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From “Food from Nowhere” to “Food from Here:” changing producer–consumer relations in Austria

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Abstract

The notion of a “third food regime” implies simultaneous processes of further global concentration and integration and at the same time resistance through new emerging producer–consumer relations. This paper examines these processes by looking at Austria over the last 30 years. While direct producer–consumer cooperatives established at an early point, today forms of community supported agriculture (CSA) are rare. This paper explains this by identifying a shift of the entire food system from “food from nowhere” to “food from here.” The account follows the early emergence of alternative food networks through the political appeal to consumer patriotism in connection with Austria joining the EU, to a sustained positioning of retail chains with regional and national food products. The paper argues that this satisfies the needs of a large proportion of consumers and discourages the emergence of new food initiatives. The paper follows the development of different approaches and their transformations until today. Thus a picture evolves of changing, and partly progressing consumer–producer relations in response to wider societal and political transformation processes. The results explain why the movement towards CSA is currently weak in Austria, but demonstrate at the same time how alternative food networks may contribute to a transformation of the food system.

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Notes

  1. In Austria 86 % of all consumers buy organic occasionally due to its prevalence on supermarket shelves. See also the results of a survey by the Austrian Agricultural Marketing Board: http://www.ama-marketing.at/home/groups/7/Konsumverhalten_Bio.pdf (accessed last 25.04.2013).

Abbreviations

AMAP:

Association de maintien de l’agriculture paysanne (Association in support of smallholder Agriculture)

AMA:

Agricultural marketing board of Austria

BMLFUW:

Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft Umwelt und Wasserschutz (Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture)

BSE:

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

CAP:

Common Agricultural Policy

CSA:

Community supported agriculture

EU:

European Union

OeAR:

Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für eigenständige Regionalentwicklung (Austrian Association for Endogenous Development)

OeBV:

Österreichische Bergbauernvereinigung (Austrian Hill Farmers Association)

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  1. Mountain Agriculture Research Unit, Department of Sociology, Universtät Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Markus Schermer

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Schermer, M. From “Food from Nowhere” to “Food from Here:” changing producer–consumer relations in Austria. Agric Hum Values 32, 121–132 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-014-9529-z

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