Exploring Non-conventional Food Networks in LT and LV

Jun 4, 2011

Since 2008, both Vilnius and Riga have witnessed a growth in farmers’ markets and other alternative systems of food provision. Consumers and farmers are experimenting with non-conventional food supply chains, for example, by adapting models of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to local conditions. Renata Blumberg, a PhD student in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota, is conducting research on these networks between producers and consumers in both Latvia and Lithuania. Renata uses quantitative and qualitative research methods and her project examines both the impact that participation in these networks has on farmer livelihoods and consumer practices. Localized food supply chains have emerged as a recent academic and political focus of the sustainable food movement because scholars claim that they unite consumers and producers in a manner that contributes to sustainable rural development. However, little empirical evidence outside of Western Europe and the USA exists to support this claim. Renata’s research is designed to redress this gap.

An AABS dissertation research grant allowed Renata to conduct a month of participant observation in alternative food networks during the summer of 2010. As a participant observer, she followed the links of the supply chain from the agricultural field to the market. This experience gave her firsthand empirical data, which compliments her interview and survey materials.

Renata has presented her preliminary research results at Association of American Geographers’ annual conference as part of a special session on “Subversive and Interstitial Food Spaces.” She also presented at an international workshop on “Ethical Foods and Food Movements in Postsocialist Settings” held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

She is very grateful for her award!

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Renata conducting interviews at the Riga Farmers Market in Spring 2011