Settling shared uncertainties: Local partnerships between producers and consumers

Abstract

Should we associate the recent succession of food crises, occurring on a large scale, and the emergence of alternative systems linking producers and consumers on a local scale? Are alternative systems an attempt to set up new forms of insurance against global food uncertainties? These uncertainties result from the metabolic nature of food production and consumption, and therefore concern both producers and consumers. On the basis of three case studies of a system of long-term subscription to a weekly box of fruits and vegetables, this paper will investigate whether these schemes address both producers' and consumers' uncertainties. This common settling of shared uncertainties relies on a re-framing of the transaction: it includes a series of transactions and not only one, the scheme is conceived at the level of a certain number of consumers, and supposes a specific definition of both systems of production and distribution. This definition assumes the irregularity of the agricultural production and products. In the most involving schemes, this definition is negotiated by producers and consumers, who also identify which acceptable uncertainties are necessary to reduce unacceptable uncertainties. © European Society for Rural Sociology.