Reading markets politically: on the transformativity and relevance of peasant markets

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how newly constructed peasant markets are increasingly extending beyond the boundaries (and limits) of the local. This brings their new potentials in relevance and transformativity. The paper includes a comprehensive definition of peasant markets. It is also meant as a reply to those who argue that capitalism cannot be fought by using one of its main mechanisms: ‘the market’. By presenting three case studies that describe different peasant markets, the paper argues that while markets are increasingly governed by large imperial networks, peasant markets are emerging as major vehicles of, and for, transformative struggles.

KEYWORDS:

• Peasant markets
• nested markets
• transformativity
• relevance

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the considerable help of anonymous reviewers during, and for, the final elaboration of this text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 That is, the manual is built into the product – at least partly. Nitrogen sensitive potato seedlings, for instance, assume that high amounts of N-fertilizer will be used to make the potatoes grow. See for an extensive discussion Ploeg (1993), Scott (1998) (especially chapter 8, 301–304) and Wynne (1998). A contemporary example (regarding different maize varieties used in Kenya) is given by Kimanthi 2019. The same applies for potatoes destined for consumption. Some are better for making chips, others for boiling, sautéing, etc.

2 A new product, that comes with a new brand and manual, might be considered as a novelty as defined in transition studies: it carries the potential to bring changes – not only in marketing, but also in production and consumption (Rip and Kemp 1998).

3 Peasant markets counter the expansion of long-distance trade as well as the ongoing artificialization of food - two of the main strategies of current food empires. Thus, peasant markets help to ‘circumvent, disrupt, and deconsolidate mainstream supply chains’ (iPES Food 2017, 12).

4 The concept of nested market is applicable to all kinds of different markets (see e.g. Beckmann and McPherson 1970; Esparza and Krmenec 1996; Garcia Pozo 2009; Kinsella 1995; Duch-Brown and Fonfría 2014; Van Huylenbroeck, Vuylsteke, and Verbeke 2009). Peasant markets are nested markets located (‘nested’ in) the wider food markets.

5 See especially Hebinck, Schneider, and van der Ploeg (2015); Milone, Ventura, and Ye (2015); Civil Society Mechanism [CSM] (2016); Loconto, Poisot, and Santacoloma (2016); Heinisch (2017) (especially tome 2); Wegerif (2017); Milone et al. (2018); Balk Brandao et al. (2019); Milone and Ventura (2019); Chikulo, Hebinck, and Kinsey (2020); Schneider and Cassol (2020).

6 More information about the cooperation and expansion of agroecological networks in Brazil can be found in Almeida et al. (2021).

7 This point of view was, and is, in its turn, also a critique on, as well as a step beyond, the skewed distribution of organic products that mostly are too expensive for poor people.

8 In this respect there is a strong resemblance with the mercati contadini in Italy. These sell fresh local food products for prices that are systematically 25%–30% below supermarket prices. This is called prezzo amico. Thus, the value/price ratio of peasant markets differs significantly from the one of large retailers. This contributes to specificity.

9 This resembles, in a way, the Dutch case of the landwinkels (country shops) that will be discussed later in this article. Each landwinkel (to be equated here with a ‘local feira’) also sells the products of other landwinkels.

10 In a way it is reminiscent of ‘The Underground Railroad’ (Whitehead 2017) that helped escaped slaves move towards freedom in the north of the USA.

11 ‘Campanilismo’ as the Italians say. The ‘campanile’ is the local church tower and it is a symbol for the kind of narrow mindedness that only accepts things, people and ideas that come from the area within which the church tower is visible.

12 In this respect O Circuito shares some remarkable commonalities with other, comparable networks elsewhere such as the Dutch Wadden Group, Landwinkels and KDV (Oostindie et al. 2016), the Italian Consortium for the Production, Storing and Distribution of Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan cheese) in Italy (Roest 2000) and the cooperation between BioAlpin (a producer group) and Mpreis (a supermarket chain) in Austria (Furtschegger and Schermer 2015).

13 This practice resembles the system of tied sales used in the past between e.g. Western and Eastern European countries. This was done to deal with different, often incompatible currencies.

14 The reader is reminded that nested markets are not necessarily small. Data on the Netherlands, Japan and Italy are given in Ploeg (2018, Chapter 8).

15 Or ‘niche’ as it is understood in ‘strategic nice management’ (SNM) theories. See Kemp, Rip, and Schot (2001); Roep and Wiskerke (2004).

16 See D’Annolfo et al. (2017) and for Europe: Ploeg et al. (2019).

17 No shops need to be built since Ecovida uses the infrastructure of existing feiras. The same applies for transport as Ecovida uses lorries owned by the involved farmers.

18 It partly builds on the tradition of migrant workers bringing ‘glass noodles’ (a much appreciated specialty of the village) with them to their urban work locations. The glass noodles were meant as gifts for friends, bosses and family members. Later on the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University helped to organize the current nested market that links the village with urban centres.

19 Generally speaking, nested markets are critical for the entry of ‘outsiders’ into the agricultural sector. See e.g. Minkoff Zern (2019) for Latino farm workers in the USA seeking to build their own farm and Monllor (2012) and Morel (2016) for the case of young, new entrants in Europe.

20 Similar achievements were reported for peasant markets throughout Europe and many new initiatives for direct selling were started in order to compensate the reduced demand from restaurants, trading companies, food industries and large retail (see Ploeg 2020, for more details).

21 This is a telling commonality shared by Ecovida in Brazil, nested markets in China and country shops in the Netherlands. Capital (in the Marxist sense) does not govern the circulation of food products. Circulation is not oriented at high returns on invested capital, but aims to improve labour incomes. This is related to the patrimony of these networks consisting mainly or exclusively of own and self-financed resources. Together such features shape these realities into a kind of ‘expolary economies’ (Shanin 1990) that are able to operate in ways that definitely differ from the way in which capitalist and/or state-controlled economies function.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan Douwe van der Ploeg

Jan Douwe van der Ploeg is an adjunct professor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD) in China Agricultural University and an emeritus professor of rural sociology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His research interests include heterogeneity of agriculture, farming styles, rural development, and transition processes in agriculture. Email: [email protected].

Jingzhong Ye

Jingzhong Ye is a Professor of Development Studies and Dean at the College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University. His research interests include development intervention and rural transformation, national development and agrarian change, rural-urban migration and the left-behind population, agrarian sociology and land politics, rural education and social problems. Email: [email protected].

Sergio Schneider

Sergio Schneider is a Professor of Rural Sociology and Development in the Rural Development and Sociology Postgraduate Programmes of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. He was also a CNPq/Brazil Researcher and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Email: [email protected].