Decoupling from international food safety standards: how small-scale indigenous farmers cope with conflicting institutions to ensure market participation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Decoupling from international food safety standards

T2 - how small-scale indigenous farmers cope with conflicting institutions to ensure market participation

AU - Mercado, Geovana

AU - Hjortsø, Carsten Nico

AU - Honig, Benson

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Although inclusion in formal value chains extends the prospect of improving the livelihoods of rural small-scale producers, such a step is often contingent on compliance with internationally-promoted food safety standards. Limited research has addressed the challenges this represents for small rural producers who, grounded in culturally-embedded food safety conceptions, face difficulties in complying. We address this gap here through a multiple case study involving four public school feeding programs that source meals from local rural providers in the Bolivian Altiplan. Institutional logics theory is used to describe public food safety regulations and to compare them to food safety conceptions in the local indigenous Aymara rural setting. We identify a value-based conflict that leads to non-compliance of formal food safety rules that jeopardizes the participation of small farmers in the market. These include: (1) partial adoption of formal rules; (2) selective adoption of convenient rules; and (3) ceremonial adoption to avoid compliance. Decoupling strategies allow local actors to largely disregard the formal food safety regulations while accommodating traditional cultural practices and continuing to access the market. However, these practices put the long-term sustainability of the farmers’ participation in potentially favorable opportunities at risk.

AB - Although inclusion in formal value chains extends the prospect of improving the livelihoods of rural small-scale producers, such a step is often contingent on compliance with internationally-promoted food safety standards. Limited research has addressed the challenges this represents for small rural producers who, grounded in culturally-embedded food safety conceptions, face difficulties in complying. We address this gap here through a multiple case study involving four public school feeding programs that source meals from local rural providers in the Bolivian Altiplan. Institutional logics theory is used to describe public food safety regulations and to compare them to food safety conceptions in the local indigenous Aymara rural setting. We identify a value-based conflict that leads to non-compliance of formal food safety rules that jeopardizes the participation of small farmers in the market. These include: (1) partial adoption of formal rules; (2) selective adoption of convenient rules; and (3) ceremonial adoption to avoid compliance. Decoupling strategies allow local actors to largely disregard the formal food safety regulations while accommodating traditional cultural practices and continuing to access the market. However, these practices put the long-term sustainability of the farmers’ participation in potentially favorable opportunities at risk.

KW - Bolivia

KW - Food safety regulations

KW - Institutional logics

KW - Local food systems

KW - School feeding programs

KW - Small-scale producers

U2 - 10.1007/s10460-018-9860-x

DO - 10.1007/s10460-018-9860-x

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85044219537

SN - 0889-048X

VL - 35

SP - 651

EP - 669

JO - Agriculture and Human Values

JF - Agriculture and Human Values

IS - 3

ER -