Lea Coates

Rural development from the ground up: agro-food initiatives in Tasmania

Concerns about the decline of rural agricultural communities have recently refocused on new economic opportunities available in regional food production. This article analyses three on-the-ground case studies of rural development projects in Tasmania, Australia that aimed to develop new regional food opportunities. It analyses these projects to identify how local food producers can create viable economic alternatives in rural settings. The projects illustrate that the existence of regional food assets alone is not enough to guarantee economic development success: rural producers need connections into relevant knowledge networks if they are to identify and respond to new agro-food market opportunities.

How do You Eat the Elephant in the Room? Agri-Food Sustainability and King Island

Food is a staple of life. It has also become a staple of political rhetoric and indecision as our governing institutions grapple with economic, social and environmental dilemmas in relation to food provision. Many academics have observed that it is the actions of international regulating bodies and transnational corporations (TNCs) which control food provision globally that lead to imbalances. Rationalist concepts common in the industrialized food system of today are said to continually marginalize the small rural and regional food producer. The economy of King Island is dominated by the production of fine food products, most notably, cheese and beef. Two of the most successful King Island brands are owned by transnational corporations, leaving the community exposed to global food ‘shocks’ and economic decisions made elsewhere. Globalization research which charts the rising power of TNCs would suggest King Island to be a vulnerable community in these circumstances. In an effort to gauge the resilience of King Island’s food systems this work examines four questions as posed by Constance (2008): agrarian, environmental, food and social equity questions that can be used to measure agri-food sustainability.

Regional development and the Toowoomba Surat Basin Enterprise organization

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the development of the Toowoomba Surat Basin Enterprise economic development organization and how it used marketing and marketing support activities to enhance the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and foster entrepreneurial activity by local firms.

Applying a community entrepreneurship development framework to rural regional development

ABSTRACT This article develops a community entrepreneurship development (CED) framework and illustrates its use in a case study of the current and potential value of agriculture to the Barossa Valley in South Australia. The CED offers a framework for rural regional development that both practitioners and policymakers can use to develop and leverage entrepreneurial competencies and other forms of community capital to foster entrepreneurship at the community level. It assesses the potential for leveraging Emery and Flora’s [(2006). Spiraling-up: Mapping community transformation with community capitals framework. Community Development, 37(1), 19–35] community capital framework to build entrepreneurship and innovation. The findings suggest that the success of firm-level entrepreneurship is often dependent upon leveraging the rural region’s idiosyncratic natural capitals with human and social/entrepreneurial capitals to result in community-level entrepreneurial market development initiatives.