Search

This paper compares the new institutional economics literature on agricultural cooperatives with their actual operation in Greece. The key contrast revealed by the comparison concerns the role of opportunism. New institutional economics explains cooperatives in terms of their ability to combat external opportunism, subject to the constraints of internal opportunism. In contrast, in Greek agricultural cooperatives internal opportunism is shown to inflate the formal organizational structure and to lower the cooperative's effectiveness in serving its members. The paper discusses some of the theoretical, policy and practical implications of this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While public debt has become the focal point of discussions of the Greek crisis, the Greek crisis has been used as an opportunity to extend a series of neoliberal reforms. I examine the agricultural and food sector of Greece since 1981 and I show how Greece’s integration into the European market, following Greece’s entry in the European Economic Community led to (a) the dismantling of agricultural and food production in Greece and (b) the increased power of middlemen in the Greek food system. The three structural adjustment programs that were implemented in Greece after 2010 increased the liberalization of Greek agriculture and the centralization of the food sector. These changes had adverse implications for both farmers and consumers: farmers faced liberalization and increased costs of production, while consumers saw increased food prices despite internal devaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global mix of challenges has stimulated the development of alternative food production and distribution systems in an attempt to achieve food sovereignty and minimize the distance (geographical, social and economic) between rural and urban regions and between producers/farmers and consumers/urban dwellers. This paper questions how far our food comes and how well the city is connected to local producers. Using participant observations at five retail venues, the author calculates the food miles for several types of fruit and vegetables and identifies the peri-urban farmers that serve the city. Using a three-stage Delphi technique, she focuses on the most likely future conditions for agro-food production and local food systems. To overcome the effects of the economic crisis and change the dominant role of the agrofood system, farmers believe they can survive without middlemen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]