Make the Grants, Make the Market: How W.K.Kellogg Foundation Funds the Local Food Market in Michigan

• In Event: 512 - Section on Consumers and Consumption Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Food, Ethics and Interventions

Abstract

As an alternative model to the highly energy- and capital-intensive conventional agriculture, the local food movement advocates for a place-based food economy that employs ecologically sound and socially equitable food and farming practices. While previous studies generally perceive the local food movement as market-oriented and consumer-driven, the process through which concerns with food insecurity and environmental degradation have translated into the local food movement is under-theorized. Even less acknowledged are roles and influences of private foundations in the formation of a niche market and normalization of a neoliberal economy.

To explore how private foundations affect the creation and development of the local food market and the local food movement in general, this paper borrows from theories on social movement philanthropy and resource mobilization to examine the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s grant-making activities in Michigan. Based on data analysis of 201 grants awarded to food-related programs in Michigan from 1989 to May, 2015, I argue that WKKF has greatly shaped the process of local and regional food system building by promoting and funding local food marketing and consumption. WKKF strategically distributed its grants among a few organizations working on food issues both within and outside of the state, and in doing so formed a multi-organizational network that has stimulated and sustained local food consumption. My study therefore challenges the typical perception of the local food movement as market-oriented and consumer-driven, arguing that private foundations like WKKF have played critical roles in creating and developing the local food market, at least in Michigan.

Author

• Hui Qian, Michigan State University