The quality turn in the Danish food scape: New food chains emerging - new territorial impacts?

Abstract

Accounts of the 'quality turn' in agro-food literature suggest that there is a potential for growth in the market for 'high-quality' food, which utilises distinct notions like 'quality' and 'place.' These food chains are typically described as 'alternative.' Alterity might stem from alternative social or physical geographies of such food chains. This study is focused on exploring whether the utilisation of different notions of quality in emerging producer-consumer networks also translates into new patterns of rural development. This paper is based on data on various sub-sectors of Danish food chains on municipality scale for the period 2000-2005. Specifically, this study seeks to identify whether this is the case in the Danish context. First, the analysis considers the economic geography of Danish food chains on national level. Second, a deviant case on a regional level is considered, which runs counter to the trends on national level. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.