Are you alternative? ‘Alternative’ food networks and consumers’ definitions of alterity

Concepts of ‘alternative’ food practices, enterprises or networks (AFns) have become increasingly prevalent in European and north American agri-food writing, with their suggestion and promise of solutions to some of the ecological, economic and social problems which have become associated with industrialised modes of food production as well as with forms of retail and consumption dominated by supermarkets (e.g. Kneafsey et al. 2008; Lang and Heasman 2004; Maye et al. 2007; Morgan et al. 2006). A large literature has emerged which explores such alternatives from a range of perspectives and in many and varied geographical contexts, examining, for instance, their role in European rural development strategies (e.g. Marsden et al. 2000; 2001; 2002; Marsden and smith 2005; norberg-Hodge et al. 2002), urban food provisioning (Blay-Palmer and donald 2006; 2007) and in overtly politicised oppositional strategies (e.g. Allen et al. 2003; Goodman and Goodman 2007)