**1. Introduction**

The relationship between humans, agriculture, and food production and consumption has been an issue since around ten thousand years ago [1]. The Neolithic saw the establishment of the first permanent human settlements, made possible by the domestication of animals and plant cultivation. Nevertheless, this relationship has not been the same in every location, nor has it developed the same way. As a complex combination of a cultivated ecosystem and productive social system [1], agriculture evolved heterogeneously across time and space.

The comprehension of this complex arrangement is crucial for understanding the dynamics of the diversity of food and agri-food production. The development of a wide variety of agrarian systems unrolled into a number of embedded constructions of particular realities involving food, from systems with high labor employment, small areas, and family use, to large tracts of land, highly mechanized and owned by multinational companies.

As these multiple agri-food systems evolved, societies became more complex in terms of production and consumption. As societies progressively started to transition from rural communities to urban and densely populated areas, food demand also changed. Some massive agricultural changes boosted production to provide food for the new boroughs near castles in the Middle Ages; however, the population remained predominantly rural until the 18th and 19th centuries, which brought an unprecedented agricultural boom. This

**Citation:** Fracarolli, G.S. Global Markets, Local Issues: The Hegemonic Process of Agri-Food Construction to Present Challenges. *Land* **2021**, *10*, 1182. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/land10111182

Academic Editors: Uchendu Eugene Chigbu, Ruishan Chen and Chao Ye

Received: 5 October 2021 Accepted: 31 October 2021 Published: 3 November 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

period's output significantly increased production per area in English farms compared to others [1,2]. This period characterized the first agricultural revolution of modern times.

A second moment between the end of the 19th century and the mid-20th century brought motorization, mechanization, mineral fertilization, and specialization, changing the function of food in societies permanently, reducing it from its cultural role to the mere role of feeding the growing urban masses. The new characteristics of functions and agrarian structures put food in a global commodity perspective, changing the agri-food market.

The food market has also changed over time. If, centuries ago, food was more related to social and cultural construction, in modern times, food is either a necessary input for the great mass of workers or a luxury embedded by the allegory of three-star chefs as an item for the benefit of a few.

The necessity of satisfying the hunger of massive urban crowds in the wake of industrialization led to a standardization of agri-food products, which lost their identities and cultural significance over the years. Later, in the 20th century, the improvement of this centuries-old process would find a basis in Taylorism, affecting food production and leading to Fordism in the agri-food market [3].

Therefore, the modern agri-food market, dissociated from embedded cultural aspects, is simplified by the intrinsic matters related to commodity production, which could be more easily explained by orthodox economics. However, as a counterpart, there is an increasing demand for other food sources, such as those related to culture, geography, and historical meaning—for instance, geographical indication (GI) products.

As with the ways in which people have fed themselves over time, the market has also changed, from community trading of goods, followed by the regional exchange of food, to modern commerce, with commodities such as coffee and soybeans on stock markets. Furthermore, the comprehension of how institutions influence markets is crucial to understanding their operation.

Much work has been done on economic issues pertaining to specific crops, on the political economy of agricultural goods trading, and even approaches relating to niche markets. However, little has been debated with regard to sociological approaches to economic matters. A single approach to study such markets cannot explain the richness and complexity of their diversity.

The core theoretical question of this paper concerns the GI agri-food market's construction, and how institutions shape it according to power interests. However, markets are not all the same; therefore, they cannot all be analyzed using the same paradigms. Here, the proposition is supported by Allaire [4–6] that markets—especially food markets—are complex institutions, and are shaped by social construction. Thus, their analysis requires a more in-depth approach to their functioning, such as economic sociology to examine the complexity and diversity of different agricultural systems.

Critical theory in agriculture has been applied to specific and important themes concerning the rural environment. Its use is relevant in pedagogical processes in order to demonstrate the relevance of the hegemonic discourse [7,8], in the study of the behavior of social movements in face of the inherent accumulation of capital in capitalist societies [9,10], or even in dynamics of agrarian changes in local contexts [11]. However, it is in the context of the agrarian question, peasants, and the impacts of globalization in the 21st century that CT is most vital in the development of research [12–16].

The question is: what drives GI agri-food markets? Or, in other words, how do institutions act towards agri-food markets? Although grounded theory supports most of the works concerning agri-food markets, developing concepts and deepening the approaches from a theoretical spectrum is necessary. In this sense, this work addresses the development of such markets based on agrarian and critical theory (CT). Thus, supported by Gramsci's and other critical theorists' arguments about market institutions, we aim to explain how some regions developed differently from others in this niche.

Therefore, the purpose of this work is not to present new data or empirical analyses but, through dialectics, to present new insights and perspectives on the construction and development of agri-food markets—specifically GI. The design of these products and their market has been debated for some time. However, there is also a need to rethink and discuss the forms of production, as well as the causes and consequences of production models. Thus, the option of theoretical confrontation, addressing the global history of food construction, should add depth to the debate and raise new questions regarding the direction of global food production.

The debate over forms of production and consumption has been gaining attention and prominence from a sustainability perspective. The main challenge is to unravel the origins of the problems in order to propose action to achieve fundamental changes. However, few studies have been devoted to deepening the understanding of how food markets are created, with due consideration of the complexity of their object of study. Therefore, it is necessary to provide possible ways to make this approach more assertive and accurate. Furthermore, this work seeks to provide a debate over existing paths of discussion of the agri-food environment.

The concept of food and consumption as social constructions is a central theme of this paper. Thus, as social constructions, this work considers different economic approaches to investigate the agri-food markets' economic problems. To do so, this work analyses GI agri-food market formation through the lens of critical theory, explaining the development of markets based on the construction of institutions favoring regional elites.

Therefore, this paper aims to provide new conceptual and theoretical insights on the institutional mechanisms and historical processes of agri-food market construction towards power interests. Supported by critical theory, it aims to contribute with studies dedicated both to those interested in agricultural markets and to policymakers and practitioners in the conduct of policies aimed at rural development.

Firstly, this work presents agri-food markets in terms of agricultural systems, cultural aspects, and compelling implications for markets. The following section presents theoretical and empirical tools used by researchers to try to explain markets. Tools such as critical theory and the institutionalism perspective proposed by economic sociology enhance the discussion of the logic of market operations and complexities.

Later, this work discusses the findings between the convergences of the theories used and the different existing markets resulting from productive diversity. These meeting points are subsequently adapted to the concepts of hegemony, elites, and institutions.

Lastly, this work summarizes the findings, pointing to future pathways, and giving perspective for applications and possible usage by market actors in the pursuit of market improvement.
