Alternative (shorter) food supply chains and specialist livestock products in the Scottish - English borders

Ilbery, Brian W and Maye, Damian ORCID: 0000-0002-4459-6630 (2005) Alternative (shorter) food supply chains and specialist livestock products in the Scottish - English borders. Environment and Planning A, 37 (5). pp. 823-844. doi:10.1068/a3717

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Abstract

In this paper findings are presented from survey work conducted with producers of specialist livestock products in the Scottish-English borders. Using supply-chain diagrams, the paper highlights how specialist livestock businesses operate individual or customised supply chains. The heterogeneity of surveyed producer initiatives throws into question both the simple conceptual distinction drawn between the labels 'conventional' and 'alternative' and also what is meant by a 'short' food supply chain. The starting point of the specialist food chain is clearly not the point of production but rather a series of upstream supply links-as is found in conventional food chains. Likewise, 'alternative' producers are regularly obliged, or choose, to 'dip in and out' of different conventional nodes downstream of the business, such as abattoirs, processors, and wholesalers. In practice, delimitations between 'alternative' and 'conventional' food supply chains are often blurred and are better characterised as 'hybrid spaces'.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Lagging Rural Regions; Quality; Embeddedness; UK; Networks; Industry; Geography; Systems; Cheese; Market
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > Countryside and Community Research Institute
Depositing User:	Debi Jones-Davis
Date Deposited:	02 May 2014 15:16
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2021 21:28
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/627

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