World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 35

World Food Policy

Table 1: The orders of worth
Convention

Organizing

Focus of justification

principle
Market

Competitiveness

Product units

Civic

Representation

Negotiation, consultation, and distributional
arrangements

Domestic

Loyalty

Specific assets

Opinion

Reputation

Public relations, media coverage, and brand
reputation

Inspired

Creativity

Innovation and creation

Industrial

Productivity

Plans, systems, controls, and forecasts

Adapted from: Boltanski and Thevenot 1991; Ponte and Sturgeon 2014

safety of food is growing (Srithamma,
Vithayarungruangsri, and Posayanonda
2005; Sangkumchaliang and Huang
2012b; Kelly et al. 2015). The interest tends
to be embedded in practices of quality
assurance, traceability, geographic origin,
sustainable agro-ecological practices, and
direct marketing schemes (Ponte 2016).
As such, the Thai government, industry,
and local NGO (e.g., the Thai Sea Watch
Association) are attempting to establish
one or more national ecolabeling
schemes. Given these changing attitudes,
and the challenges of social-ecological
sustainability in Thailand’s short and long
haul sectors (Marschke and Vandergeest
2016), there is an interest in supporting
local fishers. This case seeks to better
understand the experiences of one Shop

attempting to create a niche market for
local, sustainable seafood.

Approach,
methods

I

study

area,

and

n June 2014, seven fisher groups,
each representing fishers from a
particular village in Prachuap Khiri
Khan province, Thailand, came together
with the help of the Thai Sea Watch
Association (TSWA) NGO to set up
the Shop. The purpose of the Shop was
to: (a) initiate an alternative market
by directly supplying consumers with
seafood from small-scale fishers using
nondestructive fishing gear; (b) provide
consumers with quality seafood; and

35