Geographer presents at national workshop to explore food and social enterprise

Today, twenty-eight practioners and academics will be led by Prof Kevin Morgan from Cardiff Univeristy to consider – can more fruitful alliances be built between academics and practitioners involved in food social enterprises?

The practitioners all run businesses with which they fund some kind of social or environmental mission – access to healthy food for low-income citizens, catering training for people with learning difficulties, or supporting local organic farmers through co-operative retailing.

The day starts with a welcome from Professor John Mohan of the Third Sector and research student Dan Keech from Geography and Environment will be presenting his research into the production and processing of apple juice in rural Germany.
Dan says, ‘I am studying how rural social enterprises balance their multiple goals; and particularly how the pursuit of an environmental goal (nature conservation) complicates this balancing act. The arena for my research are social enterprises in England and Germany who intervene in the market for apple juice and cider, thus attempting to revive the economic case for conserving and replanting wildlife rich orchards.’


High expectations exist for social enterprise – through Big Society policies or the upsurge in alternative food networks – but whether social enterprise is a route to more sustainable food systems is unclear.
The workshop will consider insights about the potentials (and limits) for social enterprise in the food system, and whether a pro-practice research agenda can help explore governance models, growth and capitalisation challenges.