This thesis explores working conditions within an alternative food system, focusing on the Sicilian agricultural cooperative Terra Viva and its partnership with the alternative Swiss distributor Fairshare. Together, they aim to establish transparent, sustainable and fair food supply chains as an alternative to the negative issues, such as labour exploitation, commonly associated with the conventional food system. Consumers preorder and prepay seasonally harvested and processed foods through Fairshare's online platform. Through 17 semi-structured interviews with actors in and around the cooperative and observations in Sicily, the study focuses on working conditions in Terra Viva’s tomato passata and pesto production. Theoretical concepts from alternative food systems and labour geography are applied to analyse how Terra Viva organizes their passata and pesto production, working conditions such as payment and agency, as well as challenges and how these are addressed. Findings highlight Terra Viva’s and Fairshare’s efforts to improve working conditions, such as product diversification, strong producer-consumer relationships and monthly payments for farmers. Despite efforts to operate apart from conventional market dynamics, Terra Viva and Fairshare remain dependent on the capitalist economy and face persistent challenges. These include the general inflation causing an increase of living costs, remaining competition within the alternative market, effects of climate change such as harvest loss and fieldwork under severe heat and fieldworkers’ wages falling below the national and provincial collective bargaining agreements. Revealing both, the efforts towards system change and the challenges of Terra Viva and Fairshare, this research contributes to the understanding of the complexities regarding working conditions of alternative food systems embedded in global agri-food systems.
Nicole Blasko (Wed,) studied this question.