This paper examines a local food hub initiative to understand the dynamics of collaboration and innovation. It contends social capital plays an important role in the start-up and institutionalisation of local government development initiatives. A food hub is an important bottom-up mechanism for local government engagement and regional sustainable development. The purpose is to explore rationales and barriers between stakeholder relationships that either promote or prevent local innovation initiatives from being operational.
A regional food hub is viewed as a social enterprise actively managing aggregation, distribution, and marketing of regionally produced food, and strengthens the capacity of producers to access to wholesale, retail, and institutional markets (see Barham et al., 2012). Aspirations behind sustainable development in the context of regional food are driven by the problem that fragmented top-down policies with an emphasis on economic growth may be implemented at the expense of social and environmental well-being. This aspect is germane because innovative sustainable development initiatives are likely to be more effective at the regional level as regions are large enough for federal and state authorities to deal with, yet small enough to allow local stakeholders to participate in the decision-making processes (see Dhakal, 2012). The theoretical conjecture is social enterprises and local innovative initiatives such as food hubs with access to potentially rich social relations and goodwill, particularly within regions, may deliver better contributions to overall regional well-being than individual entities independently. This paper explores the dynamics of innovation through understanding social capital in the start-up social enterprise of a regional food hub and examining the rationales and barriers between stakeholder relationships to either promote or prevent local initiatives such as food hubs from being successful.
This topic is worthy of examination in the face of problems of urban migration, and the prevalence of large-scale industrial agriculture which impact regions by creating skills shortages, low local employment, loss of local heroes and their rich regional knowledge - all contributing to gradual community degeneration (see NRHAI, 2013). This trend has left communities struggling as local farmers and small food businesses try to preserve their unique systems of food cultivation against problems of an inability to link relevant actors to scale-up activities, lack of cohesion of stakeholders and, poor collaborative competencies within the regional food sector.
The findings of the case study of an emergent food hub identified the fragmented nature of relationships, diverse agendas and differing priorities but confirmed a shared intent for the same goal of regional development through the promotion of local food assets. Policy and practical implications presented in the context of local government innovation initiatives.
REFERENCES
Barham, J., Tropp, D., Enterline, K., Farbman, J., Fisk, J. & Kiraly, S. (2012). Regional Food Hub Resource Guide. Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dhakal, S. P. (2012). Regional sustainable development and the viability of environmental community organisations: Why inter-organisational social capital matters? Third Sector Review, 17(1):7-28.
NRHAI (2013). A snapshot of poverty in rural and regional Australia. Deakin, ACT: National Rural Health Alliance Inc. [NRHAI].
