Influences of social capital on the resilience of local food networks: A case-study in Upstate New York

Keywords: Social capital, COVID-19, Food Security, Agriculture, Supply Chain
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 32

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in tandem with economic distortions across the agri-food sector, and breakdown of food supply chains has exacerbated food insecurity world over. Low-income communities and racial minorities have been disproportionately affected. This study is motivated by media reports which suggest that smallholder agriculturists within local food systems have experienced spikes in demand. They have utilized connections with other farmers and local consumers – their social capital - to develop alternative production and marketing strategies and thereby resilience. Local food system resilience here, is hypothesized as an interplay of three factors: (i) Greater product diversity and access to social capital in small farms which enables them to better respond to systemic shocks; (ii) Supply chain resilience as a tradeoff between spatial proximity of local actors (which contributes to less disruption) and the fewer redundancies (which results in overreliance on nodal actors and therefore greater disruption); (iii) Product diversity and spatial proximity creating opportunities for cooperative, closed loop, and resource efficient practices. This paper reports findings from a survey administered to vegetable producers in Upstate New York in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s on-ground network of farmers. This survey covers pre-pandemic operations, adaptations to the disruptions of the pandemic, and social capital access of the respondent. Using a combination of econometric and spatial analysis, results investigate the role that social capital plays in local food system adaptation in times of economic stress. This research has implications for community resilience, farmer adaptations, and cooperative ownership of local economic resources.