Compared to the social movement scenes of health and labour, the social movement scene of food presents a greater degree of complexity, since it deals with three different repertoires: the organization of markets without middlemen, the facilitation of collective and social kitchens and the collection and distribution of food parcels. Along with the repertoires, plurality also refers to the organizers. These range from grassroots initiatives and neighbourhood assemblies to traditional social centres. In order to explore the mechanisms that form the boundary enlargement process, we analyse the rise of the markets without middlemen and their transition to consumer cooperatives; we address the development of collective and social kitchens and the collection and distribution of food parcels, as well as their subsequent coordination that assisted the formation of solidarity networks. We analyse each of the three repertoires in respect to the factors of organizational structure, resources and identity.

Organizational Structure

Markets without Middlemen

Chapter 2 informs the reader that markets without middlemen find their roots in the so-called “potato movement”, born in 2012 out of the cooperation between producers and consumers. Back then, the low market prices of Egyptian potatoes provided brokers with the leverage to charge Greek potato producers lower prices. Unlike producers’ traditional protest repertoires, such as street blockades with products being dumped in front of public institutions, potato producers from Northern Greece decided to meet in squares and sell their potatoes en-masse, at lower prices.