ABSTRACT
A deep urban–rural divide characterises contemporary Western societies and contributes to reinforcing growth-oriented approaches to food production and consumption. This chapter explores the role that community-led initiatives play in institutionalising emergent food prosumption practices, such as the practice of purchasing food from alternative food networks, and how they contribute to challenging the established system. Two Amsterdam community-led food initiatives, a food co-op and a Community Supported Agriculture farm, and their community capacities (social capital, organisational, infrastructural and institutional) are analysed. Two major organisational and institutional challenges are pointed out, along with recommendations that aim at institutionalising these community-led initiatives. Despite the aforementioned challenges, these initiatives are contributing to increasing awareness of the interdependencies between the rural and the urban, therefore reconfiguring their power relations which, in turn, establishes the basis for a shift towards a post-growth food system.
