The Case for Studying Non-Market Food Systems

Abstract

Markets dominate the world’s food systems. Today’s food systems fail to realize the normative foundations of ecological economics: justice, sustainability, efficiency, and value pluralism. Drawing on empirical and theoretical literature from diverse intellectual traditions, I argue that markets, as an institution for governing food systems, hinder the realization of these objectives. Markets allocate food toward money, not hunger. They encourage shifting costs on others, including nonhuman nature. They rarely signal unsustainability, and in many ways cause it. They do not resemble the efficient markets of economic theory. They organize food systems according to exchange value at the expense of all other social, cultural, spiritual, moral, and environmental values. I argue that food systems can approach the objectives of ecological economics roughly to the degree that they subordinate market mechanisms to social institutions that embody those values. But such “embedding” processes, whether through creating state policy or alternative markets, face steep barriers and can only partially remedy food markets’ inherent shortcomings. Thus, ecological economists should also study, promote, and theorize non-market food systems.

Community Supported Agriculture as a Driver of Food-Related Well-Being

“…Other research suggests that eco-labels and ethical marketplaces (fair trade, organic etc.) seek to rate values (e.g., sustainability, human responsibility) by addressing the consumer's spiritual attributes as well [75]. The alternative ways of how food is acquired and resituated re-embeds people to nature and serves to uphold an integral connection to the environment [76].…”

Ecological Economics Beyond Markets

“…Moreover, markets inhibit progress toward justice, sustainability, efficiency, and plurality in food systems ( Bliss, 2019a ). In today's market-dominated food production and allocation regime, agriculture drives species extinctions, climate breakdown, and the surpassing of critical thresholds of earth-system sustainability ( Campbell et al, 2017 ; Godfray, 2011 ; Vermeulen et al, 2012 ) while undernutrition and overnutrition together harm the health of as much as half of humanity ( Chappell, 2018 ; Hickel, 2016 ).…”

“…In today's market-dominated food production and allocation regime, agriculture drives species extinctions, climate breakdown, and the surpassing of critical thresholds of earth-system sustainability ( Campbell et al, 2017 ; Godfray, 2011 ; Vermeulen et al, 2012 ) while undernutrition and overnutrition together harm the health of as much as half of humanity ( Chappell, 2018 ; Hickel, 2016 ). Creating regulated and local “embedded” markets faces steep barriers and can only partially remedy the ways in which food markets contradict the normative foundations of ecological economics ( Bliss, 2019a ).…”

“…Clearly, food systems without markets are crucial for ecological economics research ( Bliss, 2019a ). Yet ecological economics research has hardly noticed them.…”

“…In market societies, non-market food practices cannot be neatly divided into coping mechanisms and hobbies; people choose to participate for diverse reasons ( Alber and Kohler, 2008 ; Schupp and Sharp, 2012 ). Non-market food systems can potentially embody and evoke more plural values than market food systems, which privilege instrumental values ( Bliss, 2019a ; Vivero Pol et al, 2019 ). Economies without markets tend to rely on solidarity, empathy, generosity, and care, which are not scarce or rivalrous resources but muscles that strengthen with use ( Sandel, 2013 ).…”