ABSTRACT

Although farmers’ markets as contested spaces have been interrogated through different lenses, there have been very few studies examining cases in developing countries such as China where ecological farmers’ markets are nascent initiatives. This chapter thus uses the most prominent ecological farmers’ market in China—the Beijing Farmers’ Market—as a case to interrogate the tensions among key stakeholders within the market space. It shows how China’s sociopolitical context poses various challenges for the emergence and establishment of the ecological farmers’ market. It demonstrates the significant roles of the state in configuring the landscape of contestations.