448 Localized Food Systems
development is still very much in its infancy, and liable to marginalization and
dependency rather than autonomy and development.
Notes
1 The arguments developed here draw upon three research projects being conducted by the author
and several colleagues (including Paul Milbourne, Jon Murdoch, Kevin Bishop). The first was
entitled Innovation and quality in the food chain: strengthening the regional dimension funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council. The second is entitled The Socio-economic impact of rural
development policies: realities and potentials funded by the EU; and the third related to an ethno-
graphic study, Forestry, community and land in the South Wales Valleys funded by the UK Forestry
Commission. The early results emanating from these projects are containedin recent articles (see
Murdoch et al, 2000; Bishop et al, 2001; Marsden et al, 2003).
2 The Forestry Commission is the main state-sponsored body for owning and managing forest
lands in the UK.
3 Some recent and important evidence suggests that even those EU schemes which are associated
with attempting to alleviate rural territorial disparities (such as Less Favoured Areas policies) are
also tending to increase rather than decrease them. Shucksmith (2003) reported that richer and
more prosperous regions tend to capture a higher proportion of such EU funds.
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