Files
Abstract
This article is about “local agro-food systems” (LAS), clusters of
activities of food production where primary production, processing outlets
and marketing units are observed. Representing an extension to rural
questions of the approaches which relate the possibilities of local and
regional development to aspects like proximity, institutions and local ar-ticulations, this form of analysis emphasizes the importance of specific lo-cal resources, particularly the environmental and socio-cultural ones. The
subject of LAS is taken in an analysis of mariculture in Santa Catarina,
a sector in which this state has reached a remarkable position mainly as
a producer of mollusks. The analysis highlights the importance of factors
relating to “capital” in its human, social and natural forms, noticed along
the coast of Santa Catarina, and points out the character of “resource
specific” attached to the network of relationships behind the growth of
mariculture, a network which is in itself an important innovation.