Economic Anthropological Research On The Identification And Practice Of Food Localization

Currently, the global trend of American food system is more and more remarkable, leading to heated discussions among the subjects like geographic ecology, rural sociology and political economy, which aims at disclosing its consequences on environmental degeneration, food safety, nutrition and health, social justice and agricultural sustainability. Sociology and anthropology also interpret this trend from the point of food and memory, cultural identity, ritual features, state power. Despite the big success acheived, it is noticed that there still lacks the literature about the food process of production, the roles of producers as well as vendors while discussing the phenomenon of constructing the local food system. In addition, some literature focusing on farmers'markets as the case study also seems biased. On one hand, the importance of taking the farmers'market as the channel to sell the local products is exaggerated, on the other hand, the relationship of participants in the market is over-advocated.This paper focuses the Bloomington Community Farmers'Market at Bloomington, Indiana, USA as the case study. A one-year's fieldwork has been performed by participant observation and deep interview, accompanied and compared with existing materials on production, sells, consumption, management, the local food system construction and cultural identity and practice. The relative theories on anthropology and sociology, integrated with history, politics and moral economy are used to introduce the roles played by the farmers'markets in resisting the global food system. The following questions are studied. Firstly, the reasons and motivations behind the great development of farmers'market. Secondly, the mutual relationship between farmers and consumers. Thirdly, the way in which administrators intervene in the two participant groups and the influences it brings out. Last but not least, the political and economical logics of state's control in promoting local food development, and people'reactions to such logics. The author believes that, the transformation of the functions of farmers'markets and meanings in modern America is one of the consequences of globalization and industrialization, leading to the changes of choice, motivation and identity on local food system. At the initial stage, the fast-food commodities provided by the multinational corporations satisfy the Americans'fast and efficient work pattern. In addition, as the large-scale flow and immigration, peoples'cultural identity of local food is becoming more and more apathetic. However, the damages the global food system bring to the global food system have raised the attention of high-level society, starting to lead and awaken the cultural self-consciousness and identity of local food in the whole society. It should be noticed that reviving the farmers'market is just a logical starting point. As a carrier of showing the functions and meanings of local food, farmers'maket has been marginalized under the strong power of capitalism. How to sustain people's cultural self-consciousness, strengthen the cultural identity and practice is the main problem addressed in this paper, which is also the innovative point of the paper.This paper consists of 5 chapters as follows.Introduction first introduces the reason, theoretical and practical meaning of the subject chosed. Then the theoretical background of the paper and related literature review is studied. At last, a brief introduction of the main content, innovative point, methodologies applied, limitations of this research and some supplements are included.Chapter 1:Reviewing the development history of American farmers' markets from three dimensions. This chapter starts with a brief introduction of the fieldwork, including nature and geography, demography and ethnicity, economy and culture, history and current situation. It follows by a detailed discussion about the meaning of the existence of farmers'maket from the city's point of view. The topic that residents'identity of local food is more about geographic scope and regional characteristics is included at the end.Chapter 2:The producers'and vendors'identity and practice of local food. This chapter focuses on the people who produce and then sell the products in the farmers'market. Special market culture and capital production pattern result from special market environment and rules. The producers (vendors) and their stories is the main topic of this chapter. Based on the record and organization of their activities in agricultural production and market exchange, discussions are given about how they become attached to the land, make money expertly, and how they keep the duty as a local producer.Chapter 3:The analysis of farmers'transactionary motive and customers' shopping motive. This chapter focuses on the deep description and interpretation of two participants' mutual relationship and its process. Based on the theory of moral economy, this chapter starts with reviewing the value system of global food, and discusses the constructed routins of social networks, the formation of commutinity value, the identity of local food and regional culture in the specified context. At last, the participants'interactive feature and the diversities of their cultural identity and practice are also exploited.Chapter 4:The programmes in the farmers'market. This chapter focuses on the American government's power, especially its top-down construction and the logical process. As the citizens'knowledge of global food industry enters a transition period, the producers, customers and administrators are placing a direct or indirect influence on the whole community, changing or completing the old cultural capitalistic space and the structure of relationship. However, under the special context of capitalistic market economy, all kinds of contests and exclusiveness entwined with benefits which lead the welfare revolation by the bourgeoisie don't achieve the identity of people in the bottom of society. As a result, it appears that the development of local food is flourishing, but as a matter of fact, it causes the dilemma on peoples'choice and expectation.Chapter 5:Conclusion. This chapter concludes the experimental facts and cultural phenomenon about the whole article. To interpret how a community pattern and cultural structure change in the global background, deeply analysis is applied on the cultural values, social structure, the logic of cultural capitalistic regeneration embedded in the local food system. In the meantime, how the sense of place, political, cultural capitalism and reconnection identity is constructed and its meanings are discussed as well.On the basis of all the contents, the author concludes that in the process of the current globalization of American food system, the producers and customers, producers and administrators, customers and administrators in the farmers' market present a situation of multiple power working together. The contradiction and plight are the products in the special process of social change. The author gives a deep description and interpretation of the transformation process by analyzing the development and updates of community environment, the famers market's function and defects and the subjects'cultural identity, aiming to provide some academic and realistic insight to the change of American food system. The transition of food system requires the society to review the structure of society, politics, economy and culture again, and rebuild the democractic environment of politics and public culture. Above all, American citizens' confidence and self-awareness of community culture and local knowledge, especially the re-reflection on the reality are the logical starting point to resolve the problems that the local food system is confronted with.