Navigating Governance: Moving Foods through Regulatory Changes

• In Event: Governing Food - II

Abstract

Transportation and distribution are today considered an aspect of, not something that follows after, production; how products travel factors into their value formation. That value can be put at risk by the regulatory politics of international trade. Drawing on preliminary research with specialty food importers, consolidators and brokers, this paper frames the work of moving foods across international borders as a job not only of “perishable logistics,” but also of what one retailer described to me as “the art of the paperwork.” What forms of creativity, improvisation, or cunning does that ‘art’ take? How is its skill acquired? And how are industry players keeping up with today’s uncertain regulatory environment?

Author

• Heather Paxson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)