ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical connections amongst three aspects of regional food supply systems: the income/price relationship for producers and consumers, organisational forms in production and trade, and the broader social dynamic resulting from the interface between regional social organisation and colonial and post-colonial policies. The case studies address particular situations in all their richness and individuality. Substituting alternative words for inexact and overcommitted analytical terms is a deliberate strategy for this stage of exploration: sequential fluidity and recurrent constancy rather than competition and monopoly with respect to organisational form, differentiation rather than class with respect to race and income scales, and relative vulnerability and security with respect to the income/price relationship. From the present cases, it seems that the longevity of any organisation in the food trade depends on its ability to cushion against sudden fluctuations in conditions of supply and demand.
