Short Versus Long Supply Chains in Agri-Food Sectors: Peaceful Coexistence or Political Domination? The Case of foie gras in South-West France

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which short supply chains affect the structuration of agri-food sectors economically and politically. To do so, it first presents a theoretical framework drawing on regulationist economics and constructivist political science which guides research to examine the entire range of actors, processes, institutions and power relations which structure agri-food sectors. It then applies this framework to the case of foie gras in South-West France to target the relationship between ‘short’ and ‘long’ supply chains. Based on thirty interviews with farmers and public officials, it finds that a commonly heard discourse that both chains ‘complement each other’ masks the political domination of ‘the long’ over ‘the short’. Through tracing this domination across two policy issues, namely product labelling and ‘biosecurity’ hygiene measures, and the way actors have worked politically to deal with them, the article demonstrates that this power asymmetry has been the principal cause of policy outcomes and, therefore, institutional reproduction.