Analyzing governance networks of agri-food production: Are regional farming cooperatives a sustainable and successful strategy in times of crisis?

Agri-food production faces various challenges such as climate change impacts, changing customer demand, financial pressure, environmental regulation, and excessive bureaucracy. The dramatic nature of these problems is currently unfolding during the farmers' protests throughout Germany. The subsidy cuts announced by the German government have triggered a storm of indignation. Public debate has criticized the entire agricultural system with its EU and domestic subsidies that support large agricultural and food producers. Small and medium-sized farmers are often disadvantaged, leading to waves of farm closures. Against this backdrop, we ask ourselves how farmers can work successfully and sustainably under these complex and rapidly changing conditions? One promising option are farmers cooperatives that work according to sustainability criteria, learn from each other, coordinate their interests, use synergies, and create added value through a joint trading concept. This study examines three case studies and provides empirical evidence of local cooperations and their strategies. Theoretically, we situate our study within the literature on polycentric governance, which is often applied to complex socio-economic challenges. According to this literature, polycentric governance is defined as a self-organizing system of multiple actors coordinating across different decision-making locations and policy issues. Applying social network analysis, we visualize and analyze actors’ governance networks that are linked by sharing of beliefs and strategies. The data consists of a survey study and interviews with key actors in three case studies of regional farmer’s cooperatives. How do these regional governance networks consist of? What actors’ networks can we observe and what brings local farmers together or motivates them? What are their different strategies and how can these networks and strategies support ecological transformation?