Australia as the Supermarket to Asia? Governments, territory, and political economy in the Australian agri-food system.

摘要

The changing role of the nation state in agri-food systems is illustrated through a case study of the Supermarket to Asia, a policy initiative of the Australian government established in 1996. The Supermarket to Asia provides a policy discourse thatfills gaps created through policies of deregulation and self-reliance. It involves the creation of bureaucratic mechanics that straddle the public-private interface and gives explicit attention to small and medium-sized enterprises. In these ways, the state constructs a new set of relations, alliances, and allegiances with agri-food capital. The durability of these arrangements depends on the extent to which these policy arrangements are perceived to be consistent with the new realities of global agri-food trade.