Abstract
(1) Background: A large body of literature is available on the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of alternative food systems, but not much of it is devoted to the dynamics underlying their design and implementation, more specifically the processes that make an alternative food system successful or not in terms of its sustainability aims. This gap seems to be particularly critical in studies concerning alternative food systems in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). This paper explores how the design and implementation of multifunctional farming activity in a peri-urban area surrounding the city of Reggio Emilia in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy impact the achievement of its sustainability aims. (2) Methods: The environmental, social, and economic components of this project are explored in light of the sociology of market agencements. This method brings up the motivations of the human entities involved in the project, the role played by nonhuman entities, and the technical devices used for the fulfillment of the project’s aims. (3) Results: The alternative food system under study lacked a robust design phase and a shared definition of the project aims among all the stakeholders involved. This ended in a substantial mismatch between project aims and consumer expectations. (4) Conclusions: When a comprehensive design stage is neglected, the threefold aim concerning sustainability might not be achievable. In particular, the design of alternative food systems must take into account the social environment where it is intended to be put in place, especially in UPA, where consumers often live in suburban neighborhoods wherein the sense of community is not strong, thus preventing them from getting involved in a community-based project. In such cases, hybridization can play a role in the sustainability of alternative food networks, provided that some trade-offs occur among the different components of sustainability—some components of sustainability will be fully achieved, while others will not.
Highlights
The conventional agri-food production model has been increasingly perceived as unsustainable, to the extent that intensive agriculture and livestock farming have been pointed out as two of the human activities most responsible for environmental damage and involved in inequities, such as food waste and insecurity, animal suffering, and the unfair distribution of added value along the supply chain [1].Beginning in the 1980s, the environmental crisis has gained increased attention from the world’s policymakers, and sustainability has become one of the top-priority issues in their agendas
The design of alternative food systems must take into account the social environment where it is intended to be put in place, especially in UPA, where consumers often live in suburban neighborhoods wherein the sense of community is not strong, preventing them from getting involved in a communitybased project
Whereas these dynamics have been quite extensively explored in consumer studies, there is not much in the way of studies applying the sociology of market agencements to AFN
Summary
The conventional agri-food production model has been increasingly perceived as unsustainable, to the extent that intensive agriculture and livestock farming have been pointed out as two of the human activities most responsible for environmental damage and involved in inequities, such as food waste and insecurity, animal suffering, and the unfair distribution of added value along the supply chain [1]. Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) refers to activities located within or on the fringe of an urban area and related to the growth, processing, and distribution of agricultural and livestock products Whereas it has been practiced in developing countries for a long time, UPA has only recently received increasing attention in developed countries [32]. To contribute to fill this gap, this paper explores a case study based on the design and implementation of a multifunctional farming activity in a peri-urban area in Italy This project is meant to be an in vivo experiment providing an environmentally and economically sustainable agri-food system, with the potential for scaling up in terms of the number of producers and consumers involved.
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