While the development of mass food markets, alongside Fordist methods of production and their associated economies of scale, has offered unprecedented abundance and significant benefits in many countries in the Global North—for example, low food costs, convenience, consistency and predictability—these qualities are being increasingly challenged by more dramatic, negative representations that are often considered to be detrimental to human health and the environment. This has contributed to a “crisis of confidence” in the food supply and resulted in a greater attention to food qualities that mitigate or offer an alternative to foodstuffs produced in an industrial manner

In this study I focus on two contemporary understandings of quality that are typically associated with alternative food markets and networks-- transparency and relations of proximity—and use them to develop critical analysis around the idea of food quality and alternative food. My overarching goal in this dissertation is to contribute to the theorization of how the agro-food sector is evolving under contemporary capitalism, particularly in how food commodities are being transformed and synthesized through quality conventions associated with alternative food.

I achieve this goal through a qualitative case study of soybeans in Japan , and show how various actors differentiate their soybeans and soybean products through unique and often competing representations of quality. Research questions explore how qualities typically associated with alternative food are being reworked and transformed as they are integrated into the broader agro-food sector, and more specifically, if these changes signal a fundamental change in the way that power relations are allocated in the provision of food. In addition to addressing the significance of how food quality is being shaped by political institutions and regulatory systems, research suggests that there is an enlarging ‘middle ground' in the agro-food sector, between the dualisms of the ‘alternative' and the ‘industrial' where the flow and construction of foods is highly contested and open to negotiation. This space between the industrial and the alternative is highly competitive as actors seek to claim their priorities, whether it is profitability, food safety, market share, or community development.