A carrot isn’t a carrot isn’t a carrot: tracing value in alternative practices of food exchange

Abstract

Questions of value are central to understanding alternative practices of food exchange. This study introduces a practice-based approach to value that challenges the dominant views, which capture value as either an input for or an outcome of practices of exchange (value as values, standards, or prices). Building on a longitudinal ethnographic study on food collectives, I show how value, rather than residing in something that people share, or in something that objects have, is an ideal target that continuously unfolds and evolves in action. I found that people organized their food collectives around pursuing three kinds of value-ideals, namely good food, good price and good community. These value-ideals became reproduced in food collectives through what I identified as valuing modes, by which people evaluated the goodness of food, prices and community. My analysis revealed that, while participating in food collectives in order to pursue their value-ideals, people were likely to have differing reasons for pursuing them and tended to attach different meanings to the same value-ideal. I argue that understanding how value as an ideal target is reproduced through assessing and assigning value (valuing modes) is essential in further explorations of the formation of value and in better understanding the dynamics of organizing alternative practices of food exchange.

‘Values‐based Territorial Food Networks’—Benefits, challenges and controversies

“…Putting the spotlight on values also implies a focus on ‘how the actors involved redefine themselves, their activities, their interrelations and how, in so doing, they reshape food and the way it is produced, processed, distributed and consumed’ (van der Ploeg, 2016, p. 7). This is also driving the establishment of new ways of valuing that are constructed both on the basis of cultural norms and discourses and on the values associated with products, which are variously conveyed through direct communication, prices, labels or standards (Kallio, 2020). Ethical values are therefore playing an increasingly important role in driving agro‐food system change and steering food system governance (Brunori et al., 2019; Goodman et al., 2010; Kirwan et al., 2017; Lingham et al., 2022).…”

Hope beyond Hope

“…Being able to take care of the lands and produce 'good food' (Kallio 2020) in an autonomous manner and in accordance with one's beliefs, and witnessing the concrete material results of one's own work empowered the farmers and generated hope. Many considered that farming had a lot of potential to make an impact on other people and to make a change in the proximate environment, as Iris stated: "These kinds of farms impact hundreds of people."…”

Academic Knowledge Production: Framework of Practical Activity in the Context of Transformative Food Studies

“…In this article, we draw on our experiences in working in academia and conducting ethnographic studies in the context of self-reliant food production and procurement (Houtbeckers, 2018;Kallio, 2018Kallio, , 2020Houtbeckers and Kallio, 2019). We started our academic careers in the late 2000's in the Department of Management Studies in the former Helsinki School of Economics.…”

“…Second, we reflect on our own experiences in academia when doing research in the context of self-reliant food production and procurement practices in Finland. One of the authors has studied food collectives and smallholdings in the field of regenerative agriculture (Kallio, 2018(Kallio, , 2020, for a definition of regenerative agriculture, see e.g., Rodale Institute 2020), while the other has focused on households striving for selfsufficiency (Houtbeckers, 2018). Our ethnographic journeys have included various struggles and decisions, some of which we have articulated in this paper.…”