Exploring the Relationship between Agri-Food Marketing and Public Policy: The Case of Social Food Marketing

In this discussion paper we consider the evolving relationship between agri-food marketing and public policy in the UK with specific reference to social food marketing. Three phases of transition are identified: agricultural marketing integration with agricultural policy; agri-food marketing integration with commercial marketing and the growth of sub-disciplines within agri-food marketing. The first two phases are detailed from an historical perspective, whilst the third phase is the subject of speculation. Central to our approach is an analysis of how the food consumer has been assembled by the discipline of agri-food marketing during these phases. Taking cues from work by Miller and Rose (1997) on the rise of consumer sciences, we draw attention to the ways that agri-food marketing has sought to ‘mobilise the food consumer ’ and consider what this might reveal about the trajectory of the agri-food system. Specifically, we draw upon the example of social food marketing in considering the future relationship between agri-food marketing and public policy. 1