Family farmers in short food supply chains: study of opportunities and adaptations

• Grant number: 11/16833-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: February 28, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Rural Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Eduardo Moruzzi Marques
• Grantee: Morgane Isabelle Helene Retiere
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The short food supply chains have been considered, since the 70's, as a key part of a new development model, opposed to the logic of specialization and intensification of agriculture on the one hand, and industrialization and globalization of food distribution on the other hand. Short food supply chain are modes of commercialization which limit to one, the number of intermediaries between the producer and the consumer to one person. Taking as a general framework of this work the multifunctionality of agriculture, the basic assumption is that short food supply chains do not only enable the persistence of the family farms by increasing their income and by dynamizing the social ties. The closer contact between farmers (that occupy the rural areas and care for environmental and other non-market goods) and consumers, grants a greater recognition and valorization of the services provided by farmers to society in general. The diversification of activities within the agricultural establishment and the multiplication of the farmers' interlocutors help reduce their isolation: the isolation in society, the image of agriculture being devalued, and physical isolation, as the countryside empties itself and the traditional social ties loosen. Based on interviews with farmers and consumers in different areas of the São Paulo State, this study intends to characterize the short food supply chains initiatives and to show what are the adaptations of the agricultural production systems for this arrangement. The focus will be the relationships woven between producers and consumers, in order to evince the way in which this form of marketing modifyies their practices and their views. (A)=U)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

RETIERE, Morgane Isabelle Helene. Family farmers in short food supply chains: marketing channels and adaptations of the agricultural system. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) Piracicaba.