Difference between revisions of "Sustainable food supply chains"
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This cluster includes | This cluster includes three different approaches: | ||
* | *Food-Chain Analysis with a focus on SMEs (Small and Medium enterprises), FOODMETRES project (2012-2015)<ref> https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105259/reporting/en </ref> | ||
* | *Short food supply chains (SFSCs), FOODLINKS project (2011-2013)<ref> https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/97103/reporting/en </ref> | ||
* | *Short food supply chains and sustainable food provision, SUPURBFOOD project (2012-2015)<ref> https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105008/reporting/en </ref> | ||
==General introduction to approach== | |||
This cluster is about recognizing the potential of food chains in creating sustainable and just cities. Approaches within this cluster study and produce recommendations on the social and environmental impact of food systems in metropolitan areas. The cluster focuses on the environmental benefits of short food supply chains (SFSCs), the central role of SMEs in creating sustainable urban food supply chains, and the various policy levels at which this topic needs to be addressed (bottom-up and top down). The approaches aim to develop research based policy recommendations, with emphasis on knowledge brokerage and assessment tools. Actors involved include SMEs, researchers, civil society and policymakers. | |||
E.g. from FOODMETERS case study of Milan region | |||
A food-chain analysis and knowledge sharing opportunity regarding milk, rice, fruit and vegetable supply chains around Milan via workshops for exchange and best practices. It has an agricultural park and is located in a fertile area and therefore direct farm-customer sales are prominent (via farmers’ markets, automatic deliveries to schools and hospitals and supplying to catering companies). The food chain analysis looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the food system, the relationship between agriculture and urban development pressure, the impact of the agricultural park on food supply, and identified new growth strategies for the system. | |||
==Shapes, sizes and applications== | ==Shapes, sizes and applications== | ||
'''Food-Chain Analysis with a focus on SMEs:''' | '''Food-Chain Analysis with a focus on SMEs:''' | ||
Studies and offers a set of tools (various assessments, innovation storyline, and knowledge brokerage tools) to help increase, diversify agriculture and shorten food supply chains in urban areas. Tools are targeted at bottom-up and top-down (e.g. European data driven) processes of change to bridge international and local dimensions. SMEs are specifically targeted in the analysis, since they are active in metropolitan food chains. | |||
'''Short food supply chains:''' The approach can be described as the aspiration towards creating SFSCs between urban areas and food producers due to their social and environmental benefits. „Short” refers to both physical and social distance. Social distance refers to the opportunity for the producer and the consumer to interact and share information. There are no or very few intermediaries in SFSCs. Physical distance covers the distance a product has travelled between points of production and sale. '''Short food supply chains and sustainable food provision''' is roughly an equivalent approach, which focuses on the benefits of SFSCs, however it has a stronger focus on their environmental benefits than the first approach. Both have a multi-stakeholder focus. | |||
''' | |||
It is difficult to ascertain the development stage and level of maturity of these approaches. Concern over urban food supply chains is not new, however, until the late 90s, food systems hadn’t been considered in urban policies (Pothukuchi and Kaufman, 1999)<ref> https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1007558805953 </ref>. According to literature, the topics of cities and food appear to have been connected around the 2000s. Although the supposed benefits of applying SFSCs and food chain analysis is known, the overall success of the approach application is unclear. One can assume, based on the high prevalence of new urban food policies (in Europe and NA) since the 2000s, that the approaches have been successful. One limitation may be that the supply-focus largely ignores consumer demand and behaviour, and therefore an important determinant of the urban market for food. However, use of demand-supply models mitigates this. Regarding transferability, any context-specific recommendations for food supply chains will not be transferable. Each urban area has a unique food production/consumption context, especially concerning the role of SMEs and agricultural conditions. But the analysis tools and general concepts are transferable. | |||
==Relation to UrbanA themes: Cities, sustainability, and justice== | ==Relation to UrbanA themes: Cities, sustainability, and justice== | ||
Revision as of 22:04, 13 September 2019
This cluster includes three different approaches:
- Food-Chain Analysis with a focus on SMEs (Small and Medium enterprises), FOODMETRES project (2012-2015)[1]
- Short food supply chains (SFSCs), FOODLINKS project (2011-2013)[2]
- Short food supply chains and sustainable food provision, SUPURBFOOD project (2012-2015)[3]
General introduction to approach
This cluster is about recognizing the potential of food chains in creating sustainable and just cities. Approaches within this cluster study and produce recommendations on the social and environmental impact of food systems in metropolitan areas. The cluster focuses on the environmental benefits of short food supply chains (SFSCs), the central role of SMEs in creating sustainable urban food supply chains, and the various policy levels at which this topic needs to be addressed (bottom-up and top down). The approaches aim to develop research based policy recommendations, with emphasis on knowledge brokerage and assessment tools. Actors involved include SMEs, researchers, civil society and policymakers.
E.g. from FOODMETERS case study of Milan region
A food-chain analysis and knowledge sharing opportunity regarding milk, rice, fruit and vegetable supply chains around Milan via workshops for exchange and best practices. It has an agricultural park and is located in a fertile area and therefore direct farm-customer sales are prominent (via farmers’ markets, automatic deliveries to schools and hospitals and supplying to catering companies). The food chain analysis looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the food system, the relationship between agriculture and urban development pressure, the impact of the agricultural park on food supply, and identified new growth strategies for the system.
Shapes, sizes and applications
Food-Chain Analysis with a focus on SMEs: Studies and offers a set of tools (various assessments, innovation storyline, and knowledge brokerage tools) to help increase, diversify agriculture and shorten food supply chains in urban areas. Tools are targeted at bottom-up and top-down (e.g. European data driven) processes of change to bridge international and local dimensions. SMEs are specifically targeted in the analysis, since they are active in metropolitan food chains.
Short food supply chains: The approach can be described as the aspiration towards creating SFSCs between urban areas and food producers due to their social and environmental benefits. „Short” refers to both physical and social distance. Social distance refers to the opportunity for the producer and the consumer to interact and share information. There are no or very few intermediaries in SFSCs. Physical distance covers the distance a product has travelled between points of production and sale. Short food supply chains and sustainable food provision is roughly an equivalent approach, which focuses on the benefits of SFSCs, however it has a stronger focus on their environmental benefits than the first approach. Both have a multi-stakeholder focus.
It is difficult to ascertain the development stage and level of maturity of these approaches. Concern over urban food supply chains is not new, however, until the late 90s, food systems hadn’t been considered in urban policies (Pothukuchi and Kaufman, 1999)[4]. According to literature, the topics of cities and food appear to have been connected around the 2000s. Although the supposed benefits of applying SFSCs and food chain analysis is known, the overall success of the approach application is unclear. One can assume, based on the high prevalence of new urban food policies (in Europe and NA) since the 2000s, that the approaches have been successful. One limitation may be that the supply-focus largely ignores consumer demand and behaviour, and therefore an important determinant of the urban market for food. However, use of demand-supply models mitigates this. Regarding transferability, any context-specific recommendations for food supply chains will not be transferable. Each urban area has a unique food production/consumption context, especially concerning the role of SMEs and agricultural conditions. But the analysis tools and general concepts are transferable.
Relation to UrbanA themes: Cities, sustainability, and justice
Cities
Most of the assessment methodologies (including CAF, food-chain analysis, predictive system of public health, and the FUG index) are inherently linked to urban settings and issues, and the others (including initiative based learning and the common good matrix) could also be applied to non-urban areas. Europe, North America and parts of Asia are the studied urban regions.
Sustainability
All assessments are concerned highly with environmental sustainability, primarily at the urban or regional scale.
Justice
Many of the approaches explicitly address justice and some have less direct, but still present, justice implications. Direct considerations of justice in assessments include investigating power inequalities between resource users (CAF), health inequities across cities (predictive system of public health), distribution of green amenities and unwanted land uses among racialized communities (FUG index), and social justice impacts of organizations (common good matrix). Food-chain analysis is mainly focused on environmental impact, rather than justice, and IBL has a social, but no explicit justice focus. Both procedural and distributive justice are achieved through the use of participatory research methods and considerations of various inequities in urban regions.
Linking sustainability and justice
Half of the approaches (FUG index, predictive system of public health, and common good matrix) directly connect sustainability and justice, while the link between sustainability and justice in the others depends highly on their application in context.
Narrative of change
Pressing and novel challenges in cities related to environmental and justice concerns require well-informed and innovative policy responses. Evaluation and assessment frameworks aim to help inform policymakers and other decision makers and provide functional tools to address these concerns. These frameworks, which often produce data for the public, can also empower citizens to advocate for themselves and the environment based on awareness of the issues.
Transformative potential
In general, the transformative potential of evaluations and assessments is dependent on their perceived importance by decision-makers and/or their citizens. These approaches are tools to reveal problems and suggest ways forward, but they do not have inherent transformative potential. Provided that they make it to the agendas of urban areas, most approaches in this cluster have transformative potential. For example, Food-chain analysis may challenge the power relations between large and small, local producers, IBL reveals how small experiments disturb the status quo and spark sustainability transitions, predictive health systems and the FUG index problematize race or place based descrimination in cities.
Summary of relevant approaches
Initiative Based Learning: Case study of Brixton community energy project in London (From PATHWAYS project)[5]
IBL was used to study the evolution of a cooperatively owned solar energy project in London, England, and the UK’s first inner-city renewable energy co-operative. PATHWAYS studied the gestation, development and implementation of the initial program, and analyzed its potential for replication and transfer across contexts and scales. After the smaller-scale project in Brixton proved successful, it became a not for profit [6] which is currently working to help other communities develop renewable co-ops. The IBL assessment included great detail on specific actor networks, financing, policy influence, community involvement and so on. Initial replication efforts were mainly peer-to-peer on a smaller scale, while later on the initiative was transferred to a larger scale by pulling information from its smaller projects and feeding it ‘upstream’ into the Repowering Ltd. organization. This case study is a good example of an initiative that connects sustainability and justice in an urban setting, and demonstrates how assessment methods like IBL are used to better understand the role of local initiatives in energy transitions.
Links to other clusters and approaches
Regeneration of disused urban space (Regarding the FUG index)
Alternative indicators (Indicators are important elements of evaluation/assessment)
Disadvantaged groups/inclusion and inequality (Specifically the ‘Equity-oriented structural policies (social/economic policies) to reduce health inequalities’ approach)
Sustainable Food Supply Chains link this
References
- ↑ https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105259/reporting/en
- ↑ https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/97103/reporting/en
- ↑ https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105008/reporting/en
- ↑ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1007558805953
- ↑ https://www.pathways-project.eu/sites/default/files/Case%20study%20Brixton%20energy.pdf
- ↑ https://www.repowering.org.uk/