ABSTRACT
Industrialization and globalization of food provision in combination with increased attention to product quality and safety have fostered prominent and widespread institutional changes in the trade of fresh produce. These include the rise of contractual exchange in the place of (de-regulated) spot markets (Reardon and Barret 2000; Eaton and Shepherd 2001). This chapter examines the institutional dynamics of such a specific production arrangement, contract farming, and pays specific attention to the coordinating procedures and policing mechanisms resulting from the social and technical integration of independent farmers into a global agri-food system.
