The transformation of trust in China’s alternative food networks: disruption, reconstruction, and development

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Food safety issues in China have received much scholarly attention, yet few studies systematically examined this matter through the lens of trust. More importantly, little is known about the transformation of different types of trust in the dynamic process of food production, provision, and consumption. We consider trust as an evolving interdependent relationship between different actors. We used the Beijing County Fair, a prominent ecological farmers' market in China, as an example to examine the transformation of trust in China's alternative food networks. We argue that although there has been a disruption of institutional trust among the general public since 2008 when the melamine-tainted milk scandal broke out, reconstruction of individual trust and development of organizational trust have been observed, along with the emergence and increasing popularity of alternative food networks. Based on more than six months of fieldwork on the emerging ecological agriculture sector in 13 provinces across China as well as monitoring of online discussions and posts, we analyze how various social factors-including but not limited to direct and indirect reciprocity, information, endogenous institutions, and altruism-have simultaneously contributed to the transformation of trust in China's alternative food networks. The findings not only complement current social theories of trust, but also highlight an important yet understudied phenomenon whereby informal social mechanisms have been partially substituting for formal institutions and gradually have been building trust against the backdrop of the food safety crisis in China.

Varieties of Alterity: Alternative Food Networks in the UK, Italy and China

“…In China, forming strong bonds of trust is necessary for direct exchange to occur due to the high levels of mistrust in a food landscape plagued by food safety fears (Wang et al, 2015). The focus on freshness and taste have become front and central to how Chinese AFNs attempt to disrupt conventional food materialities.…”

“…Unlike in Western countries where «in opinion polling, consumers consistently and overwhelmingly indicate a willingness to grant trust to farmers as a generic group, and exceptional levels of trust to small and/or local farmers» (Mount, 2012: 114), in China scepticism comes first. This scepticism has arisen from the propensity China's food system has towards the large-scale production and circulation of hazardous foods (Wang et al, 2015;Scott et al, 2014) and China's stark urban-rural divide (Lai, 2014). Fig.…”

The transformative power of commoning and alternative food networks

“…Given this background, many AFNs in China provide an antidote to a weakening of institutionalised trust. AFNs permit more personal contact and face-toface provision of food, allowing individual and organisational trust to help mitigate safety concerns (Wang et al 2015, Krul and Ho 2017, Zhang 2018. As previous studies have pointed out, trust in AFNs is often not a reflection of the properties of the product, but an endorsement of the configuration of social relations within the network (Thorsoe and Kjeldsen 2015).…”

Alternative food networks and potential for social capital development

“…Para os autores, o alimento deixa de ser uma questão de nutrição e satisfação da fome para tornar-se um prazer e uma demonstração de status. Wang et al (2015) aprofundam o entendimento dessas feiras na China e destacam a formação de uma rede social densa entre os organizadores de tais feiras, incluindo o fortalecimento de preocupações socioambientais originadas até mesmo em outras geografias. Entre os frequentadores das feiras, os mesmos valores não são verificados com igual intensidade.…”