Food Hubs: Alternative Supply Chain Intermediaries

Lead Researchers: Adrian Morley, Kevin Morgan & Selyf Morgan

Food Hubs can be defined as supply chain infrastructure designed to coordinate the supply of food products from dispersed small producers to end customers and based around the principle of cooperation within the supply chain. As such they represent a form of ‘alternative’ food network and are considered to have the potential to provide additional environmental and social dividends.

The gap between agrifood production, consumer demands and policy imperatives has been increasingly recognised in recent years. One solution to this problem is the development of consumption/production relationships coordinated by new or renewed forms of ‘alternative’ intermediaries. Food Hubs are one such ‘alternative’ intermediary. Although currently suffering from lack of definitional clarify the concept of a food hub is being increasingly put forward as a solution to both producer and consumer unmet needs.

Although not necessarily confined to local food networks, Food Hubs appear exhibit their greatest potential strengths and contribution to more sustainable food chains in the context of consumer concern about the provenance of their food, small producers’ search for secure value-added markets, and regulators’ and policy makers’ attempts to address health, environmental and economic challenges.

For more details see the following research report:

Food Hubs: The Missing Middle of the Local Food Infrastructure? (Sept 2008)

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