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Malign and benign neglect: a local food system and the myth of sustainable redevelopment in Appalachia Ohio

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Abstract

Local food systems seem virtuous in the larger context of the neoliberalization of global food systems and increasing food insecurity. However, local food systems are critiqued for reproducing neoliberalism when they prioritize niche-market consumerism over enhancing access for poor people. Advocates, in contrast, insist local food systems contribute to an equitable political economy of food if they are place-based and inclusive. Local food systems must not, according to them, be condemned monolithically in light of their neoliberal tendencies, but evaluated instead on a case-by-case basis regarding their potentially innovative solutions to food insecurity. We heed this call by investigating how a regionally-renowned local food system addresses food insecurity in an impoverished corner of rural Appalachia. Specifically, we use qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, to evaluate the local food system in Athens County, Ohio. Our findings indicate that extra-local processes under neoliberalism, including austerity and economic marginalization, create a large-scale context of malign neglect in which local food security initiatives operate. Place-based strategies for food security, in response, emphasize producer profitability and consumer responsibility as solutions to extra-local constraints. These localized processes of benign neglect, however, reproduce stifling neoliberalisms within the Athens local food system, giving it a defensive stance that fails to promote innovative modes of inclusion despite its sustainable reputation. Malign and benign forms of neglect, working in creative tension, perpetuate a problematic paradox of food insecurity amidst a seemingly robust local food system as neoliberalization operating at a variety of scales remains unchallenged.

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Notes

  1. All names of organizations and individuals are pseudonyms to protect interviewees’ identities.

  2. Sam refers primarily to Federal subsidies for crop and revenue insurance programs heavily favoring the largest (often corporate) commodity crop farms over smaller, diversified farms. Insurance subsidies without caps based on farm revenue or acreage disproportionately capitalize large farms, helping them to expand production. This allows the largest farms to bid up land prices and accrue ever-larger market share for production, among other benefits. For excellent overviews, see Bruckner (2016) and Guthman (2011).

  3. Despite the apparent classism among some LFS participants, we believe the intentions of our interviewees- and by extension much of the rest of the LFS community, are sincere (albeit largely ineffective) in regard to their efforts toward increasing food security.

Abbreviations

AFM:

Athens Farmers Market

CSA:

Community supported agriculture

LFS:

Local food system(s)

SNAP:

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

USDA:

United States Department of Agriculture

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Acknowledgements

We thank, without implication, Tom Smucker and Risa Whitson for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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  1. Geography Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, 133 Hunt Hall, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Angela M. Chapman

  2. Department of Geography, Ohio University, Clippinger Labs 109, Athens, OH, 45701, USA

    Harold A. Perkins

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Chapman, A.M., Perkins, H.A. Malign and benign neglect: a local food system and the myth of sustainable redevelopment in Appalachia Ohio. Agric Hum Values 37, 113–127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09976-5

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