How do processors ensure that growers deliver the quality they promise? We identify four policing instruments—input control, monitoring, quality measurement, and revenue sharing—used in California produce contracts.

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Abstract

We examine mechanisms of coordination in agricultural contracts, with an approach intended to advance understanding of social relations of production and distribution of power in agrofood systems. Through analysis of contracts between farmers and intermediaries for California fruits and vegetables, we identify three functions of contracts: they help to coordinate production, they provide incentives to induce particular behaviors, and they allow farmers and intermediaries to share risk. These functions are implemented via four policing instruments: input control, monitoring, quality measurement, and revenue sharing, which are employed by intermediaries to mitigate blind spots in contracts and to control farmers’ actions and the quality of their output.

BibTeX

@Article{	  wolf-hueth-ligon01,
  author	= {Steven Wolf and Brent Hueth and Ethan Ligon},
  title		= {Policing Mechanisms in Agricultural Contracts},
  journal	= {Rural Sociology},
  year		= 2001,
  volume	= 66,
  number	= 3,
  pages		= {359--382},
  doi		= {10.1111/j.1549-0831.2001.tb00072.x}
}