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The importance of food retailers: applying network analysis techniques to the study of local food systems

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Abstract

As local food activities expand and grow, an important question to answer is how various participants contribute to a local food system’s overall vitality and strength. This paper does so by focusing on the relationships between locally-oriented farm and retail actors and assessing what the configuration of these relationships tells us about the workings of the broader local food system. Such an analysis reveals two things. Empirically, it shows the important role food retailers play in the overall vibrancy of local food exchanges: food retailers form crucial links holding the broader system together and significantly expanding consumer access to local foods. Further, different retailer types have distinct impacts on network configurations, each serving particular roles in the development and maintenance of local food systems. Methodologically, this paper shows the value of applying social network analysis techniques to the study of local food systems: such an approach yields insights that may not be as readily assessable from other strategies. In this paper, I overview common network analysis techniques and apply them to a case study of local food activities in New England, suggesting how such an approach might be applied to local food systems in other places.

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Notes

  1. In many situations profitability wins out when these three dimensions are in conflict. However, true sustainability in such systems requires that economic interests be made subservient to social and environmental interests (Cleveland et al. 2014; Trivette 2012). This is incredibly difficult to achieve in a capitalist system.

  2. I–O models, which approach economic impacts from a systemic level, are common in the field of economics. However, they offer two key differences from the present study. First, their focus is exclusively on estimating economic impacts of possible input changes and, second, such models assume factors based on entire industrial sectors. In contrast, this study is concerned with the holistic configuration of individual actors and their relationships to one another.

  3. Other work on this region’s food system (Trivette 2017) indicates that participants do share similar goals and values.

  4. Entities could be isolates because they only operated DTC operations (which was common for farms) or because they had gone out of business following addition to the site and had never been removed.

  5. Approximately 11% of all ties are from a retailer to a farm; two-thirds of these originate with food processors.

  6. With the exception of comparisons between restaurants and grocers (no significance) and between grocers and distributors (p = 0.0718), independent t tests confirm that retailer types do have significantly different rates (at the 0.05 level) of above-average ties.

  7. Table 1 shows a breakdown of farms by type that are included in this modified network; this low rate of inclusion is fairly evenly spread across all farms, as only a quarter or less of each farm type is connected to another farm entity.

  8. A breakdown of retailer types (see Table 1) shows this is relatively consistent across retailer types; approximately half or more of each retailer type is connected to at least one other retailer entity.

  9. Independent t tests show significant differences (at the 0.05 level) between general produce farms and specialty, orchard, and other type farms and between livestock and other type farms.

Abbreviations

CSA:

Community supported agriculture

DTC:

Direct-to-consumer

DTR:

Direct-to-retail

SNA:

Social network analysis

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Acknowledgements

Ryan Acton provided indispensable assistance in compiling this database. I am also grateful to Amanda Wintersieck, Ryan Edwards, Shannon McCarragher, Jeremy Strickler, Fang Yu Hu, and two anonymous reviewers for insightful feedback and comments in preparing this manuscript. Thanks also go to Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture and all the farm and retailer participants in western Massachusetts who participated in the broader research project.

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  1. Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Dept. 2102, 615 McCallie Ave, Chattanooga, TN, 37405, USA

    Shawn A. Trivette

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  1. Shawn A. Trivette
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Correspondence to Shawn A. Trivette.

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Trivette, S.A. The importance of food retailers: applying network analysis techniques to the study of local food systems. Agric Hum Values 36, 77–90 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-018-9885-1

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