In November 1994 the statutory Milk Marketing Board within England and
Wales was disbanded, ending over sixty years of structured formal inv
olvement by the state in the operation of the dairy market, This paper
examines the changing form and function of regulation in the UK dairy
sector as actors, both new and old, renegotiate internal and external
sectoral relations. The process of reregulation is set within the con
text of a food system in which producer-dominated corporatism has been
challenged by retailer-based regulation through the supply chain. Thr
ough studying this example of agri-food restructuring, the paper inves
tigates how new state/market configurations are being played out, and
how new ideological approaches to agricultural and economic policy may
in turn impact on rural space. Viewing rural space as an area of cont
est and challenge within which reregulation occurs, the role of food q
uality in driving new processes of differentiation is seen as particul
arly important.