The literature on industrial districts, especially in Europe, provides
further evidence that agriculture and food economies organized around
smaller-scale, locally oriented production and distribution systems are
possible. However, to be successful, agricultural/production districts
“require a broad set of infrastructural institutions and services to coordinate relationships among economic actors” and to compensate for
the ineffi ciencies of a fragmented system of production (Zeitlin 1989,
370). The success and survival of locally based economic systems is directly tied to the democratic efforts of the community to which they
belong