Comparing Apples and Coconuts

Until the advent and spread of supermarkets, the markets that we now call farmers, public, open-air, or traditional markets needed no adjectives. They were simply markets. Currently, the bodies of research about traditional markets common in the Global South and about farmers markets resurging in t...

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Main Authors: Christine Porter, Lacey Gaechter, Shikha Upadhyaya
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems 2020-05-01
Series:Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/817
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spelling doaj-ba736e6d1f1d4b9eb77e28fe1c9dd0ab2020-11-25T03:02:06ZengThomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food SystemsJournal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development2152-08012020-05-019310.5304/jafscd.2020.093.020Comparing Apples and CoconutsChristine Porter0Lacey Gaechter1Shikha Upadhyaya2University of WyomingUniversity of WyomingUniversity of Wyoming Until the advent and spread of supermarkets, the markets that we now call farmers, public, open-air, or traditional markets needed no adjectives. They were simply markets. Currently, the bodies of research about traditional markets common in the Global South and about farmers markets resurging in the Global North tend to be separate. However, viewed through the lens of food regime frame­works, together these markets come more clearly into focus as globally local alternatives to a corpo­rate regime of supermarkets. As microcases within this macrosociological framework, this paper examines two urban markets—one traditional daily market in Suva, Fiji, and one seasonal Saturday farmers market in East New York, Brooklyn, in the United States. We analyze interviews and surveys with vendors and market-related documents. As we illustrate with brief case descriptions, other than both being urban, the individual markets and their contexts could hardly be more different. One market was formalized early in the colonial food regime, and the other was founded more recently as an alternative to the current neoliberal corporate regime. However, vendors in both reported that selling at the market generates income, autonomy, respect, and social connectedness for them. These commonalities suggest that examining lessons from such markets across communities globally, South or North, traditional or farmers, may offer new insights into how to sustain and expand such mar­kets even in the face of supermarket domination. In addition, doing so with a food regime lens may make that work more useful for informing how to support traditional and farmers market develop­ment in ways that help keep aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute, and consume food at the heart of their work, as real alternatives to neoliberal frameworks. https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/817Farmers MarketsTraditional MarketsEast New York FarmsSupermarketsFood RegimesFood Sovereignty
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Christine Porter
Lacey Gaechter
Shikha Upadhyaya
spellingShingle Christine Porter
Lacey Gaechter
Shikha Upadhyaya
Comparing Apples and Coconuts
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
Farmers Markets
Traditional Markets
East New York Farms
Supermarkets
Food Regimes
Food Sovereignty
author_facet Christine Porter
Lacey Gaechter
Shikha Upadhyaya
author_sort Christine Porter
title Comparing Apples and Coconuts
title_short Comparing Apples and Coconuts
title_full Comparing Apples and Coconuts
title_fullStr Comparing Apples and Coconuts
title_full_unstemmed Comparing Apples and Coconuts
title_sort comparing apples and coconuts
publisher Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
series Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
issn 2152-0801
publishDate 2020-05-01
description Until the advent and spread of supermarkets, the markets that we now call farmers, public, open-air, or traditional markets needed no adjectives. They were simply markets. Currently, the bodies of research about traditional markets common in the Global South and about farmers markets resurging in the Global North tend to be separate. However, viewed through the lens of food regime frame­works, together these markets come more clearly into focus as globally local alternatives to a corpo­rate regime of supermarkets. As microcases within this macrosociological framework, this paper examines two urban markets—one traditional daily market in Suva, Fiji, and one seasonal Saturday farmers market in East New York, Brooklyn, in the United States. We analyze interviews and surveys with vendors and market-related documents. As we illustrate with brief case descriptions, other than both being urban, the individual markets and their contexts could hardly be more different. One market was formalized early in the colonial food regime, and the other was founded more recently as an alternative to the current neoliberal corporate regime. However, vendors in both reported that selling at the market generates income, autonomy, respect, and social connectedness for them. These commonalities suggest that examining lessons from such markets across communities globally, South or North, traditional or farmers, may offer new insights into how to sustain and expand such mar­kets even in the face of supermarket domination. In addition, doing so with a food regime lens may make that work more useful for informing how to support traditional and farmers market develop­ment in ways that help keep aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute, and consume food at the heart of their work, as real alternatives to neoliberal frameworks.
topic Farmers Markets
Traditional Markets
East New York Farms
Supermarkets
Food Regimes
Food Sovereignty
url https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/817
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