Improving farmers markets and challenging neoliberalism in Argentina
| Autor: | Isaac Sohn Leslie |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
media_common.quotation_subject
05 social sciences 0211 other engineering and technologies 0507 social and economic geography Neoliberalism 021107 urban & regional planning Legislation Legislature Context (language use) 02 engineering and technology Capitalism Grassroots Political economy Sustainability Economics Economic system 050703 geography Agronomy and Crop Science Agribusiness media_common |
| Zdroj: | Agriculture and Human Values. 34:729-742 |
| ISSN: | 1572-8366 0889-048X |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10460-017-9774-z |
| Popis: | Although typically invisible, neoliberal policies and ideologies are often at the root of why farmers markets struggle to offer affordable prices for consumers, sufficient income for farmers, and expand socially and environmentally sustainable food systems. Argentinian ferias francas, a variation on farmers markets, offer a unique case to examine how they may be designed to alleviate these issues by challenging neoliberalism through legislative mechanisms. Ferias francas emerged as an explicitly anti-neoliberal, grassroots response to Argentina’s expansion of neoliberal agricultural policies that stimulated global agribusiness and displaced small-scale farmers. Organizers partnered with municipal, provincial, and national governments to develop legislation to support small-scale farmers and to make the network of ferias competitive with global agribusiness. I ask, how can organizers expand farmers markets’ potential to fulfill the social and environmental goals of agri-food movements, given neoliberal capitalism’s constraints and contradictions? I analyze feria legislation by situating it in its social and historical context, and comparing legislative mechanisms to core elements of neoliberalism in the economy and in the everyday mentalities of agri-food activists. I find that mechanisms such as setting prices lower than neighboring supermarkets and establishing uniform prices for feria goods contest some aspects of neoliberalism. However, the ferias also reproduce neoliberalism, and are still subject to the price standards set under the global neoliberal agroeconomy, raising questions about their prospects for sustainability under neoliberal capitalism. This analysis of feria legislation makes neoliberalism’s influence on farmers markets visible and highlights legislative mechanisms that address some of its harmful effects. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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