Assessing Sustainable Food Systems Governance in EU’s Outermost Regions—The Case of the Azores in Portugal

Paola Hernández,Maria Guimarães,Emiliana Silva,Maria Rivera

doi:10.3390/su10093057

Paola Hernández, Maria Guimarães + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093057

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Aug 28, 2018
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Évora, University of the Azores

Abstract

The European Union’s (EU) remote rural areas undergo unique organizational challenges to counteract geopolitical, economic, and environmental constraints and engage in a competitive global food market. A one size fits all recipe to mend specific issues has also proven inefficient and led policy-makers to acknowledge the importance of implementing sustainable landscape governance to promote rural development. This paper inquires what are the challenges and opportunities food systems must adopt in a sustainable landscape governance approach, based on a qualitative research work carried out in the Azores Region (Portugal) in 2016. Data was gathered via eleven semi-structured interviews to key stakeholders and participatory observation in six events related to the management of the Azores’ food system. A grounded theory method structured qualitatively research participants’ perceptions about the Region’s food regime. This analysis is hereby furthered according to the four criteria proposed by the sustainable landscape governance assessment method. Our results indicate the lack of coordination among actors, institutions and policies in the Azores Region could be counteracted by promoting inclusive participation and integrated knowledge to attain cohesive, sustainable, and efficient outcomes at the landscape level. The methodology has proven to be adequate and instrumental in identifying sustainable landscape governance issues in other food systems.

Highlights

IntroductionFood system assessments are required to recognize the singularity of these regions in the European context [5], prioritize a holistic, multi-level and multi-scale approach, and contemplate the need for hybrid national/regional frameworks in light of the European Union (EU) cohesion policy and food-related policies
The centrality of governance issues in the discussion over the activities and processes determining food systems appears to escape the political agenda in less-prominent regions across Europe
We explore whether the identified issues in Autonomous Region of the Azores’ (ARA)’s food system respond to the Azores’ condition as one of the Outermost Regions (OR) of Europe [2] and if they signal the need for European Union (EU) cohesion policies and food-related policies—such as the EU Common Agricultural Policy—to consider the cross-fertilization of regional and national frameworks to adequately meet the needs of food systems at different levels

Summary

Introduction

Food system assessments are required to recognize the singularity of these regions in the European context [5], prioritize a holistic, multi-level and multi-scale approach, and contemplate the need for hybrid national/regional frameworks in light of the EU cohesion policy and food-related policies. This approach is essential because food systems serve different ‘functions’ for different actors—who value their outcomes differently—and similar outcomes cannot be expected in different landscapes [6]

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