Geographies of reconnection at the marketplace

For food space: theorizing alternative food networks beyond alterity

“…This phenomenon has garnered much scholarly interest because of the novelty of some AFNs and also because the region has a strong history of self-provisioning and farmer-consumer linkages (Mincyte 2011;Varga 2018). The political ecology of land-use in the region helps explain why these older AFNs have persisted, and also why certain new AFNs, such as farmers' markets in Lithuania (Blumberg 2015) and the Czech Republic (Spilková and Perlín 2013), gained rapid popularity for farmers and consumers. In the Soviet era, most states pursued policies of agricultural collectivization, but out of necessity, states also allocated land to households for subsidiary agriculture in both urban and rural areas (Bellows 2004;Blumberg and Mincyte 2019a;Mincyte 2009).…”

“…While Eastern European states followed diverging policy programs to decollectivize farms and privatize agricultural land starting in the 1990s, a general land use pattern emerged based on a bimodal farm structure with the plurality or majority of farms being small in scale and with fewer large-scale corporate or cooperative farms (Mathijs and Noev 2004). These small-scale farms continued the practice of supplying urban residents with food through markets and informal networks in the 1990s, and were ready participants when initiatives to create farmers' markets traversed the region after 2008 (Blumberg 2015).…”

“…New AFNs that resemble models utilized in Western Europe exist in a complex and intertwined manner with the more abundant number of AFNs that have stronger local histories based in self-provisioning, informal food networks, and public markets. For example, in Lithuania the recent popularity of new farmers' markets can be explained by the fact that the practice of shopping at public markets was already widespread and valued (Blumberg 2015). In other words, the consumer conventions of shopping at the public market, with all the positive and negative associations that entails, were transferred easily to new farmers' markets.…”

“…Self-provisioning can be an economic necessity, and a means by which to cultivate social capital or express cultural values. For example, with the growth of the conventional retail food sector, subsistence food practices and other AFNs in the region have been revalued; consumer disillusionment with economic transition and the aftermath of the financial crisis have led to renewed appreciation of subsistence food production and direct ties with farmers (Blumberg 2015;Spilková and Perlín 2013).…”

Beyond Europeanization: The politics of scale and positionality in Lithuania’s alternative food networks

“…Marginalized, and even criminalized, many smallholder farmers and processors were forced to operate in a legal grey area, forging informal ties with consumers (Harboe Knudsen, 2012; Mincyte, 2012). By 2008, however, the regulatory landscape started to shift to support direct-to-consumer marketing outlets, such as farmers’ markets and other types of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) (Blumberg, 2015). This shift has continued until the present day: in September 2018 the State Food and Veterinary Service announced that it was simplifying food safety and veterinary requirements for those seeking to process small quantities of meat from hunted game and sell it directly to consumers in the local market (Valstybinė Maisto ir Veterinarijos Tarnyba (VMVT), 2018).…”