Alternativa matnätverks resiliens i tider av kris: Ett producentperspektiv på Reko-ringen under covid-19-pandemin

Sammanfattning

The current food system has undergone crisis after crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic brought yet another disturbance. Due to the industrial food system’s lack of resilience new alternatives emerge in order to develop the food chain, such as alternative food networks(AFN). Based on earlier research on AFN this study aims to focus on the alternative food network “Reko-ring”(Reko) in Sweden based on the perception of the producers of the network's values ​​as a sales channel by looking at the network's structure and Reko's level of resilience in the face of change and crisis in society in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with six producers in Reko Scania. The empirical material shows Reko's advantages according to the producers in the structure's flexibility as a sales channel, but also its disadvantages as it is time consuming and requires a lot of administrative work. Based on social resilience theory analysis the conclusion is reached that Reko has shown resilience in the face of the pandemic crisis and has its strength in the structure's flexibility to adapt and transform. However its flexibility may also be the network's weakness if not fully taken advantage of but may instead lead to conflicts and elitism.