 French consumers of honey to pay a premium. These three studies shed light on a complementarity effect, often dominating the effects of redundancy and information overload. This effect differed depending on the features and the number of associated labels, and was influenced by consumer trust in the labels. These findings should encourage producers to associate their products with labels on packaging when they are consistent in terms of reputation but complementary in terms of attributes.
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